CHAPTER IV

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes in detail all the steps to carry out this research

study. To do so, the researchers are going to make use of a variety of research

techniques and tools in order to prove the certainty of the hypothesis. Thus, this

chapter describes the whole procedure to be conducted in the research study.

4.1. Paradigm and type of study

To carry out the research project “Factors that Affect the Majority of

Advanced English Students when Organizing their Ideas and Using

Grammatical Structures Accurately in the Spoken and Written Form in the

Semester I-2014 at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El

Salvador,” the researchers will make use of the quantitative paradigm to collect

the most suitable data. By using this paradigm, the researchers will be able to

find out the factors that limit the proper development of the productive skills of

the students of Intensive Advanced English II.

The researchers will carry out an explanatory study which consists on

testing and measuring the factors stated in the hypothesis that make Intensive

Advanced English II students hinder their development of their oral

communication and writing skills and the research team will analyze the causes

that such factors provoke on the students` development.

To prove the factors, the researchers will make use of different

techniques and tools during two months (starting in March and finishing in April,

2014) at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador.

During these two months, the research team will conduct several observations

while students are in their classes; some questionnaires will be administered to

the same population. With the collected data, the researchers will deeply

analyze both the factors and the causes that are affecting the students of

Intensive Advanced English at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the

University of El Salvador, semester I, 2014.

4.2. Sampling Procedure

The target population to be studied in this research is the students of the

two groups of Advanced English II of Licenciatura en Idioma Inglés Opción

Enseñanza at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus. The total population of the

Advanced English II groups is 72 students, 33 students from the morning group

and 39 students from the afternoon group. As it is a small population, all its

members will be taken into account.

That is why, a sample procedure is not needed in this study because

every student taking Advanced English II at the Western Multidisciplinary

Campus in semester I-2014 is the subject of the study.

4.3. Preliminary phase

The preliminary phase includes complete information describing the main

reasons why the researchers decided to select the topic of the research project.

In addition, the preliminary phase includes a complete description of how the

researchers will approach the field of study, the diagnostic study based on the

observation made, and finally, the preliminary phase includes the definition of

the problem.

4.3.1 Approaching the field of study

In late October 2013, the research team observed that some students of

Intensive Advanced English I showed some difficulties in their productive skills

(speaking and writing). When developing a speaking activity, the researchers

could observe that the majority of students have problems with the grammatical

structures that have been practiced since Intensive Basic English. Based on

some homework assignments provided by an English teacher of the Language

Department, the researchers noticed that Intensive Advanced English I students

made mixed constructions of basic grammar structures.

This observation led the researchers to the decision of administering a

questionnaire (Appendixes A and B) to some members of the population to be

studied and to the four teachers of the Intensive Advanced English I subject in

charge of the two afternoon groups to discover which factors affect students’

development in their writing and speaking skills.

With the information gathered through the survey, the researchers

noticed that students’ English problems in regard to their writing and speaking

skills rely on classroom atmosphere, teaching techniques, and study habits that

students have in order to develop these skills inside and outside the classroom.

4.3.2. Diagnostic study

To define the scope of the problem and to know how long the problem

had existed at the Foreign Language Department at the Western

Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador in Intensive Advanced

English I students, a preliminary diagnosis questionnaire (Appendix A) was

designed by the researchers and validated by experts in research. The

researchers administered a questionnaire to 10 students per each group from

the two afternoon groups of Intensive Advanced English I.

4.3.3. Definition of the Problem

The results of the preliminary diagnosis were helpful in order to find the

factors that cause students of Intensive Advanced English I at the Western

Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador to have problems in

their development of the writing and speaking skills. It also helped the

researchers to create the necessary tools that can be implemented to help

students improve these deficiencies that they showed in their productive skills.

The diagnosis showed that students did not practice outside the

classroom because they did not follow a schedule. For instance, they prefered

to do another activity in their free time such as chat on social networks and

spent time with their friends instead of practicing their English. Also, students

felt that the activities were not enough to improve their productive skills. They

stated that they did not have too much time to practice in the classroom; for

example, when they developed a role- play activity, just a few pairs of students

had the opportunity to develop it in front of the class; that`s why, they did not

have the opportunity to be assessed by the teacher, so these factors were

taken as the starting point to define the problem, its scope, and its objectives.

4.4. Planning Phase

After the researchers had already identified, described, and justified the

problem, they started the planning phase by looking for data related to the topic

to be investigated to build the theoretical framework. In this case, the

researchers made use of different sources to get reliable and important data

that already existed about the speaking and writing skill problems that students

faced when learning English as a foreign language. To make sure that the

information found in the sources consulted was reliable to build a truthful

theoretical framework, each researcher examined the theory carefully to check

if the information collected was related to the problem that will be investigated.

This information will be taken into account to build the operationalization of

variables and to create the instruments that will help to measure the level of the

speaking and writing skills that students of Intensive Advanced English II at the

Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador have and

also to find out if the hypothesis stated at the beginning of the project is true or

false.

4.4.1. Literature Review

To build the theoretical framework, the researchers looked for some

primary sources such as books related to learning English as a Second

Language, teaching and assessing writing and speaking skills, thesis, and

dictionaries. The main book researchers consulted was “The Practice of English

Language Teaching” written by Jeremy Harmer. Besides, they looked for

suitable information on search engines on the Internet, mainly from

organizations, universities, or governmental articles.

First, the theoretical framework contains a brief concept of language.

Since this study is based on English as a Foreign Language, the researchers

included a definition of it. Then, the researchers focused on the main objective

of the study which is the productive skills (speaking and writing). Each

productive skill was described and also the factors that affect students

development in their productive skills.

All the aspects before mentioned were searched in a detailed way so that

the theoretical framework describes data strongly related to the topic that is

being investigated. The different factors that affect students` development of

their productive skills were also included in the operationalization of the

variables of the hypothesis.

4.4.2. Operationalization of Variables

First of all, the variables were meticulously selected and verified so that

they can be measured and observed. To do this, they were deeply selected to

be manipulated and make sure they were elemental to carry out this study. To

assure the variables were correctly defined, the researchers compared with

some examples provided in class by the teacher in charge of the Research

Methods class. Moreover, the independent and the dependent variables were

determined based on the theoretical framework. In this work, the variables were

operationalized taking into account the indicators observed by the research

team. Moreover, each variable was defined using reliable concepts that are

meaningful to the development of the investigation.

4.4.3. Data Collection Instruments

To conduct the process of data collection for the variables taken into

account in this project, the researchers will follow the procedure below:

The instruments for data gathering have already been designed. The

researchers have taken into account four necessary instruments to study the

indicators presented in the operationalization of the variables. The instruments

to be used are questionnaires, interviews, observation guides, and checklists.

These tools will also be used during semester I, 2014 to study the phenomenon

more deeply.

Questionnaires

First, two questionnaires were used as part of the preliminary study in

order to find the basis of the research and to measure the dimension of the

problem. These two questionnaires were validated first by the teacher in charge

of the research methods subject; then, they were checked and commented by

an expert in the field the researchers are studying (Appendix A and B).

On the other hand, two questionnaires will be used to study how deeply

the variable classroom atmosphere (Appendix C) and how the variable

students` feelings (Appendix K) affects Intensive Advanced English II students

of semester I, 2014 at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus.

Unstructured Interview Guide

The second tool the researchers will use to study how the classroom

atmosphere affects in the development of the productive skill in Intensive

Advanced English II of semester I, 2014 at the Western Multidisciplinary

Campus of the University of El Salvador will be an unstructured interview guide

(Appendix D).

Interviews

The third tool applied during the development of this research to study

the variable study habits in Intensive Advanced English II at the Western

Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador will be the interview

guide (Appendix J).

Observation Guides

The first observation guide the researchers will use to study the variable

teaching techniques that Intensive Advanced English II students (WMC) at the

University of El Salvador are exposed to during their classes will be an

observation guide (Appendix E).

The second observation guide will be addressed to students of Intensive

Advanced English to study the variable students’ vocabulary when developing

written activities (Appendix G).

The third observation guide the researchers designed to study the

variable students` vocabulary when developing speaking activities of Intensive

Advanced English II students (Appendix H).

Also, an observation guide will be administered to measure the variable

regarding the variable students` attitudes of Intensive Advanced English II

students (Appendix L).

Checklist

The last tool to be used in this research project to study the variable

teachers´ teaching techniques students of Intensive Advanced English II are

exposed to during classes of the semester I-2014 (Appendix F). The

researchers will also use a checklist to study the variable of students`

vocabulary (Appendix

4.4.4. Validation of Data Collection Instruments

After designing the research tools based on the indicators expressed in

the operationalization of variables of the hypothesis, the researchers will pre-

test each tool to make sure that each of them is suitable and understandable for

the population to be studied and in order to assure the tools bring the expected

information to the investigators.

To validate each tool, the researchers will attach an expert validation

sheet (Appendix M). That Expert Validation Sheet will have five sections which

contain different items ranking from “Poor to Excellent.” After that, the

investigators will present all the tools to an expert of the Foreign Language

Department at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El

Salvador, master in Research Methods and in the educational field. All the

suggestions and commentaries provided by this expert will be of great

importance to improve the deficiencies shown in the research instruments.

Finally, when the research instruments are improved, the researchers will select

a sample of 10 students who are not part of the population to be studied to

conduct a pilot test. Then, after validating the research instruments by the

expert and the sample of students, the tools will be ready to be administered to

the whole population since it means that each research tool is clear and

understandable.

4.4.5. Validity and Reliability

To make the instruments valid, the researchers will formulate them based

on three main validity criteria: “construct validity,” “face validity,” and “content

validity’ assuring that the instruments are elaborated taking into account the

operationalization of variables. Furthermore, the investigators will design the

instruments in a very detailed and careful manner to make sure that they did not

skip any important detail.

In order to get reliable findings, the researchers will build a positive

atmosphere and good rapport with the students so that they are willing and

comfortable at the moment of being addressed; this will help the researchers

gather the necessary data for the study and will also help the interviewee to

provide the researchers with the information they are expecting to receive. The

investigators will also make sure that the conditions are suitable not only for just

one person but for the whole population that is taking part of the study; that is

why, the interviews will be conduct in a week; they will last two class-hour every

day, so the researchers will carry them out at the same time and under the

same conditions.

Moreover, the researchers will decide to use just the appropriate

instruments to get reliable and truthful information. Each tool will be checked by

an expert in order to avoid missing data that could generate any inconsistency

when analyzing the collected data.

4.4.6. Ethical Aspects

The researchers’ goal in carrying out this study is to identify the factors

that affect students’ development of their productive skills: speaking and writing,

for it is of great importance to respect the basic ethic principles of a research

project, so the researchers have agreed on undertaking the responsibility of

respecting the confidentiality and integrity of all the members of the population

being studied, so they will keep participants’ personal information anonymous

and will not reveal information that the participants do not want to be revealed.

They will also respect the participants’ free willingness to make choices at any

time of the process even if they do not agree with any of the steps of the study,

which include the chance to quit the study at any time if they consider it

necessary. Moreover, the researchers will respect the “non-maleficence norm”

so that nobody’s identity will be damaged during the process.

4.5. Execution Phase

In order to continue with the research study, the execution phase

contains the data collection procedure and a thorough description of the

research problem. Because this study will be carry out by making use of the

quantitative paradigm, all data will be processed and analyzed after having

collected and put together the two last parts of this phase, which are data

processing and data interpretation and analysis.

4.5.1. Data Collection Procedure

After validating the tools, the researchers will administer them to the

whole population of 72 students of Advanced English II of the Licenciatura

Idioma Ingles Opción Enseñanza at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of

the University of El Salvador, semester I, 2014. Before administering them to

the students, the researchers will write a letter addressed to the teachers in

charge of the Advanced English II groups in order to get permission to go to

some of their classes and allow them some time to talk to the students. The

purpose of this visit will be to make the students be aware of the importance of

accurately developing their productive skills: speaking and writing. Moreover,

the researchers will let the students know that their desire is not only to carry

out the research project but also to help them to improve their productive skills.

4.5.2. Data Processing

To process, classify and organize the data, the researchers will use the

SPSS Software and Microsoft Excel 2010. By using these programs, the

researchers will generate different frequency tables and graphs to analyze and

interpret the results. The tools that will be created to collect data are

observation guides, questionnaires, an unstructured interview guide, checklists,

and interview guides. The observation guide is aimed at collecting data to

measure if the factors that affect students’ development in the classroom are

classroom atmosphere, teaching techniques, and study habits in the

development of Intensive Advanced English II students. To process the data

obtained through the tools, the researchers will use a nominal scale. This

consists of tabulating the number of answers of each question so that it can be

graphed later. To graph these results, a histogram will be used.

4.5.3. Data Interpretation and Analysis

The collected data will be classified, interpreted, and analyzed by the

researchers to make sure the results obtained through the observation guides,

the questionnaires, the checklists, the unstructured interview guide, and the

interview guides are reliable. The place where the data will be collected is the

University of El Salvador at the Western Multidisciplinary Campus during

semester I, 2014. The researchers will interpret and analyze all the data

collected with the help of the tables and graphs created during the data

processing since these tables and graphs show clear and real information of the

problem investigated. The analysis of the information collected will be made by

describing in a detailed way the different results obtained from each of the

questions of the research tools carried out by the researchers.

Then, the researchers will compare and contrast the analysis made from

the questionnaires with the information gathered from the observations made to

compare to what extent the data collected in the observation by the researchers

agrees or disagrees with the data collected in the questionnaires. This

comparison and contrast will help researchers move towards the final

conclusions and recommendations addressed to the readers, teachers, and

students.

Next, the researchers will analyze the information gotten from the

unstructured interview guide and interview guides. In this step, the researchers

will read the comments, listen to the recorded interviews, and transcribe them to

identify the different problems the students of Intensive Advanced English II at

the Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador, semester

I, 2014, have, especially in their speaking and writing skills. The researchers will

analyze how able the population is to transmit a clear message in the speaking

and written form. In addition, in the analysis of the interviews, the researchers

will find out and state the different problems that the population has in the

production of their speaking and writing skills.

Finally, the information gathered through the interview will be analyzed

by a cause and effect relationship of the results that the histogram represents

as it will be the one that will show in which of the two productive skills students

of Intensive Advanced English II at the University of El Salvador, Western

Multidisciplinary Campus have more problems. Later, this information will be

analyzed by making a comparison and contrast between the different factors

that affect students` development in class. This will demonstrate which of the

factors affect more students` development. Besides, the researchers will

analyze the different information provided from the four different teachers in

charge of the two groups of Intensive Advanced English II so that the

researchers will know the percentage of students that are having problems in

the different productive skills (speaking and writing), which the speaking and

writing activities they as teachers develop more frequently in their classes are,

and which some possible reasons of students’ poor practice of the production of

the speaking and writing skills are.