Think-aloud protocols

Abstract

Using thinking-aloud as a research method for investigating the cognitive processes of human information processing, including learning and teaching, has been widely debated in the fields of psychology and cognitive science. Such debates have also engaged a number of scholars in the field of second language education or applied linguistics when such a tool has been intended to be employed for studying the processes of learning a second or foreign language. The debates essentially centre around two issues as seen in the recent literature, namely reactivity and veridicality, which are driven by some scholars’ concerns over using this research method for obtaining valid data. In this chapter, the advantages and disadvantages of using the thinking-aloud method are reviewed, in the hope that researchers need to be fully aware of some of the challenges with regard to the use of this data collection method in examining second or foreign language learners’ learning processes.