The use of English language skills of programmers in work-related situations in Serbia

Maja Kanjevac

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Data collection method

The research uses a quantitative research method. According to Babbie (2010), Quantitative
methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical
analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating preexisting statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research focuses on
gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular
phenomenon. In this research, information was collected through a questionnaire.
2. The Questionnaire
Hirsjrvi et al. (1998:191) argue that a questionnaire is a useful tool because it makes it possible
to get information from many people. It is also considered a cost-efficient data collection
method.
The questionnaire used in this research was created in Google Forms and sent out to employed
programmers via email and social media. It is based on the questionnaire used in the research
conducted as a part of the PhD dissertation Needs of IT students in Teaching English language
in Serbia of Tijana Dabi (to appear). At the beginning of the questionnaire used in this
research, respondents were given background information about the purpose of the research.
The questionnaire included 30 questions that were divided into three sections. Types of
questions include: yes-no questions, multiple choice, open cloze, Likert response scale and
semantic differential method.
In the first section of the questionnaire, respondents were asked about their personal
background information. These are questions about their gender, age, level of education, the
current city of residence and years of working experience. Respondents were also asked how
many years they have been learning English and where did they learn the language. They were
then asked to grade their knowledge of English from 1-5 (Likert response scale).
The second section deals with questions about the use of English skills in a work-related
situation. Questions 9 and 10 are multiple choice questions where respondents could choose
more possible answers. Question 9 lists six possible activities performed at work, and the
respondents had to choose all the activities which in their opinion require the use of English
skills in their working environment. Question 10 lists four possible problems respondents may
encounter while performing the activities from question 9 that require the use of English. They

The use of English language skills of programmers in work-related situations in Serbia

Maja Kanjevac

could choose more possible answers, but they were also given the opportunity to choose the
answer none of the above mentioned.
The third section consists of 19 questions. Respondents were asked to grade the importance of
the use of English skills while performing several activities at work. The activities were grouped
into four groups, the groups being English language skills: writing, speaking, reading and
listening. At the beginning, respondents were given a short explanation about the purpose of the
section. The method used is semantic differential method, i.e. participants were asked to
choose one of the possible options: crucial, very necessary, necessary and unnecessary.
A sample of the questionnaire can be found in the Appendix.
3. The Participants
The number of participants that took part in this research is 111. They are all employed
programmers software engineers and game developers from Serbia. The number of male
participants is 95 (86%), and the number of female participants is 16 (14%). When it comes to
the criterion of age, participants belong to different age groups, the youngest being 19 years old.
The majority of participants (40%) belong to the age category of 19-25. The largest amount of
the participants (42%) hold a degree of Master of Science, and a considerate percentage (41%)
hold a degree of Bachelor of Science.
When it comes to their city of residence, 11 different answers were inserted in this field of open
question. The majority of the participants live in the city of Novi Sad. 17% live in Belgrade, and
5% in Subotica. Other answers that were submitted were Zrenjanin, Sivac, Smederevo, Ni and
aak.
Regarding the number of years of working experience, the majority of the respondents said that
they have been working for less than two years. This is probably due to the fact that most of the
respondents are around their 20s and have just started working.
42% of the respondents answered that they learned English in elementary school, high school,
at the university and on their own. Few of them stated they learned only in elementary school
(6%), only in high school (3%) or only at the university (2%). This comes as no surprise because
in most of elementary and high schools, English is a mandatory subject in Serbia. Also, many
faculties have obligatory General or Professional English courses.
More than 30% of the participants stated they have been learning English between 6 and 10
years, and 26% stated they have been learning English for more than 15 years. This also
underlines the fact that English is taught from the early age in schools in Serbia.

The use of English language skills of programmers in work-related situations in Serbia

Maja Kanjevac

Most of the participants evaluated their knowledge of English with the grade 4 (5 being the
highest, and 1 being the lowest). This shows that they are very confident about their knowledge
of the language. However, it seems that they lack practice in order to be completely satisfied
with their knowledge in use.
4. Analysis of data
Data collected from the questionnaire were grouped into dependent and independent variables.
Questions 1-3, question 5 and question 7 represent independent variables, and questions 12-30
represent dependent variables. Questions 6, 9, 10 and 11 were analyzed separately.
Dependent and independent variables were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21
software. The tests used are One-Sample T-Test (where question 1 is the independent variable
and questions 12-30 are dependent variables) and ANOVA test (questions 2-3, questions 5 and
question 7 are independent variables and questions 12-30 are dependent variables).
A hypothesis was made prior to a test, which would then be proved or disproved by the test.
A detailed analysis of the results of the research can be found in the Results section.