Sampling procedures

La Ganza (2002: 48) stresses that there are many varied contexts for learner autonomy, such as in a workshop with a teacher, in a language laboratory with an advisor, or sitting under a tree with a book. My research was focused on tertiary level

107 learners of English which indicated class groups of learners as one readily available source, and also the Internet, which would help my sample to be as wide as possible to enhance generalisability, but it would still be relatively small scale due to limits of time and resources. The larger scale and smaller scale data collections would have different sampling procedures.

Punch (2005: 103) gives the three questions which need to be answered in respect of a sampling strategy: How big will the sample be, and why?; How will it be chosen and why?; and What claims will be made for its representativeness? These questions will be addressed here, and where appropriate the large scale and small scale

procedures will be dealt with separately.

3.7.3.1

Sample size

Punch‘s first question is ―How big will the sample be, and why?‖

3.7.3.1.1 Larger scale

The minimum size of the sample for the larger scale data collection (see Section 3.7.1.1 above) was governed by the intention to use factor analysis for data

reduction. (The necessity of carrying out factor analysis for construct validation, and the need for sufficient participants to achieve statistical significance in the

comparison between the questionnaire and teacher estimates also indicated a large sample.) In the Long List there would be 256 items and in order to carry out factor analysis it would be necessary to achieve a high ratio of respondents to items. Advice on the size of the ratio varies considerably (see Section 3.12.3.3.1 below) and will depend on the characteristics of the individual data set. However, it was intended to

108 achieve some hundreds of responses. In reality at the stage of data reduction the sample was not large enough and alternative methods were used (see Section 5.1).

3.7.3.1.2 Smaller scale

Sample size would not be governed by the significance level statistics which are needed for quantitative proof as this would be a qualitative exploration of the response of individuals to the questionnaire, and so a much smaller size sample would be acceptable.

3.7.3.2

How sample chosen

Punch‘s second question is ―How will it be chosen and why?‖

3.7.3.2.1 Larger scale

I wanted to investigate the questionnaire with a range of students though always keeping to the specification of language learners in tertiary education. Within this specification there is a wide range of qualities the respondents may have in terms of age, gender, major, L1, and many more.

3.7.3.2.2 Smaller scale

In order to examine the questionnaire in a realistic situation and obtain a sense of how it would perform the sampling would therefore be chosen as being one where I could be the teacher. I would also aim to find another teacher who would use the questionnaire with their class. I would then interview the teacher and their students.

These samples would be chosen on the basis of availability as at Warwick University the available samples would be appropriate to the target of the research as they

109 would consist of tertiary-level Chinese learners of English (Chinese students form the largest component of the overseas student population in the UK).

3.7.3.3

Sample representativeness

Punch‘s third question is ―What claims will be made for its representativeness?‖

Table 3.1 below shows recent statistics for overseas students in UK higher education, and Table 3.2 shows the countries of origin of the respondents in the present

research. In both there is a clear preponderance of Chinese students. However, the backgrounds of the respondents do not reflect a deliberate sampling strategy to reflect the overseas student population in the UK, but rather the availability of subjects, which will reflect the idiosyncratic situation of the research and contacts which I had. It is thus a convenience sample and not a random sample of the world‘s tertiary English language learner population. My department had contacts with China and a number of Chinese students studying in it or in the presessional courses. Pre- sessional courses will tend to have more students from countries which do not have significant use of English as a first or official language, and language backgrounds which make English more difficult to learn. This may explain why there are so few in my sample from Europe and the Asian subcontinent. In my work I am exposed to students who have problems with English and this population will be different from the general overseas student body. The items in the Long List and questionnaire were in English or translated into Arabic and Chinese. When translation became an issue (see Section 3.13) it was hoped to provide more languages, but time was not available. The extent of the questionnaire‘s availability in translation may have had an influence on the composition of the sample. Any claims which will be made for the representativeness of the sample must therefore reflect this.

110 Region Total 2008/09 Change since 2004/05 % Proportion of all non-UK countries %

Total (all non-UK countries) 368,970 15.9 100 China 47,035 -10.7 12.7 India 34,065 104.2 9.2 Ireland 15,360 -6 4.2 Nigeria 14,380 76.6 3.9 United States 14,345 -0.3 3.9 Germany 14,130 12.5 3.8 France 13,090 12 3.5 Malaysia 12,695 10.6 3.4 Greece 12,035 -38.9 3.3 Cyprus (European Union) 10,370 82.7 2.8 Pakistan 9,610 46.8 2.6 Hong Kong 9,600 -10.9 2.6 Poland 9,145 318.5 2.5 Italy 6,035 13.5 1.6 Spain 5,690 -5.2 1.5 Canada 5,350 27.7 1.4 Taiwan 5,235 -11 1.4 Saudi Arabia 5,205 113.3 1.4 Thailand 4,675 18.7 1.3 South Korea 4,275 11.2 1.2

Adapted from HESA 2010, table 6a. Cited in UK Higher Education International Unit (2010: 8)

Table 3.1: Top 20 countries of origin for non-UK students at UK higher education institutions, 2008-2009

Country Number Proportion of total (%)

China 88 47.57 UAE 54 29.19 Taiwan 25 13.51 Thailand 6 3.24 Turkey 2 1.08 UK 2 1.08 Canada 1 0.54 Colombia 1 0.54 Italy 1 0.54 Japan 1 0.54 KSA 1 0.54 Sweden 1 0.54 Switzerland 1 0.54 Syria 1 0.54 TOTAL 185 100.00 UAE=United Arab Emirates UK=United Kingdom KSA=Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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