Ethical Considerations

This research has concentrated on the ethical issues of the British Sociological Association (BSA, 2002) because this study attempted to explore the effects of peer interaction in English language learning, indicating that the subjects are likely to be involved directly in this research sample. As such, it is imperative to reflect upon ethical issues pertaining to justifiable and acceptable research, bearing these in mind at all times so as to attain valid and reliable data. According to the ethical guidelines of the BSA (2002), it is crucial that researchers are made aware of issues of anonymity and confidentiality when seeking permission to carry out research. This study included such information on the consent form.

Any discussion of ethics relating to the methodology of qualitative research necessarily takes as a central issue the question of the relationship between the researcher and the researched (van den Berg, 2001). According to Eisner as cited by van den Berg, the aim of research is for the public good through knowledge creation, but an act of research might harm others in order to achieve that good. There are three well-known principles for the protection of human subjects: privacy, anonymity and confidentiality. Before carrying out this research, participants were informed of their rights in relation to these three key aspects in the form of a consent form.

As Stake (1995) points out, most educational case data gathering involves at least a small invasion of personal privacy. He goes on to explain that the meaning of privacy is ‘a matter of avoiding personal exposure to everyone outside intimate circles, circles decoded by the individual’ (Stake, 1995, p.59). It is true that any research inevitably invades personal privacy, but what is asked of researchers is that they review their behaviour if there are indications that it may interfere with the lives of others (Stake, 1995). It is possible therefore, that aspects of this research might invade the privacy of student participants. Students might, for example, be wary of commenting about their peers or indeed about my teaching, as such revelations might expose private thoughts that normally they would rather hide. Therefore, before conducting interviews with the students, I assured them that no one would take offence as a result of what they said and explained that their comments would in fact be of great value in improving their learning and my teaching.

In terms of confidentiality and anonymity, all participants of this research, including the college and the students, were offered the opportunity to remain anonymous and told that all information would be treated with the strictest confidentiality. The consent form (see Appendix E) given to the participants stated that all information collected would be confidential and would be used for research purposes only. The identity of participants

would remain anonymous: no one besides the researcher will know their real names. Furthermore, when data from this study should be published, their name will not be used. I explained that the data gathered would be stored on my personal computer, and only myself, as the researcher, could have access to it.

Besides their right to be protected, information about the research that influences their decisions about whether to participate should be given to the participants (Silverman, 2006). In other words, I had a responsibility to explain to participants as fully as possible what the research would be about, how the research would be carried out in lessons, why I wished to use audio equipment in lessons and interviews with students, what would be involved and what I would do with the information obtained. The fact that I was both researcher and teacher in this study means that the information gathered could be of particular importance to my participants. They might decide to participate in this research because they felt they had to do so and might worry about any impact it might have on their marks as I was the one who decided whether they fail or pass. In an effort to prevent any misunderstanding and to help students comprehend exactly what their participation would mean, I explained verbally all details of the aims and processes of the research and presented clear criteria of how the class would be marked to ensure that participation would in no way affect their grade in the course. To this end, voluntary participation would be clearly emphasised as an essential element of consent.

When interviewing students, care would be taken to ensure they were relaxed at the start of the interview because differential power between a classroom inquirer and informants could have an effect on their responses. I explained to them that this was not an interrogation to find out right or wrong answers, but that it was a conversation event: all responses would be of value and importance. I also pointed out that I was the one who would be learning from them this time. Furthermore, in order to stimulate their

participation during the interview and to increase their interest and memory, I used audio-recording data recorded from the observed lessons. By using it for the interview, I was cautiously trying not to impose my own framework on the students because the purpose of the interview was to represent the interviewees’ thought, not mine. In order for this to happen, I tried to avoid controlling their behaviour in the interview situation; they were to teach me what I needed to know.

In short, during this research I treated all participants as fully respected individuals, not just as data-collecting subjects, while keeping all ethical concerns in mind.

3.10. Summary

This chapter described how the study was implemented in an ongoing class of EFL adult learners. It described the setting of this study including its context, its participants, and the activities presented to the participants. Then, it described how data were collected via classroom observation and learner interviews and reviewed ethical considerations. As a classroom-based study, it is important to note that this study was not made solely on research considerations but on the basis of pedagogical grounds for the regular class practices. Therefore, it can be said of this study that it could also provide an understanding of phenomena in a naturalistic classroom context, in particular of pair work in the course.

The next chapter, Chapter 4, will describe how the pair talk data were analysed in order to address the first research sub-question: namely, how do learners interact with their partner in language learning activities?

Chapter 4