participate in activities or English competitions to obtain the corresponding credits.
more participants may lead to shallow analysis and may hinder the access of rich and free-ranging discourse (Josselson, 2010). J. Kim (2016) also contends that the sample size tends to be smaller in narrative inquiry if the focus is to collect the life stories of the interviewees as the interviewing may be lengthy. Beitin (2012) suggests six to twelve participants is a proper sample size because there may be thematic redundance.
Bearing this in mind, my study selects six participants to explore their LAL.
In this narrative study, purposeful sampling is utilized. Purposeful sampling is defined as “researchers intentionally select individuals and sites to learn or understand the central phenomenon” (Creswell, 2012, p. 206). The rationale for using this selection method is that it helps to select participants who could detail their assessment experiences. Maximal variation sampling, also known as heterogeneous sampling, is a purposeful sampling method. The participants are sampled on different dimensions of characteristics or traits (Creswell, 2012). The assumption underlying this sampling method is to view from all potential angles, thereby involving participants selected across a wide spectrum to reach a greater understanding (Etikan et al., 2016). Rather than attempting to be generalizable to other contexts, the maximal variation sampling method intends to elicit multiple perspectives, therefore participants are purposefully as different from each other as possible for a diversity of views (Creswell, 2007, 2012).
This sampling method is appropriate for the study because it enables to draw diverse perspectives and experiences from participants around the issue of LAL.
To be specific, one participant in pilot study and six participants in the formal study were selected. They were pre-service EFL teachers at the final year from X Normal University in the western region of China. The name list including some background information was suggested by the counselors who were in charge of the senior students.
Among the 220 pre-service EFL teachers who would graduate in 2022, the participant, Gina, in pilot study, was suggested by the counselor according to the researcher’s criterion: willing and interested to participate, cooperative and communicative.
In the formal study, among the potential participants, the researcher purposefully chose six participants with varying background information, such as gender, class number, practicum field school, and English proficiency. English majors were more female than male with the ratio of approximately 6:1 in X Normal University. The small proportion of male pre-service EFL teachers means it is comparatively difficult to get access to the same number of male participants with the female ones. After the researcher’s explanation and invitation for several potential participants to join in the research, a few of them declined politely for various reasons: busy with finding a job, preparing for post-graduate entrance examination, or not interested in the research at all. At last, only one male responded to the invitation with explicit willingness to participate. So due to these practical limitations, the sample included only one voluntary male participant and the rest were female.
Different class number meant that the same course might be taught by different
teachers to elicit more information about the pre-service teacher education programme.
Diverse practicum schools meant various teaching practice experience, so it was a factor to be considered. The last one is English proficiency. Participants with different proficiency level might provide more perspectives and hold different attitude towards assessment. English proficiency was judged both by their academic performance in each term in the university and the score attained in a national Test for English Majors (TEM-band 4) in 2021.
The researcher contacted the potential participants individually through text-messages for inviting to take part in the research voluntarily. Then the researcher organized a meeting at their convenient time to introduce the details of the research and get the consent form signed (See Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1 Participant selection procedures
After identifying the six participants, the profiles of each participant with pseudonyms from A-E according to English proficiency are listed in Table 3.2. All participants (five female and one male) were around 21 years old, among whom two came from village, two from county, one from town, and one from city. Four of them passed TEM-4 with two obtaining more than 70 in the examination. All of them had teaching experience;
some tutored and some taught during the pre-service teacher education period. All participants attended practicum except Daisy. Due to some personal factors, Daisy missed the opportunity to complete the practicum. But she was a qualified potential participant according to the maximal variation principle in purposive sampling and she was strongly recommended by the coordinator for her cooperative attitude and talkative personality. Therefore, she was still selected for inclusion of various perspectives with different experiences.
Table 3.2
Profiles of the Participants No. Pseudo
-nym
Gender Age Place of birth
Scores in TEM4
Teaching experience
Type of practicum school P1 Amy Female 22 Village 74 Tutor City school P2 Betty Female 20 County 72 Tutor City school P3 Carol Female 20 Village 63 Teacher County school P4 Daisy Female 21 Town 60 Tutor No participation
P5 Edwin Male 22 City 52 Assistant,
Tutor
City school
P6 Flora Female 22 County 50 Teacher City school