The article reviews the methods of data collection employed in 39 studies of interlanguage pragmatics, defined narrowly as the investigation of nonnative speakers' comprehension and production of speech acts, and the acquisition of L2-related speech act knowledge. Data collection instruments are distinguished according to the degree to which they constrain informants' responses, and whether they tap speech act perception/comprehension or production. A main focus of discussion is the validity of different types of data, in particular, their adequacy to approximate authentic performance of linguistic action.

In this article, the current state of second language classroom-oriented research is subjected to critical review. The article begins by providing a brief overview of aims and issues in classroom-oriented research, before focusing more specifically on methodological issues in research. The review is based on an analysis of 50 empirical investigations of teaching and learning. These studies are analyzed in terms of their rationale, the environment in which they were carried out, the design and method of data collection, and the type of analysis carried out on the data. In the final part of the article, the implications of the study for future classroom research are presented and discussed.

This article is broadly concerned with the differences between individual language learners. In terms of particular content areas of Individual Differences (ID) research, it surveys developments in foreign language aptitude, motivation, learner strategies, and learner styles. A brief review of earlier research on aptitude is presented, followed by discussions of more contemporary work on the origin of aptitude, namely, as a residue of first language learning ability, and on the existence of evidence for “learner types.” Motivation research is reviewed partly with regard to Robert Gardner's research, and then in terms of a wider framework for the functioning of motivation within an educational context. The review of learner strategies research emphasizes current attempts to develop taxonomies of such strategies, and to investigate their theoretical basis and their trainability. Finally, learner styles research, drawing on field independence theory, is discussed, and links are made with the research on aptitude. The article finishes with sections on conceptual and methodological issues in ID research.