Masaryk university, brno faculty of education

4.3 Research Sample - Students 
The thesis is focused on teaching speaking in ESP classes. Every study progamme taught 
at the abovementioned school can be considered to be an ESP course. For the purpose of the 
thesis, the author has decided to choose the Hotel Keeping and Tourism study programme. It is 
a four-year course, in every year, there is only one class. 
Students from the second year of the Hotel Keeping and Tourism study programme were 
selected. The class is further divided into two groups – HT2A and HT2B. The reason for this 
choice was the fact that the author teaches in both groups, he is familiar with the students and 
has a working relationship with them (one of the necessary factors for creating a working 
environment). 
Learners from both classes have been studying English at least for 8 years. HT2A 
consists of 15 students, 3 boys and 12 girls, HT2B consists only from 11 girls, all aged from 15 
to 17.
All the speaking activites have been applied equally in both groups and are further 
discussed in activity description and questionnaire survey results.

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4.4 Research Methods and Procedure 
For the purpose of the thesis, a questionnaire survey and observation have been used to 
achieve research aims and provide answers to research questions. 
The questionnaire survey was structured into three parts, each part was aimed at 
different aspects of the lesson. This method was chosen, because it allows the researcher to 
collect information from a large number of respondents in relatively short time. Nevertheless, 
it must be acknowledged, that there are also disadvantages connected to this research method, 
the biggest of them being the fact that respondents usually tend to be very brief, which may 
lead to limited number of information gathered by this method (especially in the open question 
parts). When this method is combined with observation, the author believes that enough 
information will be gained to provide clear answer to research questions and on fulfilment of 
research aims. 
After all the activities have been piloted in the ESP classes, each group was given a 
three-part questionnaire to fill in (see appendix 2). It is necessary to mention that not all of the 
students were present during the lesson, from HT2A it was completed only by 13 students and 
from HT2B, everybody was present. The questionnaire was anonymous to allow student 
express their opinions freely without fear of being punished for their answers. The time for 
completing the questionnaire was estimated on 45 minutes, all of the students managed to 
complete it on time. The acquired data was used as a basis for evaluation of fulfilment of 
research aims and questions (See chapter 7). 
The second method used for collecting information was observation. Since most of the 
activities did not require active participation of the teacher, more time could be spend on 
observing students and their behaviour. Advantage of this method can be seen in its directness, 
it is done at the place where the research is being carried out and directly by the observer. 
Furthermore, it allows the researcher to get a big number of information in relatively short time. 
A possible drawback might be seen in the fact that the centre of this method is the observer who 
needs to proces all the information which can be misinterpreted or even unconsciously adapted 
to what the researcher wants to see.
For each observation the method of field notes had been used. It involves transcription 
of the data collected in the lesson and serves for future interpretation and evaluation of the 
lessons. The observer receives a lot of information, so it is vital that he or she clarifies in 

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advance which information is vital for his experiment and needs to be transcribed, elaborated 
and evaluated. 
For the purpose of the thesis, the following areas have been chosen to focus on during 
the lessons:
▪