Welcome to the subject guide for research in Intercultural Studies and TESOL. This guide is intended to serve as a starting point for your research. If you need help with your research, please contact Terry Huttenlock. If you find that something is missing, please let me know so that we can update the guide.
If you are working at a distance, consult our Students @ a Distance guide for information about how to access resources.
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It is difficult to recommended one database for finding resources in Intercultural Studies ro TESOL. A subject-specific database might be helpful if your topic is related to a specific field like theology, psychology, sociology, or education. Whether you start in a specific database or with Google Scholar, the best research strategy is to use the iterative research process. This process is one where you perform multiple searches, refining your research criteria based on what you find. Each iteration will take you closer to your desired goal. "Researching an Interdisciplinary Topic" below provides specific research strategies. Consider installing and using Zotero, software that you can use to organize your citations and help with writing and citing. |
Office: Buswell, 152 Subjects: Applied Health Sciences, Biology, Education, Environmental Science, Geology, Health Sciences, Intercultural Studies, TESOL |
Resources to help you evaluate information you find:
Use the CRAAP Test for evaluating resources
Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
Steps and Guidelines for effectively evaluating websites. (From UC-Berkeley)
Consult the Qualitative Research Guide
The Guide provides:
Consult these resources to help you write your literature review.
The Wheaton College writing center has resources to help you write and format your paper.
Zotero is a reference manager that can not only hell you organize your research resource but it can also help you with formatting in-text citations and your bibliography.
Citation style guides
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A research challenge for intercultural studies topics is that they tend to be interdisciplinary.
First you start by thinking about your topic. What do you know? What don't you know? What are some key terms/phrases that describe your topic?
Next you think about where to do your first search. Some subject-specific databases might be a starting point if your topic is associated with a discipline like theology, sociology, or education. Subject specific databases for these areas can be found on the library home page under the database tab. Select search by discipline.
If your topic does not fit in a specific subject area, search Google Scholar. Make sure you have set your Google Scholar preferences to show library links so you have a "find it @ Wheaton" link to retrieve full text.
You can, but if your topic fits in a subject areas, using a subject specific database for your a first search will not be as overwhelming as searching Google Scholar or the "ALL" search on the library web site. The database limits you to a subset of information.
Use your first search as an opportunity to find additional terms and phrases to use in subsequent searches. Finding the best terms/phrases to use in your searching is key to finding relevant resources.
Google Scholar's "cited by" feature
Whether you are using a subject specific database or Google Scholar, Google Scholar has a "cited by" link that allows you to find related research.
When looking at the results of a Google Scholar search or searching Google Scholar by title, you will get a "cited by" link for each entry in the results list.
Subsequent Searches
Once you have discovered the words and phrases that describe your topic, you can search in other library databases, use the All search on the library home page, and Google Scholar.
Don't be concerned if your search iterations lead you to change or refine your topic. This is quite common. The key is finding the words and phrases that are used in the literature to describe your topic.
Ebooks
The library home page search will also allow you to limit to ebooks, many which are edited volumes with chapters written by scholars in the field.
Proquest Dissertation Abstracts & Theses
Another place that can be helpful is searching in Proquest Dissertation Abstracts & Theses.
Use I-Share to get books
Request right from the result screen of your search. I-Share is a consortia of over 70 academic libraries in Illinois.
I-Share tutorial
Use ILLiad to get articles or books not available through I-Share
Request journal articles from within a database by clicking the button. Request books from the result screen of a book search. Placing an ILLiad request tutorial.
