RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

TABULATING DATA 463
data set reproduced is incomplete and has been
selected for illustrative purposes only. Note that
the data are not verbatim, but have already
been summarized by the researcher, i.e. what is
presented here is not the first stage of the data
analysis, as the first stage would be transcription.
The coding is as follows:
P1–P6 = Primary forms (1–6), P1 = Year One,
P2 = Year Two etc.
F1–F5 = Secondary forms (1–5), F1 = Form One
(first year of secondary school), F2 = Form Two
(second year of secondary school etc.)
The numbers preceding each letter in the lefthand
column refer to the number ascribed to the
teacher (Box 22.1). There were twelve teachers
in all, six from primary and six from secondary
schools.
English teaching and learning at school have
not really achieved their intended purposes.
Students are poor at understanding written or
spoken English, speaking, reading, listening and
writing; this limits their abilities, regardless of the
number of years of learning English; low-level
memorization model leads to superficial learning;
teaching and learning are poor; students can
enter university, even though their standard is
poor, as there are many universities to take
students; students do not require English to gain
employment.
Comment: the primary English teachers had
a wider range of views than the secondary
teachers; there was greater unanimity between the
primary teachers in comparison with the secondary
teachers; all the Form Three secondary teachers
were unanimous in their comments, and all the
Form Five secondary teachers had different views.
Box 22.2 indicates that the strengths of English
teaching were that students start to learn English
very young, and schools had autonomy over the
design of syllabuses. The weaknesses in English
teaching were that insufficient emphasis was
placed on understanding, students were too young
to learn English, and syllabuses were unrealistic
in their demands, being too rich, leading teachers
to a ‘spoon-feeding’ mentality in their teaching.
Also undue pressure was put on teachers and
Chapter 22
Box 22.1
The effectiveness of English teaching
Q6: The effectiveness of English teaching
1-3: P1 Students neither understood written or spoken English nor were able to speak or write very well.
Although students started learning English at a very young age, their standard was still very low as
they could not really understand or use English.
4-6: P6 Students could not speak, read or write English well.
Students had a low standard as they could not read, write or speak English.
They used memorization to learn and thus their English knowledge was very superficial and confined
to limited vocabulary.
7-9: F3 On the whole, students’ standard was low. English teaching and learning was not very successful.
Even with a poor knowledge of English students still managed to get jobs.
This was not an international city; English was not really that importantevenifstudentsdidnotlearn
well.
10: F5 English teaching and learning were not very effective as students were not working hard and they resorted to
memorization to learn English. However, studentsmanagedtogetintouniversities.
11: F5 Students had learned at least some basic knowledge about English.
12: F5 It was effective to some extent as some students became Englishteachersthemselves, having finished their
university education.