with 18 people who responded to the invitation but half of them left the project. As I see
it, the reasons for their leaving were mainly three. It was obvious that some (four of
them) were not interested enough and when they realised that the project required them
to be at the SAC everyday for more than two months they left the project. They did this
at a very early stage of it, mainly before the ISs started. The problem of others (another
four) was actually the time. The attendance of two of them was impeded by health and
administrative problems that were not expected. The other two were adults with family
and job responsibilities that hindered their participation on the project. All of them were
very apologetic and sorry about this. However their few participations were recorded and
the reader may notice that some of the data come from these people. There was a unique
case where the expectations of the participant did not match with the objectives of the
project. From the very beginning this person stated that he wanted personal tuition on
linguistic aspects. It was obvious that my explanation of the project was not convincing
enough for he left after the first two meetings.
Nevertheless, there were nine people whose participation was constant
throughout the project. These are the nine people included Fig. 5.2. On the one hand, as
the reader can see, five of the participants (Participant E, F, Ga, Gl and K) share the same
interest and field for they study the BA. in TEFL. This also means that, they have certain
knowledge of English, are interested in teaching languages and have some basic
knowledge of SLA research. However, there are certain aspects that make them quite
different. Although all of them have compulsory English courses as part of the BA.
curriculum, their English level is not the same. According to their English records, some
can be considered advanced learners while others have been struggling and get grades
below average or failing in their language courses. Their use of the SAC also varies.
Some of them are regular users of the SAC whereas others hardly go to study there (with
a (*) in Fig. 5.2). There is still another difference among these students. Three of them
(with a (**) in Fig. 5.2) had already participated on a previous project I carried out
during Summer of 1996. I found that this is important because they had certain
expectations about this project. I also found that they made many connections between
the two projects. I will comment on this in the next chapter.
On the other hand, participants T, A, J, and S come from different academic
backgrounds and their only interest in a foreign language is to Ieam it. Their level of
English was fairly low. All of them had taken the basic compulsory English courses at