To gain insights into how selected university students use technology to aid their learning and practice / private teaching processes, a phenomenologist approach was taken, and data was collected with the help of a semi-structured interview guide (Creswell, 2009; Dörnyei, 2007; O’Leary, 2017). The semi-structured nature of the interview schedule allowed for enough flexibility to deviate from the set question pool whenever an interesting theme emerged during the interviews (Dörnyei, 2007). The interview protocol was developed based on the literature and was further influenced by the findings of the learner questionnaire (3.1). The final, piloted instrument featured four major topics that are detailed below with references to the corresponding sections of the Theoretical and empirical background, while the complete guide is reproduced as Appendix D.

 

Apart from the interview guide, 1) a call for participation, 2) a consent form and 3) a brief introductory paragraph were also created accompanying the data collection instrument. The call for participation specified the types of learners that were ideal to participate in the interview; that is, learners who have a positive attitude towards technology inclusion in their learning and (in-field / private) teaching practices and study in English Studies / EFL teacher education programmes of Hungary. The consent form informed participants about the main aim of the interview study and ensured them of their anonymity as well as reassured them that they can opt out of participation any time. The consent form also detailed that the interview would be recorded and that the recordings would be deleted once the interview transcripts were completed. To break the ice, a brief introductory paragraph was also prepared that was read out by the researcher to each participant, letting them know about the purposes of the study and the exploratory nature of the inquiry. The message reassured participants that they do not have to meet any standards, and that the interview was not to test their ICT knowledge, but to openly inquire into their experiences and practices of using ICT.

 

3.3.2.1 Piloting the Instrument. Compiling the final interview schedule was preceded by a pre-pilot and a pilot phase. During the pre-pilot, the draft questions were discussed with two additional researchers: one of the supervisors of the researcher, and a fellow PhD student. Throughout the process, it was ensured that the questions were neither too complex, nor too broad and meaningless, longer questions were broken down to more digestible units and a logical order of the questions were arranged (Dörnyei, 2007; Friedman, 2012). This resulted in the development of the pilot instrument, which was tried out in September 2020 with two participants from the university the researcher worked at – but their participation was voluntary and unrewarded. The two pilot interviews made it possible to test the necessary equipment needed to record the conversation, the length of the interviews as well as the additional documents (recruitment, consent form, and brief introduction) and the icebreaker questions. The pilot resulted in some minor rewording of some of the questions, but the interview guide did not have to undergo any major revision.