CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The Research methodology is a systematic and scientific process of conducting research. It

systematically solves the research problem. It includes a brief description of the research design
to be used including the justification of why it is the best method for this research. So basically,
this chapter covers a comprehensive description of the methodology which includes the research
design, population, sample, data analysis, and data collection techniques.

3.1 Research Methodology

The research is qualitative in nature. The qualitative data is expressed in words, not in numerical
values. The Qualitative research focuses on words instead of numerical values, this type of
research observes the world in its natural setting, interpreting situations to understand the
meanings that people make from day-to-day life (Walia, 2015). This research adopts the
qualitative methodology to examine the lexical variations in English language caused by
Pakistani users of social media. In this study, the researcher collected the data from different
social websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and analyzed the data under the
functional theory. Functional theory mainly concerns and covers lexical changes.

3.2 Research Design

Qualitative research method embraces the following research design: case study, logic,
participant observation, discourse analysis, biography, open-ended interview, ethnography, focus
group, comparative method, etc. (Cibangu, 2012). The qualitative content analysis is being done
in this research. Content analysis is basically a research tool used to determine the presence of
particular words, functions, elements, themes, features, or concepts within some given qualitative
data (i.e. text). Qualitative content analysis goes beyond simply counting words to examining
language intensely to classify large numbers of text into an efficient or effective number of
categories that represent similar meanings (Weber, 1990). 14
The current study adopts a qualitative content analysis research design to evaluate the data
collected from three social interacting platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Using content analysis, the researcher analyzed the data (social media posts) under the functional
theory of language change. Tabulation analyses are used to interpret the data. The adopted
research design is considered appropriate for the analysis of the lexical variation in the English
language caused by social media in Pakistan.

3.3 Population

The population of the study is Pakistani social media networking users such as Instagram,
Facebook, and WhatsApp. The population is based on the users of social media that creates
lexical variation in English language in Pakistan.

3.4 Sampling

A simple random sampling technique was used for selecting the social media posts. Simple
random sampling is basically a type of sample that occurs when the researcher randomly selects
a small group of participants in a census. The sampling of the study consists of 12 WhatsApp
status, 5 Facebook posts, and 7 Instagram posts. These status and posts were selected randomly.
Through these posts and status, the researcher analyzed the lexical variations in the English
language that are caused by social media in Pakistan.

3.5 Data Collection

Data Collection is a process in which a researcher collects information from all relevant sources
to find answers to a research problem and questions to test a theory and evaluate the outcome. It
may be primary data or secondary data. So, the data collection in the study is done by careful
systematic procedure. The Process of data collection was that the researcher firstly collected the
data from social media randomly and then identify the lexical variation in the data collected and
analyze the data by applying the functional theory of M.A.K Halliday and then the results are
calculated through tabulation. 15
3.6 Data Analysis

The qualitative content analysis will be done through deductive Thematic analysis. Thematic
analysis was first developed by Gerald Holton in 1970s and has recently been accepted as a
“distinctive method with a clearly outlined set of procedures in social science” (Braun & Clarke,
2013, p.178). According to these authors, thematic analysis is a data analysis method that helps a
researcher to identify themes and patterns of meanings across a dataset in relation to a particular
research question. Data will be analyzed in six phases of thematic analysis. These phases include
familiarizing yourself with your data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing
themes, defining and naming themes and producing the report.