Marco conceptual

Conducting interviews was the main method I used for my data collection and most of the data was taken from these; therefore the process of my data analysis described here is focused on how I analysed the data of one case. This process was also applied to my data analysis through the other four cases.

The more I worked with my data, the more I felt the urge to search for an interpretative lens that could explain what I saw in the data. I went back to the literature and engaged myself in wide reading. As Carter and New (2004) point out:

In realist explanation, social scientists will move back and forth between theoretical description of things and their interrelationships at various levels, and discovery and explanation of their properties. (p. 9)

Based on the aim to depict SLSEs in an EFL learning context, I put together the theoretical framework which I was hoping could explain the everyday practices of the participants. At this stage, I was able to start looking for learning strategies as environmental niches: a niche is a set of affordances which not only provides resources

but also gives constraints at the same time. I then approached the data in a different way and, to a large extent, started anew.

3.6.2.1 Step 1: generating initial codes

To answer my first question (see 3.7), the optional course was considered as the centre of their ZPD of learning to speak English. This helped me to see how different participants made use of what was meaningful to them, that is, the affordances, to establish their own niches. To answer the second question (see 3.7), there was much more going on concurrently apart from course-related activities in the field. I had to decide to what extent these were relevant to their process of learning to speak English. This was not an easy decision to make because I found that the same statement could be interpreted differently and could include different people, times and places as well. Thus, they could be coded differently or assigned to more than one code. The analysing process turned out to be a recursive process of reading the transcripts and listening to the audio recordings. Moreover, where I could not decide which questions some statements answered, I put them in a higher category of ‘the hierarchy’ temporarily. At this stage, I also had codes that might not seem directly relevant but were reported by the participant in the interviews. Gradually, a tentative coding scheme for this one case emerged in the continual interaction between the data and me, the coder.

3.6.2.2 Step 2: searching for themes

After the initial coding was done, I left it for a while. When I came back to it, I started a second coding on the basis of the initial codes. I read through the transcripts again. Only

this time I began from the last interview of the same participant. I checked if there were any changes that needed to be made in terms of the dynamic engagement of affordances in his/her learning process or any significant statements that had been missed. I added, merged or changed the names of the codes when necessary.

Next, I gave three higher codes: past, present and (English language) skills. I put those codes that were about his/her prior learning experiences in ‘past’, his/her learning during this semester in ‘present’ and his/her attitude and belief about the four language skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in ‘language skills’. Apart from these, I kept the codes which seemed important to each participant. For example, I kept ‘English is important’ from Peter’s data and ‘my ideal learning environment’ from Nick’s data.

At this stage, I began to write biographical accounts based on codes in the ‘past’. Also, I was searching in their ‘present’ for themes of person(s)-acting-with-mediational-means, i.e., the affordances, which consisted of the niches under investigation. I read through the extracts of each code to identify the relationship between the participant and different people, and materials across time and space. During this time, I cross-examined interview accounts with classroom observation notes, my research journal, learner diaries, examination papers, test-books and course books.

3.6.2.3 Step 3: reviewing themes

It was at this stage that I was able to give my coding scheme to my second coder to carry out a parallel coding process. I asked her to carry out this exercise with one case (five

transcripts of Nick’s). However, before she began, she asked me to give her some more explanation about what I was looking for in the data along with my codes. Since she did not have NVivo 9, she worked manually. I compared my results with hers, and we discussed the extracts of each code where we disagreed. We either reached agreement or I was in a position to reconsider my coding.

Thus I was able to draw a thematic map of each case at the end of this stage.

3.6.2.4 Step 4: defining and naming themes

The themes identified were in essence a person-environment process view of the individual participants’ learning in the everyday learning environment. I learned from the participants that course-related activities were preparing them to speak English because the materials envisaged a range of settings. Therefore, I named these strategies as ‘before speaking’; other strategies apart from the optional course as ‘to speak’ because I assumed that they took the initiative in preparing themselves for real life communication when speaking English in non-course-related situations. During this time, I began to plan my findings chapter and track the changes and constancy of each participant’s strategy use in learning to speak English as a continual process across time and space.