A Case for Case Studies

ABSTRACT Case studies are conspicuously absent from the literature on second language learning and teaching. Negative attitudes toward case studies may be attributable to the fact that they are viewed as aspects of a non‐scientific tradition. Researchers have begun to question the straitjacket effects of the “scientific method” on educational research. Case studies allow subjects to stand out as individuals and are characterized by natural rather than treatment variables. Many aspects of the second language learning/teaching process are not amenable to experimentation at the present time and case studies are valuable as precursors to experimentation.