3 RESEARCH DESIGN: the empirical investigation of learner needs
3.4 S AMPLING AND PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY
The selection of the participants was based on purposeful sampling. To this end, the participants constitute learners, teachers, applied linguistics teacher-researchers, and EU professionals taken together with the aim of including a wide range of data, as Cowling (2007) points out “by casting a large net to cover as many sources allowed for more opportunities to identify needs and also to filter out any inaccurate perceived needs through the use of triangulation” (p. 429).
3.4.1 The UTE student participants
The purpose of the first phase of the study was to collect diverse data about the current language learning situation and EU English students’ perceptions of their EU English language needs. To achieve this aim, interviews with UTE students were conducted at the Language Centre, Budapest, Hungary. The participants were ten Hungarian full-time students studying at Master level. The students chose the Language of the EU in English course and had access to course material. It was assumed that the different study fields of the student participants would influence their language learning needs. Therefore, the students were also selected on the basis of their homogeneous subject areas. Since “insider information” (Patton, 2002, p. 268) was sought to investigate learner need to contribute to the detection of areas for course improvement, the students were considered first-hand ideal informants and were picked on the basis of their willingness to contribute from the classes I taught. To ensure anonymity, the participating students have been assigned pseudonyms in the study. Table 10 summarises the relevant characteristics of the participants.
Table 10 Participants of the student interviews
UTE students Age Gender Subject areas Language
exam
Student 1 Erik 23 Male Mechanical engineering -
Student 2 Fanni 21 Female Chemical engineering C1
Student 3 Patrik 23 Male Regional and environmental economics
C1
Student 4 Lilla 21 Female International management -
Student 5 Kata 21 Female Architecture C1
Student 6 Liza 21 Female Chemical engineering B2
Student 7 Alexa 21 Female Civil engineering C1
Student 8 Kitti 23 Female Leadership and organisation B2 Student 9 Janka 22 Female Regional and environmental
economics
B2
Student 10 Kira 23 Female Civil engineering B2
3.4.2 The UTE teacher participants
For the purposes of triangulation, and to gain a wider and more objective perspective of the students’ present situation needs, two UTE teacher colleagues were interviewed who taught the same EU subject in French and Spanish. The participating language teachers were requested to share their ideas on three topics:
(1) characteristics of the specialist language of the EU;
(2) students’ motivation, goals, and interest;
(3) strengths and weaknesses of the teaching material.
At the time of the research, the author of the study was the only teacher at the language centre who taught EU English. Although the teachers’ classes were not instructed in English, these teachers were available to provide valuable insights into the phenomenon investigated.
The selected teachers participated in the development of the course material of their relevant courses and were practising language teachers at UTE. Table 11 summarises the UTE teacher participants’ characteristics and their pseudonyms.
Table 11 The UTE teacher participants
UTE teachers Gender Taught languages Teaching experience
Teacher/1 Laura Female Spanish 18 years
Teacher/2 Natali Female French 11 years
.
3.4.3 The teacher-researcher participants
To broaden the scope of the exploration and to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon under scrutiny, the EU English language needs were examined from a different perspective too by including in the project specialist informants’ ideas: teachers who also pursue research activity. Three teacher-researchers were asked to express their thoughts on EU
English learner needs at tertiary level. The selected participants have taught translation and EU English classes at three different Hungarian universities, two in the capital city of Hungary and one in the countryside. The participants were chosen on the basis of their expertise in EU English teaching and research. All three participants have substantial EU English teaching experience in higher education, two of them have also worked at an EU institution. They are referred to in the study by pseudonyms.
The first interviewee, Sandra, used to work for the university in the countryside where her professional duties involved translation and EU English teaching. Additionally, she earned ample professional experience in civil service. She was involved in the coordination of EU-related translations and interpreting tasks. She spent three months at the European Commission as a trainee. Her research field is translation and EU terminology.
The second interviewee, Lea, worked as an assistant professor at the time of the research at one of the most prestigious universities in Budapest. The class she taught was part of the English BA Specialisation module offered by the university. Her tertiary level studies included a three-year EU studies programme in Hungarian. She spent a year in Luxembourg where she studied EU history. She used the language of the EU at a previous EU workplace. Her research interest includes English language use in EU documents and corpus linguistics.
The third interviewee, Hanna started to teach English at a university of economics in Budapest. Her tertiary studies comprised a two-year EU expert training in Hungarian. At the time of the interview, she taught ESP, EU English and translation to university students. Her research interests are ESP and English language corpus linguistics. Table 12 summarises the participants’ studies, degrees, EU English teaching experience and their assigned pseudonyms.
Table 12 Participants of the teacher-researcher interviews
Teacher-researchers Studies and degrees EU English teaching experience TR/1 Sandra MSc in Economics, MA in European
Studies, PhD in Translation
8 years
TR/2 Lea MA in English and French Language and Literature, PhD in Language Pedagogy
10 years
TR/3 Hanna MA in English and German, Postgraduate degree in EU Studies, PhD in Language Pedagogy
11 years
Note. TR refers to teacher-researcher.
3.4.4 The EU professional participants
The EU professional participants who were selected for the study are useful for the collection of information about the characteristics of EU English needs in the target situation for which tertiary level studies intend to prepare students in general and UTE students in particular. The reason for requesting the selected professionals’ views was to explore aspects of EU English communicative needs as well as to investigate how professionals view the importance of EU English instruction in higher education. It was assumed that the professional experience the participants gained in the EU context could deepen the understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.
The first interviewee, Mira received her MA degree in legal studies in Hungary in 1997.
Her education background includes the study of EU law. She gained her professional experiencein civil service at the Hungarian Ministry of Justice. In 1999, she began to coordinate the translation unit of the ministry that was responsible for the translation processes of the acquis communautaire (the entire body of EU laws) in Hungary. She earned her PhD degree in the analysis of the linguistic expression of legal EU provisions in Hungarian and in the official languages of the EU with special regard to the aspects of private law. She conducted research to investigate the translation of international and EU legal language, multilingual legislation, and the use of the legal language of written communication of the EU. Her major field of
research was the language of EU law and its translation from English, French and German into Hungarian as well as the analysis of the foreign language equivalents of EU legal expressions, particularly in the English language EU documents.
The second interviewee, Szonja was a Research & Development Engineer who worked for a private Hungarian engineering company focusing on Research & Development (R&D) and Innovation Management. She participated in all phases of the EU R&D projects of the company as a full-time employee. The interviewee was a former UTE student who studied Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 2012. She had studied English for 18 years at the time of the interview and held a C1 level English language certificate. She received secondary school level instruction in Hungarian about the European Union as part of a preparation for a competition about the EU. She did not learn EU English before she started to work. The company she was working for assisted small and medium-sized enterprises and associations from different industrial sectors through applied research. Most of their R&D projects are funded by European and local R&D funds. The company works with an extended network of international partners and employs electronic, mechanical, chemical, automotive and environmental engineers, software developers and economists who develop new technological solutions. The company has more than 45 employees and one of its most prominent services was the formation of EU R&D funding programmes.
The third interviewee, Blanka earned her BA degree in international communication at a Hungarian tertiary institution. She obtained her MA degree in translation and conference interpreting at a university of technology and economics in Budapest. Three months after having obtained her Master degree, she started to work as a freelance consecutive interpreter at the EU institutions. At the time of the research, she was an accredited conference interpreter to the EU institutions. Her previous professional experience involves several years of translation of English technical manuals into Hungarian. She studied the history and the institutions of the
EU in Hungarian as part of her MA interpreting studies.
The fourth interviewee, Anna had worked as a translator for the EU for seven years. She was an officer of the European Commission in Hungary representing the EU. She held substantial professional experience in EU-related language issues and was aware of the language expectations of the candidates wishing to use EU English as employees both in Hungary and in the Member States of the EU. Table 13 summarises the EU professionals’
names, professions, and workplaces.
Table 13 The EU professionals’ characteristics
EU professionals Profession Workplace
EUPR/1 Mira Civil Servant Ministry of Justice
(Hungary)
EUPR/2 Szonja R&D Engineer Multinational company in Hungary
EUPR/3 Blanka Interpreter EU institutions (freelance)
EUPR/4 Anna Translator European Commission
(Hungary) Note. EUPR refers to EU professional.
3.4.5 The UTE teacher-researcher participant
The author of the present dissertation participated in the study as the teacher of the EU English course. Therefore I taught as well as researched the students taking the given EU English classes. I continuously interacted with my students, which allowed me to also obtain an emic perspective and seek answers to my research questions in the original learning environment. Although participant research can be seen as subjective or biased (Dörnyei, 2007b), a participant-researcher perspective can, in my view, considerably promote the researcher’s exploration in the field. Research findings are frequently used to be fed back into everyday teaching practice and thus can help the teacher to plan successful courses. As a researcher, I could benefit from the teacher’s background knowledge of the students and the learning context, thus arriving at a better understanding of the situation.
3.4.6 The respondents of the needs analysis questionnaire
The needs analysis questionnaire targeting students’specialised linguistic needs was completed by 25 students studying different subject areas at MA level at UTE. The questionnaires were distributed in paper format at the end of two different semesters, in the final classes of two EU English groups. Since it was assumed that the students did not have sufficient experience in answering the survey questions, they were requested to participate in the research towards the conclusion of their classes. In each class, it was explained to the students that their participation in the survey was voluntary and the results of the questionnaire would not influence their final grades.
3.4.7 The respondents of the teaching material evaluation questionnaire
In an attempt to investigate UTE students’ views on the existing EU English teaching material, an evaluation questionnaire was administered in Hungarian to 14 students studying at MA level. The items of the questionnaire were designed to elicit answers on the students’
overall satisfaction with the existing teaching material and to evaluate the teaching material for further improvement of course and materials design.