A Review of Case Study.docVIP

A Review of Case Study 　　1?Introduction 　　The case study is an excellent method for obtaining a thick description of a complex social issue embedded within a cultural context. It offers vivid and in-depth insights that no other method can yield, allowing researchers to examine how an intricate set of circumstances comes together and interact in shaping the social world around us.（D?rnyei，2007）The case study has been applied to a wide range of fields in social science and regarded as a typical tradition of qualitative inquiry in education and language teaching. Despite weaknesses and challenges of a case study as a choice of what is to be studied the potential of the particular case study with high quality and details can still contribute to thorough and in-depth understandings of a target phenomenon, its uniqueness and its complexity. 　　2?Definition of Case Study 　　A diversity of researchers and scholars has produced various definitions with their own particular emphasis and direction for research. Yin（2003）mentions a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. While Stake（1995）emphasizes a bounded system, Johnson（1992）refers to the unit of analysis. Also, Van Wynsberghe and Khan（2007）defined a case study as a transparadigmatic and transdisciplinary heuristic that involves the careful delineation of the phenomena for which evidence is being collected(event, concept, program, process, etc.). Notwithstanding a variety of definitions and descriptions pertinent to a case study by a number of researchers, it is not easy to define a case study and identify its characteristics precisely and clearly. 　　3?Main Characteristics of Case Study 　　Particularity: Case studies focus on a specific situation or phenomenon, exploring the particularity of a single case（Stake 1995）. Specifically, a particular case or a unit is s