3.5. Ethical considerations
I had to take into account ethical issues before collecting
my data. As regards the administration of my questionnaire I first of all met
the students during their class break time and briefly explained to them the
purpose of my research. I made it clear that the data they would provide me was
strictly meant for research ends and that their anonymity was totally
guaranteed. This is the reason why, while analysing findings to the
questionnaire and interviews, lecturers for example, have been referred to L1,
L2, L3, etc. Here, L stands for `lecturer'.
Furthermore, for the sake of avoiding uneasiness that could
arise from my presence while the students had to complete the questionnaire,
they were allowed to take the document and comfortably write their answers at
home. I, however, gave them a week to complete the task. It was also an
opportunity for them to think carefully about their responses. Nevertheless,
this alternative had its own disadvantage: out of 40 administered
questionnaires, only 30 copies were returned. As for lecturers, I had to
arrange an appointment with every lecturer on an individual basis and give them
the questionnaire so that they could return it a couple of days later.
3.6. Limitations
Every piece of research encounters constraints and I too have
come across some pitfalls while conducting my research. Firstly, I only had a
month to collect all my data and secondly I was obliged to wait for the
official opening of the 2004 academic year at the NUR to be able to meet my
informants (i.e. students and lecturers). Thirdly, when classes had started it
was not easy to arrange appointments with my subjects since the students in
particular had first of all to cope with crash courses by visiting lecturers,
which implies that they were not in a position to flexibly avail themselves for
other commitments. Fourthly, classes that could interest my area of the
investigation had not yet been introduced (i.e. Conversational English I &
II and Listening English I & II) which prevented me from carrying out
classroom observations. Such observations could have served as a means of
triangulation of my data from interview and questionnaire responses. As a
result, analysis of my findings was based on the document analysis together
with answers I was able to obtain from the interviews and questionnaires.
3.7. Conclusion
This chapter was mainly concerned with the research
methodology employed in this study. Research methods such as interviews,
questionnaires and document analysis were the cornerstone of this chapter. A
checklist for the analysis of the content of academic English programmes was
also highlighted. In the next chapter, I present and interpret the data.
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