Hi Andi,

It's not really advisable to attempt a quantitative study with such low participant numbers. You could attempt mixed methods - but it would probably need to be qualitative mixed methods. Many assume that you have to attempt both quantitative and qualitative for mixed methods. The attached book chapter may assist. 

Hi Dean,

Thank you for your answer. It's really helpful. So, if use both of them, Can I use only two instruments such as Questionnaire and Interview? Or Do I have to use 3 instruments? :)

Any quantitative analysis necessarily implies a qualitative analysis by way of hypothesis and a theoretical model.

Is it possible doing quantitative or mixed method research?

Only 20 students can posed as a constrain to embark on quantitative research.  However, whether to embark on quantitative or mixed method research is depending on your research problem, research objective(s) & research question(s).  E.g. if your research objective is to study some of the motivation & needs factors that are influencing immigrant workers to learn English & then later deep dive into how & why those significant factors are influencing the immigrant workers in learning English.  Then you might want to explore mixed method research i.e. adopting specifically the Sequential Explanatory Study (conducting the research from Quantitative then to Qualitative Research).  For an example of Sequential Explanatory Study, you can refer to this article:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259478672_Relationship_between_Team_Satisfaction_and_Project_Performance_as_Perceived_by_Project_Managers_in_Malaysia_-_A_Mixed_Methods_Study

What kind of instruments that I can use?

For the first part quantitative research portion, you can use survey questionnaire.  For the second part qualitative research portion, you can use interview etc.

Article Relationship between Team Satisfaction and Project Performan...

I agree with Dean that it is not realistic to do quantitative analyses on only 20 participants.

I'm also unsure about why your advisor wants you to use three methods (which you also mentioned in another posting). Is it possible that your advisor has the misunderstanding that you need three methods to do "triangulation"?

Since you have a small group of participants you should consider qualitative methodologies and methods. You can try a nice case study. A nice approach can be found in "The art of case study research" by Robert Stake.

Hi Andi - I agree with David in this thread. There is no 'law' that you have to use three methods or instruments. You should use what you realistically need to use to achieve your research aims and objectives. 

I agree with most of the responses provided but I would recommend the mixed model. The concern would be the reliability and comparability of the results. Focus on getting research tools that compliment and that measure the concepts you are interested in exploring. Let you research questions and hypotheses guide the methodologies that you use. 

It all depends on the research question. It isn't clear what this is so I think you need to examine that and the rest will follow. 

Is there a conflict of interest since you are both teacher and researcher of the same group of people? how are you going to defend this as a robust source of impartial information?

Qualitative methods are determined by the research question. Devising a questionnaire is complex and may not answer the question you seek; perhaps you could try another method(s). There is no need to have 2  measures for triangulation and for such a small sample size the point of saturation is probably more important. The outliers are the most interesting and shouldn't be ignored either since this isn't a quantitative study. 

Hi all, Thank you very much for your suggestions. I plan to my research questions are 1.      What types of motivation in learning English do the Indonesian immigrant workers have in Indonesia Open University in Taiwan?

2.      What are the factors that influence motivation of Indonesian immigrant workers learn English in Indonesia Open University in Taiwan?

3.      What are the Indonesian immigrant workers’ needs for English curriculum in learning English in Indonesia Open University in Taiwan?

4.      Is there a significant relationship between Indonesian immigrant workers’ motivation and their needs in learning English for English curriculum?

The best method for your research is mixed method.

Hi

From the way you state your questions, i think you need to do a quantitative survey using a questionnaire.  Also the population is too small I suggest you undertake a census otherwise your results will be based on very small data set.  

 You could attempt mixed methods. Many assume that you have to attempt both quantitative and qualitative for mixed methods.

Before you establish the type of methods (quantitative or qualitative) I think you should see if the group is homogeneous in terms of structure ( I mean gender, age, types of jobs of the students etc.)

On the other hand, there are other colleagues who have students who learn English, students who could be included in the research?

Mixed methods research is a research design with philosophical assumptions as well  as  methods  of  inquiry. mixed methods usually refers to contexts in which a researcher collects, analyzes and integrates both qualitative and quantitative data within a single study or longitudinal program of inquiry. The mixed methods researcher, pragmatism opens the door to multiple methods, different worldviews and different assumptions as well as to different forms of data collection and analysis in the mixed methods study like as Sequential, Concurrent, Transformative, Quantitative Experimental designs.