Chapter 4: Methodology
4.8 Language consideration
According to Ungerson (1996), language is an important issue which could influence the understanding and interpretation of data. He suggests it is always difficult to understand the meaning of language fully without considering broader cultural contexts embodied in the use of language. In that sense, it is important to understand the meaning of language within the context within which the use of language is embedded.
This research involved rich data from Chinese students’ and teachers’ interviews and documents; to translate and interpret these contexts, Chinese culture and school culture should be seriously considered in the disclosure of meanings. Bai (2007) shares some experience in interpreting Chinese into English. She enumerates some examples:
‘face’ literally means the front of the head and outward appearance. In Chinese,
its deeper meaning means the ‘glory’ (mian zi,面子) of a person (Bond, 1991). Another example, ‘control’ (guan, 管) always relates to restraining or having
power over something or someone; however, in Chinese, ‘control’ also means ‘to love’ or ‘to care for’. (Bai, 2007; 160)
Hsu (2009) also concerns with ensuring the equivalent translation from Mandarin to English in her study. As a consequence, recognising the superficial and the deeper meanings from a particular culture is essential in interpreting language during social research. As Ungerson (1996) pointed out, most researchers may not have command of more than one language and are unlikely to consider how to deal with language especially when contextualising the data. The meaning of data may be corrupted by translations.
Robinson-Pant (2005), values the ability of international students in handling language and cultural issues. He gives an interesting example in translating and interpreting data. Huda Al-Yousef, a Saudi Arabian English teacher, an international student from the University of East Anglia in the UK, uses her experience of translating data from Arabic to English as an example for translating data from another language into English. Al- Yousef contributes her work on translating interview data from Arabic into English; firstly, she translated the interview data by herself, as she is the person who did the interview, more capable of understanding the interviewees’ opinion, thought, culture, terms of language. Secondly, she read the data transcript in the original language – Arabic and highlighted quotes that she thought would be important and directly relevant to her topic, then she translated only these quotes. Thirdly, she used discourse analysis to discuss the data in detail. Fourthly, she found the equivalent terminologies in both languages; if there was no equivalent term or vocabulary available, she employed the methods of ‘compensation’ to use different words that gave a more accurate meaning in the context. Finally, she considered the language used by adolescents as an important issue; they have their own terms of expression and explanations. As Osborn (2004)
emphasises that there was no real equivalence between two languages, it is important to find comparable ideas rather than words. The experience of Al-Yousef set a very good example for this study in translating data from Chinese into English.
At the preliminary stage of this study, I interviewed 15 English students about their views and experience of Circle Time, then transcripts were read carefully and the words and terms they used were considered when translating their Chinese counterparts’ interview and questionnaires.
I think I get to understand myself better– because I can say how I feel…and I think I can
understand the others more because if I don’t like them – then I can find out theother side
to them– and they couldbe friendly. (IEB05)
Now I have more ideas of different things, talking with people with a decent manner. I don't know why, it might because people understand each other more. It pulls together our
relationships. (ICG09)
However, sometimes, it is not easy to translate Chinese into English with the exactly term and words. For example, a Chinese boy talked his feeling during a Circle Time session:
“…When it was my turn, I was so shy and my face turned red, I don’t understand why, I
was kind of ‘thick skin’” (SB26).
When he talking about ‘thick skin’, he meant that he was not a ‘shy person’, was not easily moved. When dealing with Chinese teachers’ and students’ interview data. I firstly read and coded them in Chinese, after first round code; I then translate the coded part into English for further coding and interpreting. In so doing, addressed the culture and
Conclusion
In this chapter, a detailed description and discussion about the chosen methodology and mixed design has been introduced and carefully dissertated. The mixed methods adopted in this study and the procedures of data collection were argued and explained in detail to present the consideration of reducing bias during the research process by the research technique. The role of the researcher, ethical issues, and the research validity and reliability were also discussed. Finally, discussion about how to deal with the linguistic issues was also addressed.