SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
Autumn Semester 2015-16
• Deadline: 2 pm, September 4th
• Word limit: 3000 words (try to meet but not exceed 3000 words)
• This assignment is worth 100% of the total assessment for the module.
All items of coursework, including dissertations, carry a maximum word limit that you should aim to meet but must not exceed. There is no leeway on the word count for any piece of assessed work. Marking practices and word limits relate to an assignment’s intellectual, professional, and technical skills as outlined in the Faculty of Arts marking criteria and your work will be marked accordingly.
Your word count includes all quotations, citations, footnotes and endnotes, but excludes the essay title, tables and figures, and the set of references or bibliography at the end. Appendices containing either data or passages used for analysis are also excluded from the word count.
You must not substantially repeat material which you have previously submitted for this or any other module in English or in any other School or department. Repeated use of material can result in being awarded fewer or no marks for the assessment.
Ensure that you have sourced and acknowledged all secondary material used. Derivative work will be marked down; plagiarized work will be dealt with according to the University’s Academic Offences policy.
All assessed coursework must be submitted both electronically and in hard copy according to School procedures. A lateness penalty of 5% per working day will be applied to all coursework which is not submitted both electronically and in paper form by the deadline. Emailed coursework is not acceptable.
Specific Guidelines for the research project
Task: Design, administer and process a questionnaire focusing on an area of interest of yours, and write a research report describing your results.
The following points are intended to help you through the process of carrying out the questionnaire survey.
Step 1: Choose a research topic. Because I expect you to go beyond simply providing some descriptive data (e.g. the extent to which international students are satisfied with their accommodation), it will be necessary for you to formulate a specific research question or hypothesis that you will then answer/test by means of the survey. You may find it helpful to think of the design in terms of the statistical procedures you will actually use to analyse the data: You can, for example, compare different groups (t-test or ANOVA) or you can look at the relationship of different variables (correlation). Of course, you can combine these (and in order to achieve a first-class grade, you will need to apply a range of statistical procedures). Some sample studies that I have co-authored in the past (all to be found on my personal website: www.zoltandornyei.co.uk) are: Bardovi-Harlig & Dörnyei (1998), Dörnyei & Chan (2013) and Kormos & Dörnyei (2004).
Step 2: Based on your research topic, identify several (at least 4) multi-item scale variables that you would like to measure and write at least 4-5 closed-ended items (Likert scale, semantic differential scale or numerical rating scale) for each multi-item scales. You will need that many items so that if subsequent item analysis shows that some items need to be discarded, you’ll have enough items left. Follow the guidance in Chapter 5 of my book (Research Methods in applied Linguistics) on item format and item wording.
Step 3: Select also some relevant background variables you want to measure (e.g. sex, nationality) and write items to elicit the necessary objective information in a clear and straightforward way.
Step 4: Design the whole questionnaire. Follow the directions about the ordering of the items, the instructions and the format of the questionnaire. (Don’t forget: in the actual questionnaire the various scale items need to be mixed up!) IMPORTANT: Don’t forget about the research ethical matters (see Appendix at the end of this guide)!
Step 5: Administer the questionnaire to a sample of 30 (enough) to -50 respondents (but the more participants you have, the better!).
Step 6: Enter the data in an SPSS data file. Don’t forget to mark each questionnaire with an initial identification code once it is filled in and include this variable in the SPSS file as well.
Step 7: Check the data by submitting it first to Frequency analysis and then recode the negatively worded items. Following this, compute reliable multi-item scales – make sure that you exclude items that reduce the Cronbach Alpha coefficients of the scales. In the final research report you will need to report the Cronbach Alpha coefficient for all the final scales you used (as well as the items that you have excluded with a short explanation on why they might have failed to work).
Step 8: Analyse the data by means of various inferential statistical procedures (since this is a practice exercise, the more the merrier!).
Step 9: Prepare a research report. This report should contain the following parts (see also Chapter 12 of my book):
• Title: This should be a thematic title (like the titles of journal articles) rather than simply ‘Research report’.
• Introduction, describing the purpose of the study. In this you will need to provide a brief theoretical overview to situate your research but you won’t be required to read extensively and write a literature review. The focus in this paper is on your own data (i.e. ‘primary research’) and the proper use of research methodology rather than on the analysis of other people’s ideas (i.e. ‘secondary research’).
• Method, describing in detail how the study was conducted. Such a description enables the reader of a research report to evaluate the appropriateness of the research design/approach and the reliability and validity of the results. It is both conventional and expedient to divide the ‘Method’ section into labelled subsections. The typical headings are as follows:
Participants (who have you selected and why? what are the main characteristics of your sample?)
Instrument (describing the questionnaire and justifying its content)
Procedures (summarising each step in the execution of the research; be very open about mentioning any problems or unforeseen obstacles/circumstances)
Data analysis (summarising the data processing procedures but not the actual results)
• Results and discussion: This is either one combined or two separate sections, depending on whether you prefer presenting your results first and then evaluating/interpreting them or doing the two in an ongoing and combined manner. Make sure that you present the statistical results in properly formatted tables (and not simply tables imported from SPSS with lots of unnecessary information!) which have titles, and also that your analysis does not merely involve the verbal description of the results which are already presented in the tables (and which is therefore not necessary). Instead, focus in the analysis on what you have found and what the significance of your findings is.
• Conclusion: This is a short section in which you summarise your main findings and what you have learned from the whole study. You can also talk here about the limitations of your research as well as the possible practical implications.
• Appendix, containing a copy of the questionnaire that you have administered and any other technical information (e.g. tables) that you want to include as additional information or background knowledge but which do not warrant a place in the main body of the text.
• References (if you have any).
Make sure that you divide the report into distinct sections that are separated with subheadings.
PLEASE NOTE: To accompany the research report you will also need to submit all the different data/syntax/output files that you have used. The simplest way is to send these to me as e-mail attachments.
ebrahim_1122@hotmail.com
RATING CRITERIA FOR THE RESEARCH REPORT
• The quality of the questionnaire (content, item wording, format, instructions, etc.).
• The quality of the research report:
Whether the introduction ‘grounds’ the study well.
Whether the methodological/technical details about the study are given appropriately.
Whether you have used a wide enough range of statistical techniques (at least four would be nice).
Whether you present the data appropriately (please note that tables should not be simply imported from SPSS without reformatting them).
Whether the analysis and the discussion demonstrate meaningful reflection on your part.
Whether the structure, the presentation and the language of the report reflect thorough work.
APPENDIX
Research Ethics Additions to Questionnaires
1. You’ll need to submit an “Awareness of Ethical Behaviour for Data Collection” form (see next page) ticked and signed in the Appendix of your paper.
2. In non-online questionnaires (i.e. questionnaires that are not collected by means of an online specialised software package) you’ll need to add the following text to the beginning and end of the questionnaire:
In the initial general introduction (the bold bits in italics are the compulsory bits, the rest is optional):
“… The questionnaire is completely confidential and there are no right or wrong answers, so you can be as honest as you like! In fact, if you decide in the end that you would prefer not to participate in this survey, you will be free to opt out without any consequence. …”
At the end of the questionnaire (all this is compulsory):
“By submitting this questionnaire I agree that my answers, which I have given voluntarily, can be used anonymously for research purposes.”
3. In online questionnaires (i.e. where data is collected by means of specialised, Internet-based sofwtare, often provided by Internet companies) at the very beginning you will need to ask participants to indicate whether they are over 16 or not. If they are not over 16, please make sure that they are asked not to take part in the study. At the end of these questionnaires please include the following text and students need to click ‘Yes’:
“I confirm that I have understood (a) the purpose of this study, (b) that all data are anonymous, (c) that there will not be any connection between the personal information provided and the data, (d) and that there are no known risks or hazards associated participating in this study. By submitting this questionnaire I agree that my answers, which I have given voluntarily, can be used anonymously for research purposes.” – YES/NO
Awareness of Ethical Behaviour for Data Collection
Data gathering activities involving schools and other organizations will be carried out only with the agreement of the head of school/organization, or an authorised representative, and after adequate notice has been given.
The purpose and procedures of the project, and the potential benefits and costs of participating (e.g. the amount of their time involved), will be fully explained to prospective participants at the outset.
My full identity will be revealed to potential participants.
Prospective participants will be informed that data collected will be treated in the strictest confidence and will only be reported in anonymised form, but that I will be forced to consider disclosure of certain information where there are strong grounds for believing that not doing so will result in harm to research participants or others, or (the continuation of) illegal activity.
All potential participants will be asked to give their explicit, normally written consent to participating in the research, and, where consent is given, separate copies of this will be retained by both researcher and participant. These consent forms should be submitted as an Appendix, along with this form.
In addition to the consent of the individuals concerned, the signed consent of a parent, guardian or ‘responsible other’ will be required to sanction the participation of minors (i.e. persons under 16 years of age) or those whose ‘intellectual capability or other vulnerable circumstance may limit the extent to which they can be expected to understand or agree voluntarily’.
Undue pressure will not be placed on individuals or institutions to participate in project activities.
The treatment of potential research participants will in no way be prejudiced if they choose not to participate in the project.
I will provide participants with my contact details (and details of the module convenor) in order that they are able to make contact in relation to any aspect of the project, should they wish to do so.
Participants will be made aware that they may freely withdraw from the project at any time without risk or prejudice.
Research will be carried out with regard for mutually convenient times and negotiated in a way that seeks to minimise disruption to schedules and burdens on participants.
At all times during the conduct of the research I will behave in an appropriate, professional manner and take steps to ensure that neither myself nor research participants are placed at risk.
The dignity and interests of research participants will be respected at all times, and steps will be taken to ensure that no harm will result from participating in the research.
The views of all participants in the research will be respected and special efforts will be made to be sensitive to differences relating to age, culture, disability, race, sex, religion and sexual orientation, amongst research participants, when planning, conducting and reporting on the research.
Data generated by the research will be kept in a safe and secure location and will be used purely for the purposes of the project (including dissemination of findings). No-one other than markers and examiners will have access to any of the data collected.
Research participants will have the right of access to any data kept on them.
All necessary steps will be taken to protect the privacy and ensure the anonymity and non-traceability of participants – e.g. by the use of pseudonyms, for both individual and institutional participants.
Where possible, participants will be provided with a summary of research findings and an opportunity for debriefing after taking part in the research.
If working with children 16 and under for a prolonged period of time, I have received Advanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure.
