This paper discusses ways to understand and cope with the issues of holism, generalizability, and representativity in qualitative research. More specifically, the article argues that critical sociolinguistic ethnography can serve as a useful methodological tool to uncover complicated processes and consequences of linguistic practice in social life in an increasingly globalized world. Drawing on Heller’s (2011) framework of critical sociolinguistic ethnography, the analysis underscores how critical sociolinguistics focuses on the analysis of the processes by which social actors access and mobilize valuable linguistic resources across time and space. The paper illustrates the situated research processes of doing critical sociolinguistic ethnography through two research projects on South Korean transnational English learners conducted by the authors. The article concludes with a discussion of how critical sociolinguistic ethnography may contribute to broadening research agenda in sociolinguistics in the era of globalization.