Características de los pacientes con/sin reingreso en UCI

According to Brown and Rodgers (2002:117), surveys can be used by researchers who need “to understand better how things are really operating in … [any] learning setting, or to describe the abilities, performances, and other characteristics of the learners, teachers, and administrators involved” in the teaching-and-learning process. In the current study, the survey was used to collect data on the participants’ demographics, language background, language learning and use (cf. Section 5.2), and their perception of the availability of conventional EFL learning materials at UR (cf. Section 5.3), as well as their access to and use of mobile technologies (cf. Sections 5.4 and 5.5). As discussed in Section 4.5 above, some of the survey data were used for forming different sample groups (cf. Table 4.1).

Regarding the administration of the surveys, Sue and Ritter (2007:149) recommend the use of online survey methods especially “when dealing with closed populations… and when the target respondents have access to the necessary… technology [tools]”; and this was the case for the current study. The participants in this study were a group of university students, and they had access to computers and mobile devices with internet connection, accessible from either the university campus or outside the university, or both. Therefore, the online survey method was adopted.

The survey (see Appendix F) was made up of 24 questions which were designed to collect qualitative and quantitative data (cf. Section 4.3) on three primary variables which were assumed to have a direct relationship with EFL learning. These variables were (ii) the participants’ language background and individual differences (IDs) including English language learning and use, (ii) the

participants’ access to mobile technologies, and (iii) the participants’ use of MTLL.

In the process of complying with research ethics (cf. Section 4.4), the first page of the survey included an introduction to the survey, and an invitation to voluntarily participate in the study. The first page also addressed confidentiality issues which might arise when the collected data are presented. Even though the participants had already signed the informed consent to participate in the study (cf. Appendix D), they could of course again decide whether they still wanted to participate in the study, upon which they could go to the next page (cf. Appendix F).

As discussed in Section 1.2, the objective of the current study was to help the learners to improve their EFL proficiency through the use of modern mobile technologies. However, as discussed in Chapter 2, especially in Section 2.3, there are various factors other than input which can affect learners’ L2 proficiency and which need to be taken into account. For this reason, the second page of the survey included 15 questions which were related to the participants’ language background and their IDs, as well as to their mobile technological devices. The IDs referred to in the survey included age, gender, prior experience with the English language, attitude towards English language learning, and motivation (cf. Appendix F).

All 60 participants provided answers to these 15 questions of the first section of the survey, which were compulsory and relevant to all the participants (cf. Section 4.5). Some restrictions were placed within the survey so that each participant could see and answer only the questions which were relevant to him/her. More specifically, the answer provided to the last question in each section of the survey was the key to opening either the following section or the survey’s final page, on which the participant was thanked for taking the time to complete the survey.

In the first section of the survey, the participants were requested to provide information on their EFL background and IDs, and at the end of the section, the participants had to answer whether or not they had their own mobile technological devices. Participants who had no mobile devices were directed to

the survey’s final page, whereas the ones who had their own mobile devices were directed to the second section of the survey. As explained in Section 4.5, the participants who had no mobile technological devices were qualified to participate in this study as members of EGB1 or CGB2 (cf. Table 4.1 in Section 4.5).

The second section of the survey was designed to collect data on the ‘access to mobile technologies’ variable, and it contained three compulsory questions, which were relevant to participants who mentioned that they had their own mobile technological devices. In this section, the participants were asked to indicate the number of devices which they had and which types of devices they were, as well as some technical details about them, specifically their brands, models and operating systems. In addition to these, the participants were asked about their general use of the devices, and whether or not they used their devices for EFL learning purposes. At the end of this section, the participants who said that they did not use their devices for EFL learning purposes were directed to the survey’s final page, whereas those who said that they did use their devices for EFL learning were directed to the third section of the survey. It is important to note again that the members of EGB1 and CGB2 were to be recruited primarily from the participants who did not use their mobile devices for language learning prior to this study’s experimental period (cf. Table 4.1). The third section of the survey was made up of three questions which were designed to collect data related to the participants’ use of MTLL, specifically which language learning materials which they used, and how often they used them. At the end of the section, the participants were asked whether they used MTLL outside the classroom, and the participants who said that they did not use MTLL outside the classroom were directed to the survey’s final page. The participants who responded that they did use MTLL outside the classroom were directed to the fourth section, where they were asked to provide details about their MTLL use outside the formal language classroom. As discussed in Section 4.5, and illustrated in Table 4.1, only the members of EGA1 and CGA2 were the primary target of these last two sections of the survey.

Concerning the online administration of the survey, Sue and Ritter (2007:149) argue that online surveys “are faster, cheaper, and sometimes more effective than other methods”. The current study used a paid online survey tool called ‘eSurvey Creator’ (accessible online from https://www.esurveycreator.com/) because it provides a 100% discount on a business account for students registered at one of the universities which subscribe to the tool (see Appendix E). In order to qualify for this discount, the researcher’s student e-mail was submitted to and verified by eSurvey Creator; thereafter a free business account was immediately activated for conducting online surveys by using this tool. After activating the researcher’s account, the online survey was built by entering the questionnaire items which had been prepared in text format, into the online tool. Appendix F shows the participants’ view of the complete, active survey with all its response options, and Figure 4.1 below shows the survey administrator’s view of one of the online questionnaire pages with the features which were available for use in the process of questionnaire building.

Figure 4.1: Survey link and online administration page

After building and verifying the online survey, as well as creating and activating the survey link, all the participants received an invitation to participate with the link to the questionnaire via SMS and WhatsApp messages. The study’s survey (https://www.esurveycreator.com/s/MTLLinRWA/) was active from 19 April to 25 May 2017, the date on which the 60th _{participant had fully completed it. Some} of the participants completed the survey by using their mobile devices, laptops and computers, and others, who had a problem with access to internet, completed it by using the researcher’s laptop and a desktop computer which were always available in the researcher’s temporary office at UR during the experimental period. After the completion of the survey by all the participants, the data were downloaded for analysis. The results are presented and discussed in Chapter 5.