A Qualitative Research Design and Methodology
Written by:
Fahd AlAlwi
March 2008
Introduction
Over the past decades, several studies and research have been conducted on bilingualism. Different linguists have studied this phenomenon from various perspectives. Most contributions appear to concentrate on code-switching, being one of the main aspects of bilingualism. Our emphasis here will be on the social factors that may -as the study will investigate- be responsible for code-switching produced by Saudi postgraduate students in the University of Essex.
In this essay, I will give brief reasons why I have chosen this topic, then I will be referring to some of the literature that have discussed code-switching. After that, I will talk about data collection, clarifying what data to be collected and why this data specifically. Then, I will shed some light on how I am going to analyze my data and why this way of analysis and not other. After that, I will be giving possible findings and implications, and some recommendations for future research. Finally, I will explain why qualitative methodology is best suitable for my study.
Reasons for this research
It is through a two-stage decision process that bilinguals firstly decide on using one language as a base language, then they determine whether to code-switch. The second stage occurs only if the speakers are bilinguals. Code-switching may be delayed but it will exist in certain situations. (Grosjean,F 1982)
All Saudi postgraduate students in the University of Essex are bilinguals whose formal language at the University are English. Their Arabic is influenced by the dominant language, English. These Arabic-English bilinguals often resort to code-switching when they interact with each other. However, they use English units within Arabic context unconsciously in such a way that the whole discourse seems to show integrity.
This phenomenon has resulted in many questions that need answers. Why do speakers of two distinct languages like those of Arabic and English produce discourses where units of the different languages in question mix within a single sentence? That is to say, what are the social factors that make a bilingual who speaks to another bilingual of the same languages code-switch? When does code-switching take place? Can we expect the potential places of code-switching?
It is with these questions in mind that I intend to carry out this research into code-switching.
Literature review
"people rarely make a conscious decision to become bilingual; it happens because their interaction with the world around them requires the use of two languages" Grosjean,F (1982:2).
Code-switching is a very important aspect of bilingualism. It has been defined by different researchers. Di Pietro (1977)[1] defines it as "the use of more than one language by communicants in the execution of a speech act." Valdes Fallis (1976)[2] refers to it as "the alternation of two languages." Scotton and Ury (1977)[3] state that "code-switching is the use of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation or interaction." And Grosjean (1982) defines it as "alternate use of two or more languages in the same utterance or conversation." It is worth mentioning that the latter definition is going to be the one we apply in this study.
Some linguists think that code-switching is not a rule-governed behavior. Labov (1971:457) as cited in romaine (1989:5) states that "no one has been able to show that such rapid alternation is governed by any systematic rules or constrains and we must therefore describe it as the irregular mixture of two distinct systems." On contrary, others like Grosjean (1982:157) says "code-switching in bilingual speech is far from being a grammarless language mixture or gibberish by semilingual speakers…code-switching is often used as a communicative strategy to convey linguistic and social information."
Grosjean (1982) defines several social reasons why bilinguals often do code-switch according to their own reports. The lack of appropriate lexical item (a word, a phrase, a marker…) makes a bilingual resorts to code-switching to fill a linguistic need, specifically if the intended word expresses a culture-specific notion. Also, "Switches may involve fixed phrases of greeting or parting and discourse markers such as oyes (listen), you know, pero (however)." Grosjean(1982)
Availability of the word (where the speaker knows the word in both languages but this word is more available in language X than language Y) is also normal in bilingual speech and occurs, according to bilinguals themselves, when they are tired or in a bad mood.
Certain topics require certain codes. Valdes Fallis (1976)[4] and Lance (1979)[5] noticed that Mexican Americans in Southwest often switch from Spanish to English when they talk about money.
In his study of code-switching by Australians of German origin, Clyne (1967)[6] found that a single word switch triggers continuation of the switch. Valdes Fallis (1976)[7] provided examples for English-Spanish bilingual speech:
No yo si brincaba en el (no, I really did jump on the)trampoline. When I was a senior…
Gumperz(1970)[8] stressed that code-switching is a communicative strategy that speakers use to convey specific meanings. They may emphasize varying degrees of a speaker involvement.
Gumperz and Hernandez-Chavez ( 1978)[9] see that Code-switching could be used to emphasize group identity by utilizing markers, exclamation and sentence connectors.
Switching can also be used to emphasize a point or end interaction. Hoffman (1971)[10] had reported that mothers in Puerto Rican homes used to give short commands to their children in English like "stop that" and continues the speech in Spanish; this switching indicates to the child that the mother is angry.
Another use of code-switching is to exclude somebody who does not know the code switched to from the conversation. Di Pietro (1977) in Grosjean(1982) reported that Italian parents switch to Italian to discuss topics that they do not want their monolingual children to understand.
Code-switching could also be used for other reasons like quoting what somebody said, specifying an addressee, raising one's status, giving one more authority or showing expertise.
Data Collection
First of all, I have to talk about my subjects whom I am going to take as my source of data. My subjects will be 6 Saudi postgraduate students. They all studied English as a second language at their home countries. But, in their undergraduate studies, the medium of instruction was only English. Despite the fact that they are all Saudis, they are different in that they come from different parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, besides that they represent different social classes.
I have noticed that this particular group is characterized by code-switching (applying Grosjean's definition), being a member of this group myself. They code-switch using the two languages they all speak fluently in different situations even though it is sometimes not necessarily to do so from the point of view of an observer. So, in gathering my data, my main focus will be the linguistic behavior that the intended group adopt so as to communicate with each other. I will observe when the members of this group code-switch and why exactly they code-switch in order to explain this linguistic phenomenon, concentrating more on the social factors that lead to the occurrence of code-switching.
The gathering of these data within the context will ultimately provide me with an insight into the phenomenon of code-switching. once, by means of observation, I could observe when the member of this group code-switch, I would probably be more capable of providing an explanation for the more important question, why do they code-switch?
Data Analysis
In the stage of analysis, I will try to make use of cyclical data analysis approach. According to Watson-Gegeo (1997)[11], this approach is divided into three distinct stages:
-"comprehensive": in which I research the different aspects of a chosen context. As a matter of fact, I think I have already covered this stage through my long observation of natural contexts of the phenomenon under investigation, namely code-switching. This has been achieved due to my intimate relationship with the group being one trusted member which gave me the privilege of a participant observation long time even before I intended to research code-switching.
-"topic oriented": in which I specify the topic, concentrating on specific aspect to investigate through building up research questions that need focused data collection and a preliminary data analysis .
-"hypothesis oriented": in which I try to generate hypotheses based on the data analysis. I, then, try to test the hypotheses generated through further focused observation. Simply speaking, I have decided on using this approach due to its flexibility. It gives me the freedom to move towards increasing focus on the topic of my interest. Furthermore, the cyclical data analysis approach enhances credibility of the research as the data collection stage is usually carried over a long enough period of time as is the case in my research due to the advantage of being one member of the group myself. Also, this approach meets the requirement of transferability. Davis(1995)[12] distinguished three components of thick description:
-"particular description: representative examples from the data.
-general description: information about the patterns in the data.
-interpretive commentary: explanation of the phenomena researched and interpretation of the meanings of the findings with respect to previous research." This applies to my method of analysis which will make it easier for readers to understand the characteristics of code-switching occurring within certain contexts and then compare it to their own situations to decide whether or not findings can be transferred to their own settings. I will also try to achieve confirmability by providing full details of the data on which I will base my explanations, and dependability by asking the participants themselves or other researcher to review the patterns in the data (as recorded data will be available for them) to assess if they can draw the same inferences as I would infer.
Possible Findings and Implications
As my research questions state, my focus will be on the social perspective of code-switching. Hence, the findings of the two questions of why members of this group code-switch and when they code-switch can be implicated to answer the questions that sociolinguistics try to answer. To put it simply, these findings fall under the scope of sociolinguistics that is concerned more with "who uses different forms of languages? Who do they use them with? Are they aware of their choice? Why do some forms 'win out' over others?(and is it always the same ones?) what kind of social information do we ascribe to different forms in a language? How much can we change or control the language we use." Miriam Meyerhoff (2006)
Future Research
Due to the limitation of time, my study will be focusing on one aspect of multilingualism which is code-switching. In the literature, code-switching has no clear-cut definitions. Different researchers have different criteria through which they define code-switching. So, I have not taken that in to consideration and the reader may find that my findings look contradictory with what some researchers have come up with. For example, I treat code-switching, borrowing and code-mixing as one category, namely code-switching. This is by no means a weakness in the study. But, in future research, I will try to elaborate in the distinctions sociolinguists draw between these aspects.
Why Qualitative Methodology
Qualitative methodology is best suitable for this study. From its simple definition, qualitative research has been briefly defined by Alison Mackey and Susan M (2005) as the " research that is based on descriptive data that does not make (regular) use of statistical procedures." Besides, my study is characterized by the characteristics of qualitative studies and hence qualitative methodology best suits my study. These characteristics as listed by Alison Mackey and Susan M (2005) are:
-"rich description": my aim in this study is to provide a very detailed and careful description of language behaviour of the informants by means of thick description according to Davis (1995) as cited in Alison Mackey and Susan M (2005:180), and not quantify data through frequencies.
-"natural and holistic representation": by means of participant observation, I intend to study specific individuals in their natural settings. I am more concerned with studying code-switching phenomenon within the sociocultural context.
-"few participant": like other qualitative researchers, I am less concerned with issues of generalizability. So, I intend to work more intensively with fewer participants. "qualitative researchers typically study a relatively small number of individuals or situations and preserve the individuality of each of these in their analyses, rather than collecting data from large samples and aggregating the data across individuals or situations. Thus, they are able to understand how events, actions, and meanings are shaped by the unique circumstances in which these occur." Maxwell, J(1996)
-"emic perspectives": qualitative researchers aim at interpreting certain phenomena in terms of what it means to certain individuals. This is what I aim to do in carrying out this study as code-switching means a lot to individuals whether they do it consciously or unconsciously.
-"cyclical and open-ended process": qualitative research is often open-ended. So, categories emerge in the course of the study. It usually starts with few perceived notions and the focus is narrowed down gradually throughout the process of the research.
-"research questions tend to be general and open ended": just like my questions which are open ended. Hypotheses may generate out of these questions and this counts as one of the strengths of qualitative research according to Brown (2003)[13].
Three main methods are suggested to contribute to providing valuable insights into bilingualism and code-switching phenomena (Dabene &Moore 1995):
1- "A traditional approach consists of using standardized experimental procedures to elicit speech samples. Informants are generally recruited according to strict selection criteria.
2- A second approach favours informal recorded interviews with bilingual interviewers. Here again, informants are chosen according to various defined criteria whilst test situations are most often socially marked(interviews are for instance recorded at school).
3- A third orientation aims at collecting natural language in interaction situations which are as authentic as possible. A high value is placed upon participant observations carried out by investigators from the same group." (Dabene &Moore 1995)
As for collection of the qualitative data, a wide variety of techniques are used, the most common of which are ethnographies, interviews, diaries, case studies and observational techniques. I intend to adopt the participant observation method for collecting my data. Mason (1996)[14] refers to observation as "methods of generating data which involve the researcher immersing [himself or herself] in a research setting, and systematically observing dimensions of that setting, interactions, relationships, actions, events, and so on, within it." In this method, researchers often tend to use field notes together with audio or video recordings which " allow the researcher to analyze language use in greater depth and to involve outside researchers in the consideration of the data." Alison Mackey and Susan M (2005). By means of field notes and recordings, observation will provide me with rich data on the participants' behavior (code-switching) within the context.
Furthermore, the fact that I am already a member of the Saudi postgraduate students in Essex will make it easier for me to be accepted by this group. This will allow me to observe them code-switching unconsciously. It is with the small number of the group that I can use the direct observation method to understand the code-switching phenomenon. "The point is that a well-designed qualitative study usually requires a relatively small number of respondents to yield the saturated and rich data that is needed to understand even subtle meanings in the phenomenon under focus." Dörnyei, Zoltán (2007)
The explanatory nature of the qualitative research makes it suitable for investigating code-switching phenomenon from the social perspective. Such explanations will rarely depend on what has been so far said about this phenomenon in literature.
Conclusion
In this essay, I have given brief reasons why I have chosen this topic, then I have referred to some of the literature that discuss code-switching. After that, I talked about data collection clarifying what data to be collected and why this data specifically. Then, I shed some light on how I am going to analyze my data and why this way of analysis and not other. After that, I have given possible findings and implications, and some recommendations for future research. Finally, I have explained why qualitative methodology is best suitable for my study.
References
Dabene, L. & Moore, D. (1995), "Bilingual speech of immigrant people". In Milroy, L. &Muysken, P. (eds), One speaker, Two Languages. CUP, Cambridge, pp.17-44.
Dörnyei, Z. (2007), Research methods in applied linguistics. OUP, Oxford.
Grosjean, F. (1982), Life with two languages : an introduction to bilingualism, Harvard University Press, Mass.
Mackey, A. & Gass, S. M. (2005), Second language research: Methodology and design. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey, USA.
Maxwell, J. (1996), Qualitative research design : an interactive approach. Sage Publications, London.
Meyerhoff, M.(2006), Introducing sociolinguistics. Routledge, NY.
