Qualitative phase

The second phase of data collection used in this research was qualitative. It was undertaken after the quantitative exploratory phase that provided factors that influence attitudes and classroom practices identified in the study. In this phase, data was collected to supplement the quantitative results. This was done in order to provide the richness and depth of information on this research using multiple sources for collecting data, namely audio- recordings of lessons, classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and focus group

interviews. The following sections provide details of each of the instruments that were selected for the qualitative data collection.

Audio-recordings of lessons

The researcher used audio-recordings of lessons as the first qualitative data source for this study. This choice was mainly influenced by Swann (1994, p. 36) who states that audio- recordings allow researchers ‘to make a permanent record of spoken language’, and ‘provide excellent evidence for discussion with colleagues or pupils’. In this study, the researcher audio-recorded interactions between teachers and learners from four SS lessons in each of the four selected schools. The choice to audio-record the four lessons was mainly due to the analysis purpose, i.e. the examination of the frequency of the recurring phenomena relevant to the questions of the researcher’s investigation throughout the four lessons helped the researcher to ascertain the accuracy and reliability of data.

Another reason that motivated the audio-recording of lessons is Swann’s (1994) argument that audio-recordings allow researchers to check the information as many times as needed because recordings can be played and replayed, and this helps to check the accuracy and reliability of observations if both methods have been used in the same research. In this regard, the lessons that were audio-recorded were also observed. The main objective of audio-recording these lessons was to catch every oral detail of what happens between the teacher and learners during the lesson. Since audio-recordings were done while the researcher was observing the same lessons, the possibility of losing information existed because what could be lost by using audio-recordings only, for instance non-verbal information such as gestures or any other body expressions, however this was captured in the researcher’s field notes. Similarly, the data from the audio-recordings was used to supplement or fill the gaps which emerged from observations, and that served to reinforce the accuracy of field notes. The audio-recording of each SS’ lesson took 40 minutes, which is the normal duration of a lesson session.

Classroom Observations

Observations were used in this study as a technique to collect data as they occur at the research site. According to Milroy and Gordon (2003, p.71), this technique ‘produces a tremendous supply of high-quality data and crucial insight into community dynamics’.

Although observations have been associated with extreme demands of time, tact, energy, and emotions, they best suit empirical studies by providing full, accurate, and clear information based on what exists in real life or what the observer can record as it occurs naturally (Milroy & Gordon, 2003; McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). In this study, the aim of observation was to observe the classroom interactions, the English language practices used to convey knowledge, other methodological practices used to support language use, classroom management, and teachers’ ways of assessing the learners’ understanding of the lesson. These aims were meant to help the researcher generate a picture of the overall practices of English as the MoI in each of the four selected schools.

In generating the focal points to guide the observation process, the researcher focused on the following:

• the language teachers and learners use to discuss matters in the lesson;

• the strategies teachers use to explain new words and complex concepts in the lesson; • the role of books and visual aids to help teachers and learners during the lesson; • how teachers guide learners to answer their questions;

• how learners answer their teachers’ questions; • how learners ask their questions during the lesson; • how teachers manage the classroom;

• how teachers encourage or discourage the learners’ initiatives; • how teachers intervene towards learners’ language problems;

• how teachers motivate the use of the language MoI in the classroom; and • how teachers assess the learners’ understanding of the lesson

In addition to these points, there were other details in the learners’ classroom behaviour such as silence, murmuring, absent-mindedness, laughter, and exclamations, which were also recorded as field notes.

Field notes report what actually happened in the classroom and the researcher’s reflections on the classroom activities being observed. The teachers’ and learners’ verbatim utterances were not written down because they were audio-recorded. However, it was sometimes necessary to write down some learners’ verbatim responses or questions when, for instance, the voice of

the learner was too soft12 to be picked up by the tape recorder, or when the researcher was moving about the classroom to observe the group activities.

During the lesson and observation process, the researcher did not engage with the learners and teacher. After greetings and short presentations, teachers gave the researcher a seat at their own desks either at the back of the classroom or somewhere in the front, on the right or left side. From there, the researcher wrote the field notes and carried out the audio-recording. Children could turn back to see what the researcher was doing, but they did not ask the researcher anything or call upon him for help. The researcher noted that during group discussions when the researcher was turning around to see the learners’ activities and hear their discussions, they were aware of being observed and focused on their duties.

Four SS lessons in each Grade 6 class across four schools were observed in two phases. The first phase of observation, i.e. two lessons per class, was done prior to interviews and the second phase of observation was carried out after interviews. This was done as means of determining the consistencies and contradictions between the respondents’ views in interviews and what is done in the classroom. The first phase of observations helped the researcher to enrich the interview protocol, and after interviews, the second phase was performed mainly to cross-check, confirm, or disprove the data obtained from the varied previous sources. Before observing, the researcher did a preliminary visit to each class with the aim of becoming acquainted with the learners and teachers, and planning a practical way of observing and audio-recording.

Interviews

This study used face-to-face, one-on-one, in-depth interviews with four teachers and four principals, and focus-group interviews with 20 Grade 6 pupils. As the purpose of inquiry is to take the data further, probe and better understand it, it was not necessary to include the whole sample size of the inquiry through interviews. Only a sample survey, i.e. a sub-set of the whole population selected for the entire study was taken and deemed to provide opinions that

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During an audio-recording test, the majority of the learners’ sounds were inaudible on the tapes mainly because of the distance between the recording device and speakers, and sometimes because of the learners’ shyness. To avoid losing information from those utterances, they were written down in the field notes.

would accurately represent the opinions of the overall population. According to research, the quality, validity and truth of the results are to be obtained from the information richness of the case under investigation, rather than from the size of the sample (Patton, 2002; McMillan & Schumacher, 2006; Mouton, 2009). For interviews, seven respondents from each selected school were chosen, i.e. five Grade 6 pupils, a teacher and a principal from each group from those who completed the questionnaire. Therefore, the initial sample of 185 learners who completed the questionnaire was purposefully narrowed down to a sample of 20 learners who engaged in focus-group interviews, four teachers out of 24 who answered questionnaires were selected for a semi-structured interview, and four principals were invited for a semi- structured interview. The whole sample for interviews was limited to 28 respondents as illustrated in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3: Sample population for interviews

Participants RURAL SCHOOLS URBAN SCHOOLS TOTAL

RS1 RS2 US1 US2

Teachers 1 1 1 1 4

Pupils 5 5 5 5 20

Principals 1 1 1 1 4

TOTAL 7 7 7 7 28

A total of 28 people were interviewed. Five pupils per class were asked to sit for a focus group interview. The choice of five learners per class was due to the requirements of the study to get in-depth data from a small manageable number of respondents on the basis of information rich principles (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). On the basis of voluntary participation, learners who were interviewed were selected by drawing lots. All learners had the same chance to be selected. The researcher took the numbers of the learners from the teachers’ list and wrote them on pieces of paper and put them into a basket. The numbers were mixed up and a volunteer was asked to draw five numbers of the learners who took part in the focus-group interviews after obtaining their consent.

As literature shows, interviews serve ‘to gather information regarding an individual’s experiences and knowledge; his/her opinions, beliefs, and demographic data’ (Best & Kahn, 1998, p. 255). In this study, interview questions were semi-structured. They were selected for this study because they allow the researcher to hear the informants’ personal views about what they have experienced without being cued or influenced by the interviewer (Neuman, 2006). The questions the researcher asked were fairly specific in their intents, e.g. ‘what are the benefits of teaching Rwandan children in English?’ As researchers (e.g. McMillan & Schumacher, 2006; Neuman, 2006; Bernard, 2002) advise, when unclear or incomplete answers are given, the interviewer is free to formulate other questions (probe) as judged appropriate for a given situation. In this regard, whenever the researcher needed clarification or elaboration on the initial question the researcher probed it by adding sub-questions that could not affect or influence the respondent’s answer, e.g. ‘What are those schooling benefits you are referring to?’, ‘What do you mean by regional integration?’ or ‘Could you tell me more about that?’.

It is worth emphasising that, while observing, the researcher had a list of the identified factors contributing to the participants’ attitudes and practices in the classroom in order to help pay attention on the focal points that triggered questions for interviews. At the time of interviewing, teachers and principals were invited for individual or face-to-face in-depth interviews and learners for a focus group interview. Each of these is described below.

Face-to-face in-depth interviews

Face-to-face in-depth individual interviews were conducted with teachers and principals. They were asked questions meant to elicit more information about their attitudes towards English as the MoI and practices, and whenever it was necessary, probing questions sought to elicit clarification. Before asking questions, there was an informal talk with the aim of establishing a comfortable rapport between the researcher and the interviewees. In the process of interviewing, participants were approached during their free time when they could be asked as many questions relevant to the phenomenon under study as possible. With their permission, responses were tape-recorded because, as has been proven, a tape recorder collects information more completely and objectively than note-taking if the interview was organised in a way that the recorder does not disturb the interviewee or affect responses (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006).

Focus group interviews

Focus group interviews were used with learners. This is the type of interview that offers ‘a social environment in which group members are stimulated by one another’s perceptions and ideas’, and in which ‘the researcher can increase the quality and richness of data through a more efficient strategy than one-on-one interviewing’ (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006, p.360).

In this study the focus group with learners was chosen to enhance discussions and responses from children, and to allow the researcher to probe certain claims and obtain additional data because focus group interviewing has often been used ‘as a confirmation technique’ (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006, p. 360). Focus group interviewing was chosen in order to create a sense of trust and confidence for the learners who otherwise may feel shy to face an interviewer on their own. The time-saving element of the focus group interview was another advantage. Twenty learners were interviewed in four groups, which saved the time of interviewing one by one.

Questions in the focus group interviews were meant to elicit more information about the learners’ attitudes towards English, the challenges they encounter in expressing themselves and learning through this language, strategies they use to interact with their teacher in the classroom, what they do to overcome the classroom language challenges, and how they feel about their teachers’ ways of helping them to learn in English. These interviews with learners were held in Kinyarwanda because it was the language interviewees felt comfortable with. For the sake of the protection of information, after transcription, original Kinyarwanda versions were translated by a professional translator skilled in Kinyarwanda and in English in collaboration with the researcher.

To summarise, this section detailed the different methods that were used to collect data for this study. It explained the reasons for choosing each of them, and how they were utilised in tandem in a mixed methods approach. The analysis of the collected data was undertaken and done as described in the following section.