Nature of Data RESEARCH DESIGN

brief reflection. It is chosen because it is the most representative type of documents for this study. It is in line as what Creswell 2012: p. 223 has stated that the words are words of participants, in this case is students. Therefore, the personal stories are true representation of what they feel about how vocabulary learning using IPALL meant to them. c. Interviews Interviews were the most important text collection methods because through interviews much more texts could be obtained. Richer information about meaning of vocabulary learning could be revealed. Merriam 2002 states that “Interviews range from highly structured, where specific questions and the order in which they are asked are determined ahead of time, to unstructured, where one has topic areas to explore but neither the questions nor the order is predetermined.” The interview questions for this study were not predetermined as it used snowballing so it could start from any questions and then followed by follow up questions to stimulate participants to tell more detailed stories. Snowballing was considered important because in telling lived experience, the participants should feel free to talk about anything which was related to the topic being studied. Therefore, the interview guide functioned like what Lichtma 2013 stated which was “...a guide, it is not a predetermined list of question that you follow in a certain order. Rather, it is a rubric you can use as you plan to conduct an interview.” Further, Lichtma 2013 also mentioned that “Most guides contain several different categories or topics.” The questions in the guideline were related to the theme that I had pre-figured before so, I needed to always attach to those themes to keep the interview on the right track. Some questions related to their educational and family background, previous learning experience, and their expectation and beliefs towards English learning were also prepared because meaning could not be seen from only one part but from any possible things which shaped it. The shared themes were able to show that the participants’ lived experience was spinning around the same points which make it possible to ask the same questions prepared in the interview guideline without closing the possibility to ask follow-up questions which were not stated in the interview guideline. The questions asked to the participants functioned to elicit more in depth- data from the participants. This study was a qualitative study. Thus, the interview functions as an elicitation instrument and not as a measurement instrument. As this study aimed to reveal the meaning of participants’ lived experience, it did not limit the participants’ answer. Participants were free to tell anything related with the use of IPALL. Conducting interview also had another benefit. Ary 1990: p.418 mention that “Questions can be repeated or their meanings explained in case they were not understood by the respondents. The interviewer could also press for additional information when a response seems incomplete or not entirely relevant.” In case the participants’ answer was not clear enough or it seemed irrelevant with the questions, there was always a chance to repeat it or to ask clarification in order to get everything much clearer. Constructing Questions for in-depth Interview Constructing questions which were able to reveal students’ lived experience was not easy. It was very important to formulate questions very