Phase 1 of Data Collection

A week before conducting Interview 1, I had the first meeting with the research participants. The aims of the meeting were to (1) establish rapport with the participants, (2) explain the research and what was to be expected from them (i.e. attending interviews sessions and keeping reading diaries), and (3) distribute the consent forms. In the consent form (see Appendix G), information about my research, recorded interviews and the terms and regulations was provided. The participants were paid based on the number of interview sessions attended and reading diary submission.

Discussion about the venue, day and time also occurred during the first meeting. We reached a consensus that Wednesday (1pm) suited everyone, since there were no lecture sessions or activities thereafter. As for the venue, we agreed to conduct the interview sessions in a public accessible place which was conducive to recording the interviews.

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Individual Interviews

There were 2 interview sessions in Phase 1, consisting of (1) Interview 1 and (2) Interview 2. In interview 1, responses were elicited based on how the participants experienced and perceived academic reading in their new learning context. In addition, these responses were used to construct the follow-up questions for Interview 2. These interview sessions were conducted on 5 and 12 February 2014. Table 3.7 shows the details of the interviews in Phase 1 of data collection.

Table 3.7: Details about the interviews in Phase 1 of data collection Participants 5 Feb 2014 (Interview 1) 12 Feb 2014 (Interview 2) Hours of interview AF 1 1 1:35:35 AY 1 1 1:10:38 DY 1 1 1:45:13 HZ 1 1 1:30:45 KT 1 1 2:00:15 KZ 1 1 2:20:22 RG 1 1 2:10:15 RH 1 1 1:20:25 RS 1 1 1:45:30 SL 1 1 1:50:10 SR 1 1 1:30:28 Interview 1

Before I started interviewing the participants, they filled out a demographic form (see Appendix A). Some information such as their scores for the IELTS reading component was essential in determining their English reading competencies. Considering that I needed to establish their L1 proficiencies, this study has, thus, attempted to provide information about the participants’ language background. As mentioned previously in Chapter 2, their L1 knowledge might influence academic reading comprehension in an L2.

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I started Interview 1 by asking more common questions related to participants’ studies and activities. This step was taken to make them feel more comfortable and relaxed throughout the interview sessions. I also reminded them that should they feel uncomfortable, they were allowed to withdraw from participating in this study. Before I started the interview, I asked for their consent to record the interview sessions. A high- technology smartphone was used as a digital recorder as it was more practical for me to transfer the recorded interviews to my Dropbox folders via Wi-Fi connection.

The interview was conducted in the students’ hub. The students’ hub was a comfortable and conducive place, as it was quiet and private. The hub was a publically accessible place, but there were meeting rooms inside the hub where I had made the booking prior to conducting the interview sessions. Therefore, both the participants and I were more relaxed, because we knew there were other students/staff outside the meeting room. Therefore, all of the interview sessions (including the follow-up interview sessions) were conducted in students’ hub.

I asked all the questions in the interview protocol for Interview 1. In doing so, I allowed the participants to express their views and experiences based on the questions that were posed to them. During the interview, I used the interview protocol which was written in Malay. However, the participants were encouraged to use the language they felt most comfortable with; 9 participants spoke Malay throughout Interview 1 whereas the other 2 participants preferred to code-switch between Malay and English. Again, after the end of the interview session, I assured the participants that the recorded interviews would be used for my research purposes only. Section 3.12 provided more details concerning language choices throughout the data collection procedures.

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Interview 2

Interview 2 was a follow-up session to Interview 1. However, the interview questions in Interview 2 were more semi-structured, given that these questions were more thematised in nature. I started the interview by asking some common questions about their studies. Then, I asked them to recount their experiences and views on academic reading. The participants provided more in-depth responses during Interview 2 since they felt more comfortable with me after several meetings. They were more open when expressing their feelings and the problems which were related to L2 academic reading.

Similar techniques were sustained, so both interviews were uniform in terms of questioning techniques and approach. Again, I asked for the participants’ consent before recording the interview. A similar recording device was used and the recorded interviews were transferred to my Dropbox folder immediately after the interview sessions. During Interview 2, all of the participants spoke Malay with some code-switching to English. Malay was used throughout Interview 2 because the follow-up questions were very much personal as they needed to recount their academic reading experiences both in Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

Recording and Transcriptions

Recordings were made in the meeting room using a smartphone. All interview recordings proceeded without technical difficulties. The recordings were then transferred to the hard disks of my two notebooks and transcribed by me. There were a total of 22 interviews in Step 1. The transcription process was facilitated by Nvivo10 software. Nvivo10 offered greater control in terms of repetition, audio speed and playback. These functions were helpful throughout the transcribing phase, especially when the main data were mostly gathered by means of interviews.

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Transcription Procedures

The interview recordings were transcribed verbatim by me. They were typed in Nvivo10. Each interview was labelled using the participants’ initials. For further checking purposes, all transcriptions were saved in my hard disks, Dropbox folder and personal email for backup. All transcriptions were stored in a labelled folder (e.g. IV1 for interview 1 and IV2 for interview 2).

3.10.2 Phase 2 of Data Collection: Reading Diaries and a Sequence of Follow-up