Semi-structured observation
During the research project, observation was conducted in ten BA (QTS)
lectures, four PGCE (Secondary) lectures, two BA Childhood Studies lectures
and three FdA lectures. Purposive sampling was used to select the lectures
for observation. They were chosen as examples of a variety of courses and
subjects taught in a bilingual setting. A total of 10 lecturers and 184 students
were observed. The observations were carried out by the project’s principal
researcher, with the exception of one lecture which was co-observed by a
second researcher. Two lectures were filmed and, in all other cases, the lec-
ture was recorded using a written observation schedule. Investigating various
aspects of bilingual lectures as detailed below, the observation was semi-
structured in nature (Cohen et al., 2000).
The observation schedule recorded the students’ language profile, that is,
the proportion of students who had opted to follow their course through the
182 Part 4: Bilingual Education
Table 8.1 Response to student questionnaires
Academic
year
Courses Number of
questionnaires
returned
Response
rate
Language of
response
2006/7 BA (QTS);
BA Childhood Studies;
BSc;
FdA
177 71% 38% Welsh-medium;
62% English-medium
2007/8 BA (QTS) 177 93% 32% Welsh-medium;
68% English-medium
2008/9 PGCE (Secondary);
BA (QTS);
BA Childhood Studies;
BSc;
FdA
189 32% 24% Welsh-medium;
76% English-medium
Table 8.2 Student interview sample
Course Number of
students
Percentage of
students in year
groups
Number of
Welsh-medium
students
Number of
English-medium
students
BA (QTS)
(Years 1 & 2)
40 21% 25 15
PGCE (Secondary) 21 12% 9 12
BA Childhood
Studies (Year 3)
28% 0 2