Research Methods in Linguistics: How to conduct a Survey

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2006 im Fachbereich Didaktik - Englisch - Grammatik, Stil, Arbeitstechnik, Note: 3,0, Universität zu Köln (Philosophische Fakultät), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The purpose of this term paper is to show what different stages it takes to conduct a survey. After defining the expression 'survey' the uses and goals of survey are described. It will be explained how a questionnaire is constructed, in what form it has to be written down and which mistakes are often made and have to be avoided. In this context I will state different opinions of researchers and explain the dispute between two ways of conducting surveys, known as the qualitative and the quantitative researchers and will ponder which of these two contents should be preferred. Afterwards it will be defined how the data is collected before I explain how to analyse the collected data and expose the various different methods to make statements about the data. Here the most common computations are defined and exemplified with the help of some graphics. Afterwards these computations are all exemplified with the help of a sample-survey, which was prepared during the course at university. At last the most important ideas which I wanted to demonstrate through this term paper will be repeated very shortly as part of the conclusion.