Introduction to go-alongs as a qualitative research method in applied linguistics

The go-along method, a place-based research approach that integrates the strengths of interviews and observations, presents opportunities for exploring the intersections of language and place, such as language use and performance (e.g., people's engagement with the linguistic landscape or people's choice of language in certain contexts or for particular tasks), and language teaching (e.g., situational language teaching, out-of-class language learning, language teaching through linguistic landscapes). Initially developed in sociology and subsequently adopted in other disciplines, go-alongs remain underutilised in applied linguistics research. Grounded in the sociocognitive approach and public pedagogy (out-of-class learning), this study demonstrates how go-alongs can conceptually link language and place by illustrating the three functions they serve: descriptive, pedagogical, and diagnostic (or evaluative). The descriptive function facilitates the documentation of participants’ language use across various places and settings. The pedagogical function supports go-along language teaching by assigning participants tasks tied to specific real-life places, and the data of place-related language use collected during task-doing is developed into materials for future teaching. The diagnostic (or evaluative) function allows for testing participants’ language skills/performances at different places. Go-alongs can also contribute to triangulating interview and observation data, thereby strengthening methodological validity and reliability. Drawing on our two empirical projects that used go-alongs as the primary research tool, we propose a set of procedural guidelines aimed at researchers or practitioners using go-alongs in applied linguistic research. We close with limitations and suggestions for future studies.