Content Analysis of the Method Section of Research Articles Published in the‘Journal of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages’

Method section constitutes the key element of Research Articles (RAs) since it gives the readers sufficient information on the steps taken, instruments used, and the reliability and validity of the study, thus most editors and reviewers pay a great deal of attention to this section. This study investigates the method section of all the 141 RAs published between 2012 and 2020 in the Journal of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages (TPSOL). To be more exact, it is a content analysis of the research approaches and designs, data collection tools and data sources, number of participants, statistical tests and techniques used in data analysis, and the missing elements of the method section of the said RAs. Analyzing the data through inductive content analysis revealed that almost 57% of the papers followed quantitative approach, followed by 31% mixed-methods approach. Descriptive, comparative, and correlational studies were the most frequent research designs, while case study was the least frequent one. Researchers collected the needed data mostly through questionnaires, achievement tests, pre-test and post-tests, and documents. The number of participants varied according to the research designs and purposes, with few studies employing sample sizes smaller than the standard size. The data of RAs were analyzed through descriptive statistics, content analysis, and t-test. It was also revealed that data analysis section, participants, and instruments were the most problematic sub-sections in the method section. The study ends with several practical suggestions for future researchers, present reviewers, and editors of the journal.