Interview Transcript Analysis

The 11 interview transcripts were first coded by hand with about 55 codes emerging. As in analysis of comments in the forum, thematic units were used – parts of

sentences, sentences, or occasionally paragraphs with one main meaning. No initial codes or categories were decided before analyzing the transcripts. Frequent back- tracking and comparison was again necessary as new codes were found or new groupings emerged.

Since the interviews were semi-structured and most respondents were asked most of the same questions, many familiar themes emerged, echoing comments made previously in posts. However, re-reading them provided a much more nuanced picture.

The most frequent or most detailed areas of response in this initial hand coding were to do with preparation by the participants for the IELTS test, opinions on peer editing, their approach to peer editing, experiences of peer editing, the effect of L1 on writing in L2, the behaviors of other members in the forum, and criticism or

suggested improvements for the forum.

The interview transcripts were then coded using QDA Miner/Wordstat. Codes from the initial hand-coding were grouped into main categories. More were added on a further reading, and some were collapsed, resulting in 71 codes in 8 themes - autonomy, identity, social and community, stated reasons for taking IELTS or participating in the discussions, roles and behaviors, feedback, writing, and tools. A total of 415 coded snippets or thematic units were identified (12,600 words).

A more detailed description of each interview theme is given below (Table 4).

Theme Sub-Themes Examples of unit

Autonomy

Preparation for IELTS, themes of

independence, working on own compared to working with others, awareness of learning strategy or style, identification of feedback strategies, pragmatic or utilitarian approaches to using the forum, statements of planned IELTS goals or required bands, and statements of motivations or purpose for taking IELTS.

Yes, I want to get band 7, but Band 6.5 is OK. I already can apply to the universities in the UK, so I got enough, because each part is over six, so it’s enough, I guess… [DanZhu]

…the students who go to the website don’t have much time to discuss the ideas or contents. [AliceXi]

believe, me… more than 80% of IELTS class in Iran are - I’m sorry to say that - are bullshit [HectorMc]

Identity

Perceptions of efficacy in L1 or L2, descriptions of habit in study or use of the forum or in applying a learning strategy; personal disclosure (family status, economic status, work, professional status); identification as busy or under pressure from time work or study; statements regarding personality, nationality, culture; aspirational

statements regarding the future, change, or opportunity.

Of course, you feel if you look at my beginning essays, you can easily how poor I was at the beginning, and step by step, you know, my confidence improved. Really improved. [HectorMc]

Yes, of course, I can find it, if the writer is a Chinese, I can find the, the ….I’ve

forgotten the word, the characteristic. [DanZhu]

No, in Lao language, I think I’m so poor. [WatNhat]

Community

Community aspects; statements indicating a sense of community (the use of “us,” “we,”), identification with a group of candidates, learners or users; contact with other members on or off-line; mentions or uses of social networking tools;

remembered interaction with specific users

Yes, to be honest, you know, people prefer to have social network on some site like Facebook. [HectorMc]

Honestly, except Lester, I couldn’t remember anyone else [Colin92] I remember some of them like Colin92. Actually I got his Skype [Lester]

Theme Sub-Themes Examples of unit Stated reasons for participation or other behaviors

Statements indicating reasons for posting, for responding, or for other forms of participation; indicators of norms of reciprocity, gratitude; opinions regarding the motivation of others on the forum and explanations or suggested reasons for some behaviors.

I think the reason is you know because some people are very busy and they try their best to prepare for the exam and they think that giving comments might not really be helpful to them. [Lester]

And in my opinion, the forum should be for very motivated people, because they are members who really pay attention [Rosita2001]

Roles and Behaviors

Descriptions or specific information for particular behaviors or actions on the forum, such as starting threads,

responding to threads, thanking others for feedback, applying feedback, questioning feedback; how decisions were made to participate in the forum; strategies for choosing essays, lurking, time taken to write comments, length of time waiting for comments.

I pick the topic which impressed me, the topics which were different from others. [AliceXi]

I prefer to read more the other’s essay and comment on that, learn more from that. I don’t have much time to prepare a lot of essays, and sometimes I think if I post a lot of essays, I’m not sure if the others have the time to respond. [ChariseZ]

Feedback beliefs

Explicit statements regarding the

importance of peer feedback, the need or otherwise for native speaker feedback, the effect of receiving peer feedback from lower or higher proficiency peers, the relative benefit of giving or receiving feedback, reactions to peer feedback and emotions associated with giving or receiving it; experience of peer editing in school or college; the number of peers.

Both, spotting errors in somebody else’s writing can help improve your own [Hilda84]

People who give feedbacks will learn many things from the writing. [Rosita2001] In my country, when people study at university, we didn’t do a lot of team work [Lester]

Writing beliefs

Statements regarding proficiency in L1 or L2 writing; beliefs regarding grammar, vocabulary, organization, or style of writing; types of feedback (macro or micro) preferred; the link between L1 and L2 writing

However, in English, we often go straight to what we intent to express. It is the difference in the ways of thinking. [Rosita2001]

Once I asked my teacher and she said that is worse idea. So I try to think in English, not to think in Lao. [WatNhat]

No, I’m not good in writing, both Chinese and English. [DanZhu]

Resources, Tools, Usability, Formats, Improvement

Statements regarding interfaces, tools and resources, including usability,

accessibility, formatting; suggested improvements for the forum; the combination of multiple resources or the use of other resources; and issues of credibility and usefulness of resources

If you want to improve your forum - you could open two sections…[Colin92] It may be easier if we design a format paper for members to give comments. [Rosita2001]

You know sample essays is also very useful [Natalia]

Table 4: Themes in Interviews

In this study, there would be several concerns regarding semantic content analysis of interview transcripts. First of all, as members were non-native speakers at varying levels of proficiency in spoken English, analysis of their word choice and collocations might be prone to errors if compared to a corpus from standard US or British

English. Secondly, even semi-structured interviews could be regarded as overly directive, influencing word choice and responses of the interviewees.

Another limitation was the breadth of the interview questions, which militated against in-depth exploration of topics such as identity, autonomy, self-efficacy or responses to feedback. Despite lasting from 35 minutes to one hour, interviews provided only 2000-3000 words each for analysis (these were at most upper- intermediate learners, so pauses and restatements were frequent), and this may not have been enough to provide in-depth data on a single issue.

Summary

In summary, both structure and content were examined, and multiple types of interactions were analyzed. Server logs provided basic quantitative data. The content of 2,201 posts received over ten months, and separately the transcripts of eleven interviews with participants in different countries were coded, recoded, and categorized using thematic units into themes. Microsoft Access, and Excel (and, in the case of the interviews, QDA Miner/Wordstat) were used to help compile and search data.