OTHER CATHEGORIES

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Dear all

Regarding the instruments (final survey, teachers' journals) connected to the second specific objective (to involve cooperative learning in order to promote autonomy in terms of making decisions regarding students' productions), I have created other two categories of analysis:

1. LISTENING TO EACH OTHER: It was evident the contrast of the role of listening before and during the pedagogical intervention. The students recognized how useful was listening to each other in order to help their peers and determine what they need (in terms of improving PRONUNCIATION) in order to PRACTICE.

2. LEARNING TOGETHER: The fact of working together to achieve a common goal permitted participants to look for information (new vocabulary, how to pronounce new words) to acquire knowledge or to reinforce it. They insist on practicing, but they recognized that doing in the team eases more. Furthermore, taking advantage of the “personal talents” (technological, using the dictionary, etc.) allowed them to see each other with different eyes and consequently, to accept that they can learn from the others.

See you around.

CONFIRMING FIRST TWO CATEGORIES

Dear all

I have named (and confirmed) the first categories. What I did was to group the elements in common and give a name to this group.

The following are the categories that I have found from the data collected to achieve the first specific objective (To identify the reasons why students do not feel confident when speaking.)

1. PRONUNCIATION AWARENESS: This category refers to the recognition that the participants give to the pronunciation in order to feel more confident when speaking. The instruments applied (initial interview, video recordings) showed that pronunciation is the strongest reason why students feel anxiety when speaking in the target language. Likewise, students expressed in the final survey that one reason to feel more confident is because they had the opportunity to work on pronunciation.

2. NEED OF PRACTICE:  Different patterns evidence the need that students have to practice in order to achieve the confidence. In the survey, for example, the students recognized that they did not practice enough, but at the same time, that they do not practice because of their fears to be missunderstood due to their pronunciation problems.

I am reaching to the answer for my research question....

DEFINING CODING METHODS

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Dear all

Having a detailed look at the data collected, I have found two methods for coding my data, based on Strauss and Corbin (1990):

1. OPEN CODING: Consisting on breaking down, revising, comparing, conceptualizing and categorizing my data (Strauss, and Corbin, 1990: 61).

2. THEORETICAL SENSITIVITY TECHNIQUES: Especially designed to allow the clarification of assumptions made by the people who appear in the data. Two techniques that I used were the use of questioning and the analysis of a word, phrase, sentence.

Reference:

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative research. Grounded theory: procedures and techniques. London: SAGE publications, 95.

GOING BEYOND CODING

Dear all

Checking what I have already done, I realized that I am a little bit confused regarding concepts vs category. I am taking advantage of Corbin and Strauss (1990), but I am afraid that I need re-define what I have. I am not sure if what I have done is categorizing. If so, I need to determine which concepts (for Sagor, patterns) belong the othe categories mentioned in previous posts.

I think that it regards the fact that I only focused the preliminary findings on language, leaving cooperative work and radio.

This is a long process, consisting in checking many times the data collected. I am enjoying it, but time is running.

I hope to show more findings in next posts.

Consuelo

EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF MY RESEARCH

CRITERIA FOR GROUNDED THEORY STUDIES

(Base on Charmaz, 2009)

Research question: TO WHAT EXTENT CAN COOPERATIVE LEARNING-BASED ACTIVITIES—PARTICIPATING IN AN ONLINE RADIO SHOW—FOSTER SPEAKING CONFIDENCE IN 8TH GRADERS FROM LA CHUCUA SCHOOL?

INCOMPLETE CODING

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After the tutorial session, I realized that I need to reconsider the categories, taking into account that I focused the categorization only on language. I need to think about my objectives and my research questions, and consequently, the constructs. For example, how the participation in radio helped my students to foster speaking confidence? How influenced the cooperative learning enhance it?

I have found that interaction, the aspect that I mentioned in the previous post can be included as a pattern of cooperative learning. So I need to revise again the data that I collected in order to improve my preliminary findings.

Thinking about my article....

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The first aspect that came to my mind in the moment to write an article regarded to the audience that I would like to reach. In this sense, I would like to write for my peers, the academic community. That is why I would like that my article was read from Profile Journal (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) and/or Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas), so I am going to look for information about their requirements to write a journal and the deadline of the call for submissions. Anyway, I will ask to my project director, Professor Liliana Cuesta in order to receive guidance in this issue.

Based on Peat (2002) and Radu and Thaler (2009), in addition to getting this information at hand, my plan is as follows:

Now, the steps that I am going to write the first draft is as follows, based on Peat (2002), and adapted to my interest (publishing at Profile Journal).

References

Peat, J. et al. (2002). Getting started. Scientific writing: Easy when you know how. London, GRB: Publishing group. 12 – 47

Radu, A. & Thaler, I (2009). How to write and Academic Paper: Some suggestions [pdf document] Retrieved March 23, 2010.