Methods

Carmen Isabel Luján García, in her review of Sandra Mollin's 2006 book Euro-English: Assessing Variety Status (in which Mollin rejects the existence of such a variety):

"For this research, a questionnaire survey was used as the unique method of studying attitudes towards English across Europe. It was administered via e-mail, and the sampling was the population of academics across Europe, as university lecturers’ e-mails are easily accessible. The total number was 4230 addresses from 21 countries. The questionnaire was composed of three sections; the first being elicited to analyse the error correction by means of a set of sentences that had to be checked by the respondents offering a correct alternative in case of mistakes; the second section asked for personal data required as sociolinguistic variables: age, country of origin, mother tongue and branch of science (Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, or the Arts); the third targeted the respondents’ general beliefs and attitudes towards English by questioning their agreement or disagreement on a scale of five items that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Two rounds were necessary. After both were completed, 746 completed questionnaires were obtained."

Thoughts:

1. Part 1 is a lot like what I have been proposing for my study. Good! That means it's legit.

2. 4,230 people were contacted? Yeesh! Maybe I should set my own sights a little higher. (Like sampling professors at Project 211 schools, maybe?)

3. I need to read this book.

4. García suggests the study would be stronger if follow-up interviews were used. I'm proposing to do so!