Number of participants

Abstract

I am often asked by novice researchers how many participants they should include in their studies. What is the ideal number? ‘Well, it depends,’ I always answer. And then we have a conversation about what it depends on. Top of the list is probably the purpose of the study. If, for example, a study aims to describe the language learning history of a particular learner, giving full, rich contextual details of learning over time, then obviously just that one learner would be the focus of the study. The purpose of such a study would be to present an in-depth analysis of learning that readers would make sense of by transferring the findings to their own teaching and learning (and research) contexts. If, on the other hand, a study aims to show broad trends about a population of learners or teachers, appropriate design and statistics would be used to ensure such generalization. Statistics demand that the sample population in this case be sufficiently large to ensure that the conditions of the specific inferential statistics being used have been satisfied. These are questions of both epistemology and methodology. There are cases, however, where it is not always easy to decide what the actual number of participants should be. In ethnographic studies, for example, what difference does it make if five or eight or 12 participants are interviewed? Should three schools be investigated or just two? In a large-scale questionnaire-based study, how much difference would it make if 190 instead of 250 respondents completed the questionnaire? Sometimes answers to questions such as these depend more on practical matters, such as accessibility to participants (Does the researcher have permission to enter a school site? Does the desired site even exist?), their availability (Do participants have time to take part in the study? Do they wish to?), and who they are (teachers, learners, policy-makers). Choosing the most appropriate number of participants, therefore, requires finding the right balance between achieving the research goals, meeting the requirements of the relevant research methodological procedures, and managing constraints set by practical and human circumstances. The number of participants in the studies in this issue varies from 1 to 135 (see Table 1). Cross’s article reports on a case study of one Japanese learner of English as a foreign language (EFL) who was guided through metacognitive instruction to deepen her knowledge of herself as a listener in second language contexts and her understanding of the challenges of second language listening. The aim was to develop the autonomous use of podcasts outside the classroom in order ultimately to increase listening ability. The study employed a combination of written reflective journal entries and interviews with the 510447 LTR18110.1177/1362168813510447Language Teaching ResearchEditorial research-article2014