Doing Research at the English Language Center (ELC)

One of the missions of the ELC is to promote cutting-edge research. All research done at the ELC must follow federal guidelines as outlined by Brigham Young University's Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Subjects. The Testing, Research, and Evaluation Committee (TREC) of the ELC is a subcommittee of the IRB's review board and can grant approval for Exempt Research.

To do research at the ELC

1. Go to BYU's ORCA Website and download the IRB Application
2. Complete IRB Application fully. Make sure any instruments that will be used are included.
3. Download and complete the ELC Addendum to IRB Human Subject Proposal.
4. Have the faculty sponsor review the IRB Application and Addendum.
5. Submit the application as an attachment (Format must be Word or PDF) to elcresearch@byu.edu. Have the faculty sponsor send an email to the same address indicating the proposal is ready for review.
6. If the research is approved, you will get a letter or email stating such. The approval letter as well as the Addendum will be sent to the ELC Executive Council and any teachers that would be involved.
7. If the research is not Exempt (refer to the definition in the IRB Application Packet), you will need to submit the IRB Application along with a letter from the ELC to the IRB Administrator in A-285 ASB for approval.
8. After research is complete, submit an electronic summary of your findings that can be posted on the ELC's website.

Category I

The research in this category can be approved by a member of the TREC for both and will take about 1 week from submission to get approval. Research in this category needs to be exempt, according to IRB Guidelines, including the following provisions:

• the research takes place out-of-class.
• the research does NOT conflict with the ELC operations (e.g. ELC secretary time, scheduling use of the Computer Center or SASC, etc.).
• teachers can choose whether or not to have their students participate.
• subject participation is totally voluntary.
• You may need to offer incentives such as movie tickets or candy. Teachers may ONLY offer extra-credit to encourage participation if the research will benefit the ELC and as long as the students who do not want to be research subjects can chose an alternative way to get the extra-credit.
• all subjects are anonymous (no pre-test, post-tests allowed).
• the data already exists (e.g. placement exams from the past, writing samples that are stored, etc.).

Category II

The research in this category must be reviewed by the TREC, which meets every two weeks, and depending on the impact the research would have on the ELC (operations, curriculum, etc.) might need to be reviewed by the full Executive Council, which meets monthly. If this research isn't exempt, it will also have to be submitted the IRB Administrator. Approval could take 2-6 weeks. Examples of this research include:

• the research being mandatory of anyone (teachers or students).
• the research taking any substantial amount of class time
• the research having any conflicts with the ELC operations (e.g. ELC secretary time, scheduling use of the Computer Center or SASC, etc.)
• any subjects being identifiable (including pre-test, post-test, audio-taping or video-taping students, etc.)