Thematic analysis for interview data

Interview data in this study were analysed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis always entails coding or categorizing, which is referred to as “the operations by which data are broken down, conceptualized, and put back together in new ways” (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 57). Breaking texts of real-life narrations into small units is one of the aims of thematic analysis (Sparkes, 2005) which is defined as “a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data” (Braun and Clarke, 2013, p. 79). Thus, searching for themes that emerge from data is the main characteristic of thematic analysis (Daly et al., 1997).

This study followed the five stages of how to conduct a thematic analysis recommended by Braun and Clark (2013). The first stage was to familiarise myself with the data. At this stage, I transcribed PRI, POI and DR recordings and carefully read and reread the transcriptions several times to have an overview of the data. Familiarising with the data enabled me to obtain a general sense of the data (w Cresswell, 2013). Moreover, careful reading of data leads to theme identification (Rice and Ezzy, 1999). The second stage was to generate the initial codes. A code is a name or a label given to a piece of text containing an idea or information (Cohen et al., 2013). According to Boyatzis (1988, p1), a good code is one that “captures the qualitative richness of the phenomenon.” At this stage, interesting features of data were labelled or coded. For example, I examined teachers’ beliefs obtained from PRI. I looked for similar or different

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opinions on a particular point and noted with short words or phrases. I also used different colors to highlight a different piece of information. Then I grouped similar ideas altogether in one category, putting different opinions in others. Table 3.7 shows an instance of how codes were derived. The responses were derived from the question, ‘To what extent can vocabulary be acquired through reading? Why?’.

Responses Codes Sub-themes Themes/

Categories

T1: Words appear in reading passage. They can learn from, learn vocabulary in real contexts. Students will know how words are used in a real context. For instance, if I teach only for example vocabulary about cooking, fry, this, that, bake, steam, students do not know how to use them, but if there is a text available, students can learn eggs, how to make boiled eggs something like this. Most of the time, I always translate from English into Thai. Students see words in contexts. I translate sentences and ask them to guess what it means. Students do not major in English. If I use only English, they won’t understand.

See words in reading passages See words in real contexts

How words used in real context

Ask students to guess meanings after translation

Seeing how words are used in real contexts

Guessing meanings from contexts Advantages of learning words in contexts T5: Reading is good in which it provides words and contexts. When I teach students, I always make two points of contexts. One

Passage provides meanings of words Contexts

Guessing meanings from contexts

66 is about grammar and

the other is about meanings. Contexts related to grammar are seeing features,

explaining forms. How to know parts of speech can be done by looking at structures surrounded. And to know approximate meanings is to look at words surrounding. Guessing meanings knowing grammar knowing form knowing parts of speech

Seeing how words are used in real contexts

Notes: Purple for how words were used and gray for guessing meanings from contexts

Table 3.7 An instance of how codes were derived

The next stage was to label themes. Theme refers to “a pattern in the information that at minimum describes and organizes the possible observations and at maximum interprets aspects of the phenomena” (Boyatzis, 1988, p.161). Codes were taken from the interview all the teachers gave. Which codes belonged to what teachers were identified too to make it easy when I wanted to trace back where I got the codes from (see Table 3.7 and 3.8). After identifying the codes obtained from the whole data, the codes were categorised to create sub-themes/sub- categories and themes/categories. In my study, themes were similar to the main idea that would cover all my codes. The examples of themes and subthemes of PRI were shown in Appendix J, and of POI in Appendix Y and Z. Stage four was to review themes by checking if they were relevant to coded extracts and the entire data set. Next, after codes, sub-themes, and themes were obtained, definitions of themes were defined. Codes, sub-themes, and themes were sifted through many times to be certain of the consistency and accuracy. An example of codes, sub- themes, and themes of PRI was shown in Table 3.8 below.

Questions: How should vocabulary be taught at university level?

Codes Sub-theme Themes/

Categories

Definitions of themes

Focus on vocabulary learning strategies (T1) Vocabulary learning strategies How vocabulary should be taught at a university level Teachers perspectives on how vocabulary should be taught at a university Especially using context clues

67 Find context clues and understand

parts of speech (T5) level; for instance, how should students learn vocabulary at this level?, should vocabulary be taught in classes? and reasons why vocabulary should or should not be incorporated in classroom practices Self-study to develop their

vocabulary knowledge (T2)

Self-study

Students should be responsible for themselves (T1, T2, T3, T4) Recommend students sources they can learn vocabulary from (T4)

Recommending sources

With time limitation, it is impossible to emphasize on vocabulary in classroom. (T1)

Reason why self-study

It is difficult to foster vocabulary in classroom due to time

limitation in classroom. (T2)

Table 3.8 Example of identifications of codes, sub-themes and themes of PRI

After that, another teacher of English was asked to read to confirm codes, sub-themes, and themes. To obtain reliability of the semi-structured interview data, a Thai lecturer of English with an academic title of Assistant Professor and a degree in Applied Linguistics was asked to read the transcriptions of two out of five teachers. The transcripts of the two randomly selected teachers were arranged based on the interview questions. The codes, sub-themes, and themes and were refined by myself (see Table 3.9 and Appendix L), and their definitions were initially shown to the inter-rater (Appendix K). The teacher was then asked to check if she agreed on the same codes, sub-themes, and themes (Appendix K). Then she was asked to identify units of analysis (blocks or strings of text for a particular code) throughout the two teachers’ transcripts.

Teachers Responses Units of

Analysis

Interview question

To what extent can vocabulary be acquired through reading? Why?

T1 1.1

Words appear in reading passages/…

1.1 1.1 …learn from, learn vocabulary in real contexts./ Students will

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1.1

know how words are used in a real context./ For instance, if I

teach only for example vocabulary about cooking, fry, this,

that, bake, steam, students do not know how to use them, but

if there is a text available, students can learn about how to

make boiled eggs something like that. /

Most of the time, I always translate from English into Thai. Students see words in contexts. I translate sentences and ask them to guess what it means. Students do not major in English. If I use only English, they won’t understand.

T2 1.1

I ask students to see the position where words appear and ask

them to tell me what function of the word is. / Contexts 1.2

provide meanings only to a certain degree but not always. / 1.2

Students cannot really guess correct meanings. / 1.2

They don’t know most of the words/, and I don’t want to tell them meanings in Thai, so I normally ask them to self-study or look up for words by themselves.

4

Notes: 1.1 and 1.2 for numbers of the subthemes where the unit of analysis should belong to (Appendix K).

Table 3.9 Example of how I identify units of analysis

Subsequently, the inter-rater and I compared the units of analysis to see if they were reproduced similarly or differently (Appendix M). The next step was to discuss the ways to solve the unitisation problems (Krippendorff, 1995) occurring as a result of different interpretations of texts or units of analysis between us. Identifying units of analysis allowed us to check if we agreed on the same codes and subthemes. It also enabled us to check which extracts could be included in the finding chapter and which extracts could be left out if they were not actually

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relevant. After negotiating for the coding agreement and the best attempts to reconcile the differences, the final step was to find the inter-rater reliability by simply calculating the percentage of agreement among the two raters. Table 3.10 shows an example of identifying units of analysis (see Appendix J).

Q: How should vocabulary be taught at university level?

T Response (Quotations) Codes Subthemes My units

of analysis The other’s units of analysis

T1 At this level, teachers should focus on vocabulary learning strategies, especially using context clues,/ but most students are weak at English, so I always have to use Thai translation to explain

meanings./

With time limitation, it is impossible to emphasize on vocabulary in classroom./ Vocabulary learning strategies Time limitation Vocabulary learning strategies Reason why self- study 3 3

T2 Students are supposed to self- study to develop their

vocabulary knowledge./ It is difficult for me to foster vocabulary in classroom due to time limitation in classroom./

Self-study Time limitation Self-study Reason why self- study 2 2

T3 At a university level, students should be responsible for themselves,/ so they should look up for unknown words in a dictionary by themselves./ They should be able to use technology such as search engine to search for words, pictures, and some other details/ to help them better understand the concepts of the words./ Self-study Self-study Reason why self- study 4 3

Notes: /…/ for a unit of analysis

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There were two prime reasons why the simple statistic of percentage was employed to calculate the codes agreement in the current study. First, this was an exploratory study which included only five participating teachers. It is argued by Kurasaki (2000) that the simple proportion agreement method which is mentioned by Morrissey (1974) to refer to the percentage of agreement among the raters is acceptable. The proportion agreement is not concerned with the possibility that raters might agree occasionally or by chance (Bernard, 2000). This suggested that I could use the statistics applicable to the circumstances. Second, the purpose of the study was not to generate variables to be used in statistical analysis. The codes were not so plenty and various that it was necessary to calculate with complicated statistics.

To calculate the inter-rater reliability, this study employed percentages to find the agreement rate. First, after the units of analysis were identified by us, all the units of analysis of a particular theme were counted and the different numbers of units of analysis minus. The results of all the deducted units of analysis of all the themes were added and calculated to find the percentage. Table 3.11 shows the agreement rate of PRI was 88.33%.

Themes Units of analysis The same counted

units of analysis by two raters

Vocabulary learning through reading 18 16

Stages of teaching 12 9

Teaching techniques 9 9

Aspects of words 14 12

Significance of words 4 4

Vocabulary teaching at a university level 3 3

Total 60 53

= 88.33%

Table 3.11 The agreement rate of PRI

Finally, a report of the analysis was produced based on the themes emerging from the data which were categorised into three main themes of 1) pedagogical knowledge (vocabulary learning through reading, stages of teaching and teaching techniques), word knowledge (aspects

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of words) and important roles of vocabulary (significance of words and vocabulary teaching at a university level).