The researcher felt it was important to use a variety of means to collect information about the teacher and school to help create a more in-depth view of each school’s programme. Although all participants worked in schools which were implementing the Primary Years Programme and the language of instruction at each school was English, variables of this were examined to see if they impacted on the types of language used by a teacher or the strategies and that they employed.
The variables considered included the language learning and training experiences of each participant, participant’s language teaching and learning beliefs, the types of interaction that occurred during the observation between the teacher and students and finally the language levels of learners in the classes participants taught.