Qualitative Method Assessment Task: Data analysis

Qualitative Method Assessment Task: Data analysis
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1. The first question in all the interviews are directed towards gathering a general understanding
of the teacher and his / her class. The purpose behind this question is to understand the background of
the class the teacher is teaching. This would indicate towards certain anticipated responses to certain
questions by the interviewer. Furthermore, it would also help the interviewer understand the specific
standpoint of the teacher on what s / he currently thinks of, knows about and expects from the class.
2. SELF-REPORTED LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY NOW OR ONCE
Participant Karina Paola Vanessa Motoko Andrew
Native language Greek Spanish English Japanese English
Dominant
language
English Spanish, EnglishEnglish English, Japanese English
High proficiency
language (7-10)
English English English French
Medium
proficiency
language (4-6)
Japanese
Chinese
Italian,
Portuguese
French, German Latin
Low proficiency
language (0-3)
French Spanish, German,
Italian.
Resurrected (from
previous
study/experience)
Chinese
Some contact Chinese
(personal
interest)
Other Hindi (prior
experience)
It can be seen that most of the teachers have English as their dominant language, which is
understandable, given that their profession demands high level of English proficiency. Furthermore, while

some teachers like Andrew, explained that they had learned some languages (French and Latin) in
elementary school, others like Paola, stated that she wanted to learn and have learned bits and pieces of
Chinese because of her interest in the language. Furthermore, most of the categorisations that are made
by the teachers in terms of their language learning also indicated that they have a general idea of what
level they are in in terms of language use in conversational context.
3. All the three teachers have varied attitudes towards the students using their first language in
class as well as towards the use of dictionaries in the class. The first teacher, Karina, discourages the use of
the L1 in the class, as well as restricts the use of dictionaries to only English to English ones. The reason
that she provides is a justified one where she states, “I discourage it in the classroom, especially at this
level. Ah, they’re supposed to be at an advanced level and it’s the ten weeks prior to entry um, into
university”. At advanced level, the learners are expected to be conversationally fluent in English, meaning
they would have to rely less on their first language. Therefore, Karina takes the approach of restricting the
students’ use of L1 in the classroom. With respect to dictionary use, the same reason goes for positively
promoting the use of monolingual dictionaries by the students. While Vanessa mentions that she gets a
bit jumpy with students using L1, she too actively discourages the use of L1 for the same reason, stating
that it is eventually counterproductive. She however, lets the students use electronic dictionaries because
it helps in contextual teaching, as she mentions “we do rely on them quite heavily so the vocab. um, you’re
pre-teaching some of it, doing some in context um, some word lists, a variety of things.” Motoko on the
other hand is teaching both adult and adolescent students and states that, while adults understand the
importance of the course, the younger students use more L1 in the classroom, which she actively
discourages. With regards to dictionaries, Motoko explains her preference for monolingual (English-
English) electronic dictionaries.
A lot of their attitudes towards L1 use in classroom or the use of dictionaries come from their
prior experience of learning English or any other target language. Karina responds to being asked about
the same, “That’s right and I was in a situation where I was surrounded by the language”. Motoko also
responds saying that, even though it’s easier to teach English through Japanese, she prefers discouraging
that approach as it does not help the students develop their skills.
4. While looking at Andrew’s transcript, it can be identified that Andrew has attempted to learn a
number of languages in his career. What he explains as the difference is that English, as a language, has a
huge vocabulary which may be easier for some learners to pick up but quite difficult for others. He speaks
about the European and Non - European languages in the context and states that because of certain
linguistic similarities, learners belonging to the former language family category find it easier to pick up
the English vocabulary while the latter category learners find it difficult. It is a justified response as the
languages in the European family share some common morphological roots. Spanish and English have
certain word - level similarities, for instance, in words like experience (Spanish – experiencia) or number
(Spanish - numero). This difference in language family roots make it difficult for non - European learners to
be able to pick up the language.
Paola on the other hand explains the difference in terms of core linguistic nuances. In response to

the question of how other languages differ from English, she states, “…phonetics, phonology, phonetics,
sounds, the sounds and and also noun phrases. For us Spanish speakers this is difficult to learn and this is
important especially for reading comprehension”. This also indicates towards the cultural aspect of
language learning and teaching, showing how the cultural shaping of one’s personal language learning
experiences are reflected in the teaching practice as well as the perception of second language / foreign
language learning in general.
5. While interviewing Karina, the interviewer asks her about the challenges or advantages of
teaching English through English to which she responds by stating her experience as a front. The
interviewer makes an assumption that the experience is of her learning Japanese through Japanese
identifying this as the reason behind her idea of challenges in language learning. The interviewer states
“part of it comes from your own experience in learning Japanese that you were taught in Japanese.” The
reason why the interviewer makes this assumption is that it helps to understand the background of the
teacher better and extract and explanation of why they think of certain language related issues in the way
that they do.
In the interview with Paola, the interviewer makes an assumption that Paola’s approach to L1 use
in classrooms in Australia is the same as what it was in her previous country. The interviewer asks “And is
that the same when you were teaching in Buenos Aires?”. This assumption finds value in the sense that it
allows the interviewer to make a guess about a teacher’s particular teaching style and if correct, it would
give a better idea about certain approaches and practices that the teacher is used to within the classroom.
6. Firstly, in the interview with Paola, the interviewer tells her about his / her experience while
working in Uruguay, and secondly, in the interview with Vanessa, the interviewer tells about how it was
difficult to explain a concept like the present perfect.
In an interview, sharing personal information can have an advantage as well as a disadvantage.
For the interviewer – interviewee dynamic, sharing personal information reduces any kind of formal
barrier that might be present. Often, the lack of an open dynamic might prevent the interviewee from
divulging certain useful information and thereby restricting the researcher from gaining access to certain
key elements of data for the research. On the other hand, if personal details are shared too much, it might
divert the conversation from the central theme of the interview, resulting in a lot of unnecessary
information being exchanged.
7. While the interviewer begins and ends the interview in all the cases with the same questions,
the queries made in between has been more or less dependent upon the route the conversation was
taking. It was evident, however, that the interviewer has structured the questions in a way that it follows
a particular route, starting with gathering information about the class, the teachers’ personal attitudes
and beliefs to how they approach certain issues and nuances of language teaching, their approach
towards L1 and dictionary use in the class, and finally what they believe should be the characteristics that
a EFL / ESL teacher should possess. While it is certainly beneficial to keep the questions in a particular
form and order, there is a benefit of allowing certain deviations. It opens the opportunity to explore one
particular question with a little depth, for instance, allowing the interviewer to gather more important and

associated information.
Standardising questions in an interview has certain practical effects. Apart from providing the
interviewer with the opportunity to follow a well-established framework and giving credibility to the data
(Mackey & Gass, 2015), it also allows for quick and effective decision making, given that the interviewer,
while standardising the questions, would set certain parameters for scaling the responses.

References.
Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research : Methodology and design. Retrieved from
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