Using Focus Groups in Research

Lia Litosseliti is Associate Professor in Linguistics at City, University of London, UK, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. Her research interests are in the areas of gender and language, discourse analysis and research methodologies.

• 1. Introducing focus groups-Preliminaries and definitions-What kind of focus group-Focus groups as a qualitative research method in the social sciences2. Benefits and limitations of focus group methodology-When to use groups and for what kinds of questions-Limitations of focus groups3. Planning and organising focus groups-Selecting the participants-The role of the moderator-Selecting a location and other praticalities of setting up focus groups-Ethical issues4. Developing and asking questions-The topic guide of questioning route-Types of questions-Kinds of questions5. Conducting focus groups-Before the focus group session-Stages of the focus group session-After the session6. Analysing focus group dataFurther readingReferences

'Intended as an introduction to Focus Groups for research students, this book is a god-send for anyone considering the pros and cons of this approach, and a valuable practical toolkit for putting focus groups together.   Its academic background makes this even more useful. It is properly referenced throughout, and sufficiently rigorous for its stated purpose - supporting MPhil and PHD students. Despite this - or perhaps because of it - it is written in clear, accessible English and introduces all the necessary concepts as it goes along.'