Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Qualitative Analysis

by Dr. Lo Yueh Yea

janice@um.edu.my
13/12/2022 and 15/12/2022
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

What is it?
Making sense of data in terms of participants definitions
of the situation

Revolves around interpretation

An iterative, back-and-forth process

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The concern with ‘fitness for purpose’

 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Before beginning, be clear if you want to…

Describe Portray Summarize Interpret

Discover patterns Generate themes Understand individuals Understand groups

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Examine the
Discover
application and
commonalities,
Prove or demonstrate Explore operation of the same
differences, and
issues in different
similarities
contexts
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Theoretically vs. Practically

• Analysis move from description ->

Theoretically
explanation -> theory generation

•‘Progressive focussing’ (Parlett &

Practically
Hamilton, 1976)
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Organizing and presenting data

Issue/theme
People
(be aware if decided Research question(s)
(by groups, by individual)
before data collection)

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Narrative account
(chronology, logical
Instrument Case studies analysis, thematic analysis,
a series of stories about
the research findings)
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Data Analysis: Coding and Content Analysis

Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Codes and Coding

Code
• A name or label given to a piece of text that contains an
idea or piece of information

Coding
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• Kerlinger (1970) describes coding as the translation of

question response and respondent information to specific
categories for the purpose of analysis. Newby (2010) calls
this ‘tagging’
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Different kinds of coding

Open coding

Analytic coding 8

Axial coding
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Open coding
A new label that is attached to a piece of text

Generates categories and defines their properties and dimensions

Can be done line by line, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, paragraph by

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paragraph

It is the earliest, initial form of coding

 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Analytic coding
Interpretive, draws together, and gives more explanatory and analytic meaning to
a group of descriptive codes

EXAMPLE:
Observation Descriptive Category Analytic
code code
Teacher ignores disruptive behaviour Ignores
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behaviour Teacher Teacher denial or
behaviour teacher
resignation
Teacher concentrates on students who are Interested students
interested
Teacher does not respond to students No response
shouting in class
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Axial Coding
Category label ascribed to a group of open codes whose referents are similar in
meaning

Strauss and Corbin (1990):

Axial coding refers to the (i) phenomenon being studied, (ii) the causal conditions
that lead to that phenomena, (iii) the context of the phenomena, (iv) intervening
conditions, and (v) actions and interactions of, and (vi) consequences for, the actors
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in situations

Axial coding: words within one category

Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Selective Coding

Similar to axial code except that it is at a greater level of abstraction than an axial
code

A selective code requires:

(i) Deep understanding of the main storyline
(ii) Creating the core category
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(iii) Relating categories
(iv) Validating those relations
(v) Filling in any gaps in categories
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Example

https://delvetool.com/blog/axialcoding
https://prpost.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/an-example-of-
how-to-perform-open-coding-axial-coding-and-selective-
coding/
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Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Content Analysis
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Content Analysis:

It takes texts and analyses, reduces and interrogates them into summary form through the
use of both pre-existing categories and emergent themes in order to generate or test a
theory. It uses systematic, replicable, observable, and rule-governed forms of analysis in a
theory-dependent system for the application of those categories

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Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Process of Content Analysis

• Step 1: define the research questions to be addressed by content analysis
• Step 2: define the population from which the unit of texts are to be sampled
• Step 3: define the sample to be included
• Step 4: define the context of the generation of the document
• Step 5: define the unit of analysis
• Step 6: decide the codes to be used in the analysis
• Step 7: construct the categories for analysis
• Step 8: conduct the coding and categorizing of the data
• Step 9: conduct the data analysis
• Step 10: summarizing
• Step 11: making speculative inferences
Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Discourse Analysis
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Discourse Analysis:

Analyzing words in context as ways in which people express themselves (how context
affects meaning and language)

Analyzing interactions conducted through language

Analyzing patterns of language use 18

Analyzing the links between language and the constitution, structure and nature of society
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

James Paul Gee (2014)

The subject tool: why have speakers chosen this subject/topic and what are they saying about it? Ask if
and how they could have made it about another topic and why they did not. Why are they organizing
information the way they are in terms of subjects and predicates?

The intonation tool: how does a speaker’s intonation contour contribute to the meaning of an utterance?
What information did the intonation emphasize and what was pushed to the background?

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The doing and not just saying tool: ask now just what the speaker is saying but what he or she is trying to
do, keeping in mind that he or she may be trying to do more than one thing?

The vocabulary tool: what sorts of words are being used? How do these word types function to create
communication style (register, social language), how does it contribute to the purposes for
communicating?
 Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

The integration tool: how are clauses integrated and packed into utterances or sentences? What was left
out and what was included in terms of optional arguments? What perspectives are being communicated
by the way in which information is packaged into main, subordinate, and embedded clauses?

The why this way and not that way tool: why does the speaker build and design with grammar the way
he or she did and not in some other way? Always ask how else this could have been said and what was
the speaker trying to mean and do by saying it in the way in which he or she did and not in other ways?
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Foundations of Research in TESL (PIB3002)

Thank you!