Unit4DescribingMethodologyObjectives—Beclearabouthtesignificaneeofthissection—Trytounderstandtheimportaneeofpaivevoiceinacademicwriting—Learntobeskilledinusingsequentialmarkersinwritingaproess—Befaniliarwithproof-readingskills—LearntodesignaquestionnaireContents—Briefintroductiontothissection—ReadingDiscussion:Whatinformationelementsareusuallyinvolvedinwritingamethodologysection?—LanguageFocus?assivevoiceandsequentialmarkers——WritingPractice:Understandingthesentencepatternsandsenceorderinwritingaprocess——WritingProjectHowtodesignaquestionnaire1.ReadingActivityInnaturalsciencesthemethodsectionisoftencalleMdaterialsandMethods.InsocialsciencesitiscommontointroduceasectioncalledTheoryandMethods.Someitisdividedintwosections:TheoreticalFrameworkandMethods.Researchmethodologyismainlyconcernedwiththeanswerstothefollowingquestions:1)Whyisaparticularresearchstudyundertaken?2)Howhasoneformulatedaresearchproblem?3)Whattypesofdatahavebeencollected?4)Whatparticularmethodshavebeenused?5)Whyisaparticulartechniqueofanalysisofdataused?1.1Pre-readingTaskThefollowingisthemethodsectionofaresearchinthefieldofappliedlinguistics.Thinkaboutthefollowingquestionsbeforereadingthetextandthenhaveadiscussionwithyourclassmates:1)Whatisthefunctionofthemethodsection?2)Whatinformationelementsdoesamethodsectioninclude?3)Whatverbtensesaremainlyusedinthetext?Whatistheproportionofactivevoiceverbstopassivevoiceverbsinthismethodsection?1.2ReadingPassageEnglishforCollegeStudentsinTaiwan:AStudyofperceptionsofEnglishNeedsinaMedicalContextTheexperimentwasinitiatedtoinvestigateperceptionsofEnglishneedsinamedicalcontextamongcollegestudentsinTaiwan.Thesubjectswere341medicalstudentsintheDepartmentofMedicine,including97freshmen,74sophomores,90juniors,and80seniors,and20facultymembersinthemedicalprogramatChungShanMedicalCollegeinTaichung,Taiwan,China.Twoquestionnairesweredevelopedforthesurvey,basedontwoearliersurveyinstrumentsbyTaylorHussein(1985)andGuo(1989).ThequestionnairesweretranslatedintoChinese,piloted,andmodifiedaccordingtothefeedbackfroml0respondents:sixmedicalstudentsandfourfacultymembersfromChungShanMedicalCollege.Thequestionnairegiventothemedicalstudentsconsistedoffivesectionsof23questions,thetopicsofwhichweretheimportanceofEnglishincollegeandprofessionalcareers,perceivedIanguageskillneedsandproblems,theactivitiesneededinafreshmanIanguagecourse,andsuggestionsfordevelopmentofcoursecontentandmaterialsaswellasdemographicinformation.Thefacultyquestionnaireconsistedoffoursectionsofl6questions,whichwereparalleltothoseintheversiongiventothestudentsexceptnodemographicinformationwasgathered(seeAppendix).Oneoftheauthors,afacultymemberatChungShanMedicalCollege,selectedonerequiredclassforeachgroupofstudents(freshmensophomores,juniorsandseniors).Copiesofthestudentquestionnaireforadministrationtothestudentswerethensenttocooperatinginstructorsteachingthesecourses;copiesofthefacultyquestionnaireweregivento20teacherswhowerewillingtocompletethesurvey.Thedatawerecomputer-analyzedusinganSPSSprogram:inthequestionnaire,percentagesweredeterminedforallquestionsexcept8and13forwhichmeanswerecomputed.Chi-square,t-tests,andANOVAanalyses(方差分析)wereconductedinordertodeterminetheperceptionsofEnglishIanguageneedsofmedicalcollegestudentsandtheirfacultyandtocomparetheperceptionsheldbythevariousgroups.(Pang,2008)1.3ReadingCompre...