Journal Review: Critical

Comparison on Two Qualitative

Research Articles
Draft 1

Name: Zulhilmi Abd Maurad

IC Number: 870313235521
MP1311181

Introduction
Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the
observed phenomenon. Research involves inductive and deductive methods
(Babbie, 1998). One thing that we have to pay attention to research is that the
heart of the research is not on statistics, but the thinking behind the research. How
we really want to find out, how we build arguments about ideas and concepts, and
what evidence that we can support to persuade people to accept our arguments.
There are three different types of research which are quantitative, qualitative and
mix method research. This paper will compare and critically analyze between two
qualitative articles that have been chosen. The articles entitled Demotivating
factors in Englis classroom: a case study of Iranian guidance school students (article
A) and Factor Causing Demotivation in EFL Teaching Process: A Case Study (article
B). This paper will analyze on the seven aspects which are: issues, objectives,
setting, the subject and types of sampling, tools collecting data, procedure
collecting data and finally data analysis.
1) Issues
Issues are the most important part in developing a research. Without issues, there is
no point in doing research. Both of the selected articles have quite similar issue. The
issue is the demotivating factors in learning and teaching English as a Foreign
Language. However, the differences that recognizable is that in article A, the
demotivating factors focus on the students, while in article B, the demotivating
factors focus on the teacher. Both of the researchers in the articles mentioned that
this issue is being ignored and many researches are about motivation factors rather
than demotivating factors.
2) Objectives
The objectives provide an accurate description of the specific actions that the
researchers will take in order to reach this aim. Only in article A, the researcher
mentioned the research objective whereas article B the researcher does not write a
subtopic of the objective of his research. There is an objective in article B but the
author did not specifically mentioned and made a subtopic. In my opinion, the
researcher should make a subtopic of an objective as it would be easier for the
readers to read and understand the whole article. Especially in article A, the
objective provided in the article was clearly and effectively written.
3) Setting
Setting is also play an integral part in developing a research because it maybe a
contributing factor in collecting data. The research setting refers to the place where
the data are collected. The setting for article A is in Iranian guidance school and for
article B is in elementary school in Zonguldak, Turkey. Although both of the settings
are at different places, yet they are still in the Middle Eastern countries. Most
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probably they share with the same culture and religion or some part of it. The
similarity that they share is that English is not their first language however it is their
foreign language. In article A, the mother tongue is Turkish and in article B is
Persian. Based on the both articles, they believed that English is an important
language for their country.
4) The subject and types of sampling method
The subjects that had been chosen in article A are three female students who are
about 13 years old. They have already finished the second grade of guidance
school. All of them have joined English institutes since 2 years age: therefore, they
are familiar with English to some degree.
The subject that had been researched in article B is a 26 years old female, who is
English as a Foreign Language elementary teacher in Turkey. One of the reasons
that the author chose this subject is because she had a good relationship and
maintained close communication with the researcher during her students years.
Another reason was that she had great sensitivity to teaching as a profession and
therefore was god at observing the teaching environment. Hence, in article B, there
is only one respondent.
Fundamentally, one of the differences in both research studies is the participants. In
article A, the subject is a student and in article B the subject is a teacher. Another
difference is that in article A, there are 3 subjects and article B there is only one
subject. Moreover, in article A, the researchers did not mention the name of the
respondents however, in article B, the researcher did mention the name of the
respondent. Therefore, I believe that in article B, the researcher should not write the
name of the respondent and it is important for the author to protect the respondent
privacy. If the author did not protect the confidentiality of a respondent, it may
affect the respondent life. For example, if there is a data that mentioned about the
demotivating factor from the principal or higher ranking officer and therefore, it may
affect the respondent in her working area. Although, protecting the information is a
challenge, yet it is a must so that it does not affect the respondent in their life.
According to Kaiser (2009), for qualitative researchers, maintaining respondent
confidentiality while presenting rich, detailed accounts of social life presents unique
challenges. However, without mentioning the respondent name, there will always be
a deductive disclosure. Deductive disclosure, also known as internal confidentiality
(Tolich, 2004), occurs when the traits of individuals or groups make them
identifiable in research reports (Sieber, 1992). For example, if a researcher studying
teachers named at the school district where the research occurred, someone with
knowledge of the school district could likely identify individual teachers based on
traits such as age, gender, and number of years (Sieber, 1992). Given that
qualitative studies often contain rich descriptions of study participants,
confidentiality breaches via deductive disclosure are of particular concern to
qualitative researchers. As such, qualitative researchers face a conflict between
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conveying detailed, accurate accounts of the social world and protecting the
identities of the individuals who participated in their research. Besides that, there is
one of a research that privacy disclosure gives negative impacts towards the
population which is Carolyn Elliss ethnographic research in the book Fisher
Folk (Ellis, 1986). Elliss data came from a small, remote community. The research
participants identified themselves and their neighbors in the book even though their
real names had not been used. Relationships in the community were strained
because of what Ellis had written and the members of the community felt betrayed
and humiliated by Ellis (Ellis, 1995). Breaches in confidentiality such as those in
Fisher Folk also shatter the researcher-subject relationship and can damage the
publics trust in researchers (Allen, 1997). Therefore, researchers have to be careful
in describing the participants in the qualitative research study.

One of the similarities that can be found in both articles is the sample size. Since
both of them are qualitative research, the sample size is small. Ritchi, Lewis and
Elam (2003) provide reasons for this. There is a point of diminishing return to a
qualitative sampleas the study goes on, more data does not necessarily lead to
more information. This is because one occurrence of a piece of data, or a code, is all
that is necessary to ensure that it becomes part of the analysis framework.
Frequencies are rarely important in qualitative research, as one occurrence of the
data is potentially as useful as many in understanding the process behind a topic.
This is because qualitative research is concerned with meaning and not making
generalized hypothesis statements (Crouch & Mckenzie, 2006). Moreover, because
qualitative research is very labour intensive, analysing a large sample can be time
consuming and often simply impractical. Nevertheless, in article B, there is a room
of improvement regarding the sample of the study. In my opinion, the author should
at least add another 2 respondents in his study. Therefore, the author may find
different and in depth data in his study.
There are many types of sampling in research and each type of the sample has their
own function and purpose. Based on both articles, there are using the same sample
method which is purposive sampling. A purposive sample is one that is selected
based on the knowledge of a population and the purpose of the study. For example,
both of the articles are studied about the demotivating factors among students and
also teachers and English is their foreign language. Therefore, the researchers
would avoid respondents who are not students or teachers and even English as their
first language. Hence, the researcher is using a purposive sample because those
being interviewed fit a specific purpose or description.
5) Tools Collecting Data

In article A, the instruments for data collection included interview, and a diary
maintained by the subjects. In article B, the tools for data collection included faceto-face conversations, MSN chats and a diary maintained by the subject. The
difference in both articles is that in article B, the researcher used MSN chats and
maybe because it is easier for them to keep in touch and save a lot of time and also
money. However, there are drawbacks in using MSN chats since it involves
technology. If the respondent does not familiar with this tool, it can demotivate the
respondent during the research. Besides, MSN chats requires internet and the
respondent has to spend his/her own money to make sure that he/she has an
internet. Furthermore, MSN chats does not create a conducive and natural
environment for the respondent to share their experience, thoughts and feelings
especially when there is a bad connection of internet. Furthermore, MSN chats does
not provides social cues for example facial expression, body language and etc.
Nevertheless, most probably, the researcher has study the respondent and she was
comfortable in using MSN chats and she is fully equipped with the technology.
The similarity that can be found is that they used the same tool which is a diary. A
diary is a research tool that requires respondents to make regular records of their
daily activities and experiences (Mario et al. 1999;Bowling 2002).The advantages
of using diaries must be balanced against certain challenges. First and foremost is
the issue of fatigue. Fatigue has been described as a form of conditioning effect
whereby, as the diary period lengthens, participants become tired of keeping
records and may become less thorough in their reporting (Verbrugge 1980; Wheeler
and Reis 1991). Grosh and Glewwe (2000) further supported that over time,
participants become tired of keeping records and become less thorough in their
reporting. Based on both research, I believe that the period of time for the
respondents in keeping a record (diary) is not a very long.
Another resemblance that can be found is interview and face to face conversation.
Interviews resemble everyday conversations, although they are focused (to a
greater or lesser extent) on the researchers needs for data. Nonetheless, they also
differ from everyday conversation because the researchers are concerned to
conduct them in the most rigorous way as they can in order to ensure reliability
and validity. This means that both the researchers and the respondents of the
findings can be as confident as possible that the findings reflect what the research
set out to answer, rather than reflecting the bias of the researcher, or a very
atypical group.
Based on many readings, face to face conversation/interview gives a positive
impact. Face to face interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in
time and place. Due to this synchronous communication, face to face interviews can
take its advantage of social cues. Social cues, such as voice, intonation, body
language etc. of the interviewee can give the interviewer a lot of extra information
that can be added to the verbal answer of the interviewee on a question
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Opdenakker (2006). Besides that, I also believe that the proximity in the context of
the interview face-to-face promotes confidence that leads to a larger facility for the
interviewee to share emotionally intense experiences. Especially in article B,
wheres the respondents are school children where it is suitable for the researcher
to go deeper to find the data.
However, in article A, under constraining conditions (time, location and money), the
researcher is conducting his interviews over the MSN chats. To what extent can the
answers vary from one context to another? And does that affect the validity of the
findings? Conducting MSN chats interviews does not allow the researcher to draw
from the visual aspects such as facial and body expression and the ability to gauge
the interview. Being there also has added advantages such as building rapport.
These aspects could contribute to the richness of the data collected. Therefore, I
believe that face to face interview is a must and MSN chats can be a supplementary
tool as to collect the data.

6) Procedure Collecting Data

Polit and Hungler (1999:267) define data as information obtained during the course
of an investigation or study. In article A, there are two instruments were used to
obtain the data: interview and a diary maintained by the cases while article B, there
are three instruments were used to obtain the data: face to face conversation, MSN
chats and a diary.
In interview (face to face), both of the researchers did the same strategies where
they ask general questions and then detail questions regarding the issue. This
strategy is called deductive questioning from general to detail questions. I think it is
the best strategy as it helps the respondents especially school children to answer
and comprehend the question effectively. Besides, this strategy helps the
researchers to explore the issue, deeper and meaningful. For example in article A,
during the earlier interview, the questions mainly focused on general issues that
relate to demotivation during the learning process whereas later ones focused on
more specific issues in learning environments. The same in article B, during the
earlier conversations and chats, the questions mainly focused on general issues
that relate to demotivation during the teaching process whereas later ones focused
on more specific issues in a natural context.
Since article A has 3 respondents, there are two ways of interview which are
individual and group interview. Group interview is one of the features that is
different between article A and B. According to Patton and Cochran (2002), a group
interview is any discussion with a group of people. There is a purpose in using group
interview in article A. In my opinion, group interview helps especially the school
children to overcome their shyness, increase their confident and make them
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comfortable in sharing their experiences. Hence, the researcher can get more
natural, rich and meaningful data.
In article A, the researchers mentioned that they used unstructured interview and in
article B, the researcher did not mentioned what type of interview he used. The
definitions of an unstructured interview are various. Minichiello et al. (1990) defined
them as interviews in which neither the question nor the answer categories are
predetermined. Instead, they rely on social interaction between the researcher and
the informant. Punch (1998) described unstructured interviews as a way to
understand the complex behavior of people without imposing any a priori
categorization, which might limit the field of inquiry. As mentioned before, the
respondents in article A are school children and I believe that the researchers
should used semi structured interview rather than unstructured interview.
Semi-structured interviews usually including both prepared closed-ended and openended questions; but in the course of the interview, the interviewer has a certain
amount of room to adjust the sequence of the questions to be asked and to add
questions based on the context of the participants responses ( Zhang & Wildemuth,
2009). The reason why semi structured is one of choice that should be considered is
because it assists especially children to comprehend and answer the question
clearly and effectively. According to Cohen (2006), the semi-structured interview
provides a clear set of instructions for interviewers and can provide reliable and
comparable qualitative data. The inclusion of open-ended questions and training of
interviewers to follow relevant topics that may stray from the interview guide does,
however, still provide the opportunity for identifying new ways of seeing and
understanding the topic at hand (Cohen, 2006).
In article A and B, the participants wrote their diaries holistically and gave them to
the researcher. In article A, the process lasted nearly one month for the data to
saturate as to meet the purpose of the research while in article, B the process
lasted nearly one year.
7) Data Analysis
Qualitative data consist of words and observations, not numbers. As with all data,
analysis and interpretation are required to bring order and understanding. This
requires creativity, discipline and a systematic approach (Powel & Renner, 2003). In
article A, the researcher stated that the data that they gathered were stored in a
database. This strategy is called documentation. The various contacts, interviews,
written documents, and whatever it is that preserves a record of what happened all
need to be saved and listed. According to Nestor and Schutt (2015), documentation
is critical to qualitative research for several reasons: It is essential for keeping track
of what will be a rapidly growing volume of notes, tapes, and documents; it provides
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a way of developing and outlining the analytic process; and it encourages ongoing
conceptualizing and strategizing about the text.
In both articles, the data from the sources were contextualized separately in lines.
Then, they aim at establishing categories from data. In article B, the researcher did
not mention any strategies in categorizing the data. Nonetheless, in article A, the
researchers use a concept mapping in categorizing the data that they gathered.
According to Novak (1998), a concept map can be used to frame a research project,
reduce qualitative data, analyze themes and interconnections in a study, and
present findings. A concept map is a schematic device for representing a set of
concept meanings embedded in a framework of propositions (Novak and Gowin,
1984, p. 15). Concept maps are created with the broader, more inclusive concepts
at the top of the hierarchy, connecting through linking words with other concepts
than can be subsumed. Concept maps are an important strategy in qualitative
inquiry because they help the researcher focus on meaning. The maps allow the
researcher to see participants meaning, as well as, the connections that
participants discuss across concepts or bodies of knowledge. Additionally, the maps
support researchers in their attempts to make sure that qualitative data is
embedded in a particular context. Since the maps focus on subsumption,
progressive differentiation, and integrative reconciliation of concepts (Novak &
Gowin, 1984) the research context remain an integral part of the data analysis
process. The remainder of this paper will focus on examples of how concept maps
can be used in qualitative studies.

Conclusion
Since both of the articles have different purpose in their study, then the findings in
these researches are also diverse in many aspects. Fundamentally, both of the
qualitative articles researches have been critically compared and there are many
advantages and limitations in the articles. Since there are many ways in implying a
qualitative research, this paper has enlighten me to see many approaches where it
can be practiced effectively and efficiently. In summary, according to Pattorn and
Cochran (2002), qualitative research is characterized by its aims, which relate to
understanding some aspect of social life, and its methods which (in general)
generate words, rather than numbers, as data for analysis.
Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted (Albert Einstein)
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