Overseas Fieldwork Report: Beatriz Gonzalez-Fernandez

Bea visited China between 25th October and 5th December 2016

Research trip report for overseas fieldwork visit to China: Beatriz González-Fernández, School of English, University of Nottingham

Between 25^th October and 5^th December 2016, I visited a number of cities and universities in China to recruit and collect data for my final PhD project. This project involves the development of a theory of vocabulary acquisition in second languages, for which I require data from participants of different linguistic backgrounds. My first study involved collecting and analysing data from 144 Spanish speakers on their vocabulary knowledge in English. For the continuation of the previous study, I chose to examine Chinese speakers, because it is a language with particular characteristics that differ largely from any European language. Therefore, I travelled to China to collect data from 150 Chinese speakers in order to analyse the knowledge they have of different vocabulary components in English, and to compare it with the results of my study with Spanish speakers.

The data collection took part in three different cities: Ningbo, Shanghai and Hangzhou, and four different universities: the University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus (UNNC), the Ningbo Institute of Technology Zhejiang University (NIT), Ningbo University (NU), and Zhejiang Industrial and Commercial University (ZICU).  In order to contact and have access to as many potential participants as possible, I established contact with researchers in those universities, and from different schools (e.g., English Schools, Business Schools, Education Schools, CELE, Language Centres, or Engineering Schools). In addition, I contacted University Societies, local language academies and local organizations interested in language exchange. Posters advertising my research were also placed in the students’ living areas, university canteens and online social media platforms.

The first and main location of my research visit was the University of Nottingham Ningbo. This is the first foreign university in China, where the language of instruction is English. Therefore, in this university I had access to Chinese students who are exposed to the English language on a daily basis in their lessons and homework. Thus, these participants were expected to have a good English proficiency. Most of my time was spent at this campus, from where I contacted potential participants and collected most of the data. During the first week upon my arrival (from 26^th-30^th October) I employed all my time contacting and meeting researchers and potential participants in Ningbo to inform them about my project and invite them to volunteer. This recruitment was successful, and I arranged multiple sessions with participants at the UNNC.

After this week, my next stop was Hangzhou, where I spent two days (30^th and 31^st of October) with Dr Zhang Luxi and collecting data from students at ZICU. This researcher is interested in the field of Second Language Acquisition and English Language Teaching. During previous conversations with her, she had demonstrated interest in my study, and thus helped me arrange two sessions for data collection at the university where she works (ZICU). This is one of the best universities in the Zhejiang province, but the main language of instruction was Mandarin. Therefore, the students were expected to have a lower proficiency in English that those in UNNC. I employed these two days collecting data from some students of English majors, who were interested in my project and the report I could give them of their results.

I then made up my way back to Ningbo, where I continued contacting and meeting researchers and potential participants not only in UNNC, but also in NIT, NU and some local academies and language organizations. Due to the large number of participants required (at least 150) and the duration of the test (3 hours), the participant recruitment process was slow but constant during all the period of my visit. From the 1^st November until the 24^th November I organised many sessions (2 or 3 a day, including weekends) in order to collect people. These sessions took place mainly at UNNC, but I also visited and arranged three sessions for data collection at NIT and two in NU. The times for the sessions as well as the number of people per session varied according to participants’ availability. In some sessions I was alone with the participant, while in other sessions there could be up to 15 people at the same time.

A short visit was also organised to Shanghai, from the 25^th to the 27^th November.  I travelled there in order to collect data from participants that had been informed of my study by contacts studying in Ningbo. These participants were professionals, and thus did not study at any university at the time the study was conducted. Thus, the sessions took place in a public library, and the dates and times were arranged with these participants directly.

Finally, I went back to Ningbo on the 27^th November, where I spent the last week of my stay (27^th November to 5^th December). This week was dedicated to collect data from the last group of participants, as well as to organise different activities to say goodbye to the participants and researchers and thank them for their collaboration.

Most of the participants (around 136) were recruited in the city of Ningbo, among students from the UNNC, the NIT and NU, and about 33 participants in Hangzhou ZICU and Shanghai. All of them took part in the study voluntary, and received a Certificate of Participation, a gift, and a report of their results in the test as a means to help them understand better their vocabulary knowledge in English. They were informed of the voluntary and confidential nature of the study before they signed up to participate, as well as what they could gain from their participation. Because of the length of the study (around 3 hours), participants were given the opportunity to set with me the date and time that was more suitable for them to do the test. Therefore, I had to be available mornings, afternoons and evenings all days of the week, including weekends.

Regarding the productivity of the visit, I believe that this research trip has been very positive and successful. First of all, I managed to collect data from all the participants I required (169 in total) in the time fixed for the visit. Although the flow of data collection was slow, by always meeting new people and offering help with their English I met and exceeded the original target of 150 participants. Second, this visit was a great opportunity for networking. During this trip I met different scholars and PhD students in my field of studies (for example, Simon Harrison, Dr Margaret Dowens, Dr Yu-Hua Chen or Dr Zhang Luxi) with whom I discussed my project and future collaboration opportunities. Third, I found the time to attend some related presentations and talks in Linguistics (e.g., “Multimodality and the use of metaphors in advertising” by Dr Paula Perez-Sobrino, and “The use of EEG in psycholinguistics”, by Mr Da Wei). Finally, I had the opportunity to give an invited talk for members of staff and postgraduate students in the School of English, Language Centre and CELE at UNNC. This was a great occasion for me to present my research and the findings from my previous project, and it lead to very interesting feedback and discussion about my study. I believe this chance to disseminate my research and results in Asia will increase the impact of my future presentations and publications.

In sum, this fieldwork trip to China has been very fruitful professionally and personally, in the sense that not only I met the data collection targets and expectations, but also I found opportunities for networking as well as for disseminating my research. This visit has been a great experience that allowed me to collect the data I needed in order to complement and further advance the previous stages in my doctoral research. As a result, the project based on this data will enable me to complete my thesis and move a step forward towards the development of a more general theory of second language vocabulary acquisition. 

Find out more about Bea's work here.