MA ELT Dissertation

An Investigation into Learners’ Disposition and Perceived Ability to Learn Independently in the Centre for Independent Language Learning

5 The Diaries

Due to the limitations of the questionnaire and the interviews it was decided to further triangulate the results of the questionnaires and the interviews by looking at the interviewed students’ diaries for supporting evidence. The first reason for this was to help improve the internal validity of the investigation results.

Secondly, where diary data is available the diaries can complement the interview results by exploring issues in more depth, for example by finding out why the subjects answered the interview questions in the way they did.

Thirdly, examining the diaries can investigate reasons for unexpected or unusual answers to the interview questions. For example, the fifth interviewee did not want any LT, as she is a Ph.D. student and teacher.

Finally, in summary of the points above, a third research instrument adds scope and breadth to a study. For an example see the first limitation in Section 4.6 above.

5.1 Methodology

Evidence to support or call into question the answers given by each interviewee was searched for in the interviewee’s diary.

If the interviewee said that they had not done something, for example, they had not attended any workshops, a lack of evidence of workshop attendance in the diary was not categorised as confirmation that what the student said was correct. This is because the interviewees may have gone to workshops, but not made any notes in their diaries about it. This applied to questions about all the LT opportunities, such as using the CILL Internet site and the study skills program.

5.2 Findings

Because they complement each other the findings of the questionnaires, interviews and the diaries are detailed in Section 6 below.

5.3 Limitations

For reasons of confidentiality it would not be ethical to allow anyone other than the researcher and the independent arbiter to see the student’s diaries. This is a problem for internal reliability, because it would be impossible for an independent researcher to come to the same conclusions without access to the students’ diaries (Nunan, 1992: 17). However, it was felt that checking the diaries for supporting evidence was important, given the limitations of the survey research process. To go some way towards resolving this problem, Appendixes 13 to 18 contain supporting evidence in short extracts taken from the diaries of the interviewees. The confidentiality of the students’ diaries is maintained however, because it is not possible for readers of this investigation to discover the identities of the interviewees.

It is possible for students to use a resource, such as study skills books or the CILL Internet pages, and not mention it in their diary. This may be a cause of some of the ‘No evidence’ entries in Appendices 13 to 18.

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Link to Part: Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Bib, Appx

Last revised on Tuesday, September 24, 2002

If you have any comments, please contact Andy Morrall at ecandym@polyu.edu.hk