In addition to the questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were used in this study in order to gain detailed information about the past language learning
experiences of the participants. Merriam (1998) states the decision to use a qualitative research design stems from the researcher being interested in insight, discovery, and interpretation rather than hypothesis testing. Therefore, the logic behind using a qualitative instrument of data collection is to provide access to the things that cannot be directly observed, such as feelings, thoughts, intentions, or beliefs (Ohata, 2005a). In addition, according to Merriam (1998) interviewing is necessary when researchers
are interested in past events that are impossible to replicate. A catastrophic event that cannot be replicated might be the focus of a qualitative case study investigation. Since the focus of my study was to explore actual accounts of past language learning
experiences and university students’ current anxiety levels, a qualitative research approach was considered best suited and therefore constitutes a large part of this study.
In this study, a general interview guide was followed, using a set of questions developed to elicit answers to research question 3. These questions were not asked in a fixed order, and the exact wording was not determined in advance. As the researcher and interviewer, I modified wording and order of the questions according to the
interviewees’ responses, though with an intention of gathering data that would respond to ten basic questions.
1) What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about your past English classes?
2) What did you feel about learning English in primary/middle/high school?
3) What were the things you liked most about your English classes? What were those you disliked most?
4) What kind of lessons did you have? What aspects of language were you generally practicing?
5) Do you remember the books you used in your previous English classes? Did you like them or not?
6) What types of activities do you remember doing in your English classes? 7) In your past education experiences did you ever have an English teacher who influenced you greatly? In what way?
8) Have you ever thought that your friends were better or worse than you in English classes? If so, did this thought affect your behavior?
9) In the last few months of your English learning experience have any of your feelings towards learning English changed?
10) Do you think your past language learning experiences have affected your present attitude towards learning English?
These questions were designed based on the research questions. The interviews focused on three main topics: (a) past feelings and attitudes toward learning English; (b) the ways the students were taught English prior to coming to Bilkent and
Pamukkale universities and (c) students’ experiences with their previous teachers and their peers.
On the original questionnaire, students were able to check off a box indicating whether or not they would be willing to participate further in the study if asked. Those students whose responses on the FLCAS indicated the highest and lowest levels of anxiety, and who had indicated willingness to participate further, were contacted with the help of their teachers and invited to be interviewed. The interviews were scheduled outside of class time, and the arrangements were made by the head of the teaching unit. All of the participants were contacted were willing to participate and some appear quite eager to discuss their experiences. During the initial contact with students, I explained the nature of the study, and made sure they understood that their participation was voluntary and that it would have no effect on their class grade. Before each taped interview began, I engaged in casual conversation with the participants to establish rapport. The interviews were held in Turkish to allow the students to more easily express their ideas clearly, and the participants were reassured of the full confidentiality of their responses. Every interview lasted approximately 20 minutes. Again with the permission of each participant, the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. I later translated the transcriptions into English, and these
translated transcriptions (see an excerpt of an original and translated transcript in Appendix I and J) provided the data source for the qualitative analysis.
Piloting the Interviews
For the interviews, a number of semi-structured questions were prepared. Two students at BUSEL were given a pilot interview to make sure that the questions were understandable and clear. Necessary changes and additions were made with the help of the supervisor’s feedback and suggestions.
Data Collection Procedure
Data collection was conducted in the spring semester of 2009, and was organized in two parts. First, quantitative data were gathered using the DBI and FLCAS questionnaires. The quantitative data were collected from the two universities following different procedures. Since PAU is the home institution of the researcher, verbal permission was obtained from the Director of the School of Foreign Languages. The program head was asked to select the preparatory classes randomly from each proficiency level. The questionnaires were sent to PAU via mail, and colleagues were informed about the purpose of the study and asked for help in the distribution.
Completed questionnaires were later mailed back. However, the data collection procedure was slightly different in BUSEL. Formal follow-up letters written by the researcher and the supervisor, accompanied by the proposal of this study, were sent to the Director of BUSEL. The preparatory school directors examined and approved the research material. Then, they were asked to distribute the questionnaires to six
randomly selected preparatory classes at the pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper- intermediate proficiency levels.
The questionnaires were attached with a cover letter explaining the voluntary nature of the study (see Appendix A and B). In the cover letter, the researcher informed the participants about the purpose of the research and invited students to participate. In addition, the participants were asked to put a tick if they would be willing to take part in the second phase of the study. All students in each class participated voluntarily. At both universities, participants were number coded for confidentiality, thus those students eligible for the interviews could be easily traced. For the qualitative part of this study, all 12 students were contacted via the head of the teaching unit coordinators and they were asked to participate in a case study. At a pre- arranged time, the researcher visited each student to conduct interviews. Participants were asked to sign informed consent forms (see Appendix F) before the interview began. The objective of this second phase was to gather qualitative data to investigate the extent to which past language learning experiences may have an impact on anxiety.
Data Analysis
This study investigated the foreign language anxiety level of EFL university students in two different universities that are different from each other in terms of their historical background and educational policy. It also aimed to explore the past
language learning experiences of EFL students and the extent to which past language learning experiences have an impact on anxiety.
Data were collected from two sources: a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The data collected from the FLCAS questionnaire were statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version. To analyze the data the means of each student were computed. Additionally, one-way ANOVAs and t-tests were run
to examine the relationship between foreign language anxiety and students’ demographic data.
In order to investigate whether there is any relationship between language learning experiences and the foreign language anxiety level of EFL students and whether there are any similarities and differences between those students who
demonstrate high and low level anxiety, in-depth interviews were conducted. The data analysis of the interviews followed the steps of qualitative content analysis, seeking common patterns in the responses. Attention was focused on the participants’ beliefs, experiences, and feelings.
Conclusion
In this chapter the setting and the participants of the study, instruments for data collection, data collection procedures and data analysis techniques were presented. The next chapter will present the results of the study.
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS