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Academic English & Research vocabulary · Research Design

Focus group

Meaning in academic english & research, with examples

nounCommon term

In academic english & research, focus group means: A guided group discussion in which a small number of participants talk about a topic so that researchers can study their shared and differing views.

In Turkish: odak grup, odak grup görüşmesi

How it is used

Typically six to ten people with a moderator, lasting one to two hours. Useful for exploring opinions and group norms and for developing questionnaire items. Researchers conduct, run or moderate focus groups, and must manage participants who dominate the discussion.

Example sentences

  1. We held four focus groups with parents of children with special needs.

  2. The focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Common collocations

  • conduct a focus group
  • focus group discussion
  • focus group participants
  • moderate a focus group
  • semi-structured interviewAn interview that follows a prepared list of questions but lets the researcher change the order and ask follow-up questions.
  • qualitativeDescribing research that studies experiences, meanings and behavior through words, images or observation rather than numbers, often with smaller groups of people.
  • transcribeTo write down exactly what was said in a recorded interview, focus group or conversation so that it can be analyzed.
  • participantA person who takes part in a study, for example by answering a questionnaire, being interviewed or completing an experiment.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Research Design

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