INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN THE LEARNER’S DEVELOPMENT by H. Pérez

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Assignment INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN THE LEARNER’S DEVELOPMENT

Students’ names: Diana Benavides Hernán Pérez Group: 2017-06 group Date: February 28th, 2018

Designing a questionnaire for students learning needs

Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language UNINI 2018

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Index

Assignment activity guidelines

Assignment description

Introduction

Context

Questionnaire proposal

Questionnaire and Justification

Conclusion

References

Appendices

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SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT: INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN THE LEARNER’S DEVELOPMENT

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES: This assignment has to be done in pairs following these formatting guidelines: -

Length: 6 pages (cover, table of contents, and appendices are not included in the page count).

Font: Arial or Times New Roman.

Font size: 11.

Line spacing: 1.5.

Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be written in this Word document and has to follow the instructions on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide. Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the document: “Subject Evaluation”. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not allowed. It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the document “Subject Evaluation”.

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Assignment instructions: Design a questionnaire to retrieve information on a group of students and their learning needs. The assignment has to include the following sections: a) Description of the context the questionnaire is designed for (institution, characteristics of the course, number of students, etc.). b) Questionnaire proposal. c) Justification of questionnaire design: all the questions included in the questionnaire must be justified regarding the group of students it is designed for and the contents covered in “Individual factors in the learner’s development”.

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Introduction Designing a questionnaire requires careful attention to details, it is all about precious information’s sake, it enhances even more when we try to establish basis knowledge like that referring to our students needs in learning. Many are the factors that could affect positively or negatively the students’ learning process, some are related to general aspects namely those considered in SLA (roles of input, language environment or L1) however, when going deeper and individually we see ourselves compelled to ponder other factors that are also critical to understand how learners develop appreciation, respect and communicative skills for and in the language. These aforementioned factors may vary from author to author, Eddy (2012) compiles them as follows: “age, motivation and attitude, learning style/strategy and attitude/intelligence are of determinate importance. According to some sources, personality and cognitive style play an important role, too”. On the same token, we had already worked on aspects like age, language level, religious beliefs, gender and physical needs during the Forum phase which helped us get a clearer insight of needs and how they could be possibly approached. The goal of this assignment is to put all those aspects together to collect information that leads us to think and teach differently, obtaining better results. Therefore, a description of the context of application will be provided as well as a questionnaire proposal with questions validation in the best style of Individual Factors in the Learner’s Development.

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Designing a questionnaire for students learning needs 1. Context The setting is Pierre de Fermat, a school located in the north of Bogotá. The course chosen to conduct the needs analysis was 7th grade. There are eighteen students in seventh grade ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old: 9 boys and 9 girls. They belong to a medium socioeconomic status in which the school plays an important role because its project started from the analysis of the needs of the community creating a place for these children. The school is not bilingual, and it is gradually including technological resources to the language classroom. 2. Questionnaire proposal The main purpose of every questionnaire proposed was to consider seventh graders’ needs and interests in terms of language learning. To do so, we decided to design three questionnaires to be applied into several phases: one before the course, another during it and finally, another one at the end of it. When designing a questionnaire whose objective is to get to know students’ needs, one aspect to bear in mind is when to apply it. But, before determining when to apply that questionnaire, it is important to consider that “needs” is not an easy concept to define. According to Brown (2007), “depending on whom you ask, needs are: wants, desires, demands, expectations, motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements” (pp. 152). Then, considering what the term “needs” entails, and from our own experience both as teachers and students, we would say that students’ needs evolve and change as course progresses. That is why, we consider that there should be a continuous tracing of students’ needs by the means of a questionnaire that should be applied in three different stages: before, during and at the end of the course. According to Diem (2004) questionnaires are typically used to determine the current status or situation, but they are also used to measure the difference in status “before”, “during” and “after” to determine changes that may be attributed to the educational program. Therefore, one should not assume that a preliminary questionnaire will be enough to meet learners’ needs, neither should we wait until the end of the course to get results that might be changed, modified or improved along the process.

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Regarding the type of questions to ask in each stage, Brown (2007) suggests that, in the “before” stage, it’s a good idea to start with objective needs that include questions regarding demographic data on learners including language ability and interests, needs expressed in terms of proficiency levels, language skills to be addressed and what learners need to do in English. Considering Brown’s suggestions (2007) in this “before” stage, we decided to design two different questionnaires: one for teachers and one for students. We decided to include a questionnaire for teachers because we consider it is important to conduct a community mapping to get familiar with and understand the context in which the learning process takes place. Harmer (2007) claims that in order to do this, it is necessary to identify key factors that define the community to which the school belongs: “Any community has both a background and current resources that can enrich teaching and learning. Unfortunately, it is usual that the school and the community remain isolated from each other, missing the opportunity to incorporate the latter in building the knowledge, skills and values that could enhance learning”. 3. Questionnaire and Justification It is fairly important to conduct a needs analysis to determine where students are aimed to go. According to Schutz and Derwing (1981) most language planners in the past have bypassed a logically necessary first step: they have presumed to set about going somewhere without first determining whether their planned destination was reasonable / proper or not. That is why, teachers need to be aware of the purposes of conduct a needs analysis must have a purpose. Among the varying purposes one teacher may have to conduct a need analysis, Graves (2000) provides us with some insights regarding such purposes. We have summarized them as follows: 

To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential students.



To determine which students of a group are most in need of training in particular language skills.



To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need be able to do.



To collect information about a particular problem learning are experiencing. 7

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In this part we present directly the questionnaire form and provide some explanations about our selection of questions and their validation. Pierre de Fermat School Needs analysis questionnaire Questionnaire 1 (for teachers) [Based on Harmer (2007)] Please, describe your students’ context in terms of: ●

Geographical location: Information about the city, town, neighborhood in which the school is located. Description of the surroundings in detail, (are there any shops, parks, libraries, etc. around?) Places where your students spend time. ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ●

Description of the school’s facilities and resources: It is important to mention those things that are available as well as the absence of elements, materials, media, etc. ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ●

Talk about the population (students’ age, socio-economic level, number of students per class, common difficulties they may have, learning expectations, etc.) ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ●

The syllabus of the English class: (How are the contents organized throughout the bimester / year? Can you propose your own syllabus? Do you have to follow the program established by the school? How many classes are there per week? How long are the classes?) ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ● Conclusions and reflections: ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ Also, an analysis of needs questionnaire was designed to be applied in the “before” stage for the students. We designed it to know what the students’ needs, interests and purposes are about the learning of the target language. We consider it is relevant to 8

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ask questions as clear as possible in order to avoid misunderstandings. That is why, in this first questionnaire and considering this is not a bilingual school, seventh graders are able to use their mother tongue (see Appendix 1) to answer sincerely and freely.

Pierre de Fermat School Needs analysis questionnaire Questionnaire 1 (for students) Level: Seventh grade. Name: _________________________________________________ Age: ___________________________________________________ Gender: Male _______ Female _______ Please, answer the following questions: 1. In which areas can learning English be useful? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Having in mind the previous answer, what and how would you use English in those areas for? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 3. What would you use English for; e.g. learning the language, other topics or subjects? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 4. Who would you use English with currently or in the future for communication? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 5. Where would you use English currently or in the future for communication? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 6. How often do you use English for communication? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 7. If English was not compulsory at school, would you take it? Justify your answer. _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 8. Describe the activities you like, and you dislike in the English class. _____________________________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________________________ 9. Do you consider the classroom appropriate for English classes? Suggest places you would like to use with the same purpose. _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 10. Mention those aspects that are more difficult for you when learning English and those you need to focus more on. ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

As the school is in the process of including technological resources in the language classroom, we consider it is valid to design a questionnaire (see Appendix 2) on the use of technology in the language classroom aimed to identify the kind of online resources seventh graders are familiar with and the frequency they use them inside and outside the English classroom. It is a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from Zoltan (2007) who contends that such type of questionnaires is to collect data by mixing closed-ended and open-ended questions which can gather a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable.

Pierre de Fermat School Questionnaire: The use of technology in the language classroom Questionnaire 2 (for students) 1. What kind of technological device do you use? Put a cross (X). Cellphone _____ Digital camera ______ Music player _____ Internet ______ Any _____ Other _____ Which ones? ________________________ 2. Are you interested in innovation and technology? Put a cross (X). A little _____ Somehow _____ Fairly_____ A lot _____ 3. How often do you use Internet? Every day _____ 2 or 3 times a week _____ Once a month _____ Only during computer science classes _____ Never _____ 4. Which webpages do you visit frequently?

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Social Networks ______________________________________________________ Online games _____________________________________________________ Music and entertainment webpages____________________________________ Other, which ones? ________________________________________________ 6. Do you use webpages or chats with educational content? Yes _____

No _____

7. What kind of information do you usually look for on Internet? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

8. Do you have Internet connectivity at home? Yes _____ No _____ 10. What do you use Internet connection for at home? Entertainment ____ Research _____ Communication (Chat, e-mail) _____ Other, which? ______________________________________________________ 11. Have you used technology in the English class? Yes _____ No _____ If your answer is YES, specify which ones. ___________________________________________________________________ 12. Which aspects would you like technology help you in the English class? ___________________________________________________________________ 13. Do you think technology would help the English class development? Yes _____ No _____ Justify your answer ___________________________________________________________________ 14. After school, do you keep contact with your English teacher and/or partners using Internet? Yes ____ No _____ If you answered YES, which means do you use? _______________

Then, “during” and “after” the course, Brown (2007) proposes to design a questionnaire based on subjective needs where; information regarding learners’ attitudes toward the target language and culture expectations that students have of themselves and of the

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course, purposes that students perceive for studying English, specific language skills that students wish to focus on and preferences that students have about their learning. The one for teachers is a questionnaire aimed to register how the language lessons are developed. This questionnaire was adapted from the scheme proposed by Spada & Fröhlichs’ (1995) in order to observe and have a general idea of what actually happens in language classes, the content students follow, the materials and the management of the classroom. Below, you can find the template of this questionnaire for teachers.

Pierre de Fermat School Ongoing assessment Questionnaire 2 (for teachers) [Based on Language Teaching Observation Scheme by Spada and Frohlich’s (1995)] School: _________________________ Grade: _________________________ Date: _________________________ Teacher: _________________________ Lesson: _________________________ Observer: _________________________ (when there is more than one teacher participating or when there is an advisor) 1. Time: _________________________ 2. Activity type description: _________________________ 3. Participating organization: _________________________. 4.Management

the

class:

(Discipline

and

procedure):

_________________________ 5. Content: Language content: _________________________ Topic control: (who): Teacher ____ Student ___ teacher/student ___ 6. Student modality: _________________________ 7. Materials: (type and use) _________________________ 8. Annotations: _________________________

The questionnaire for students is aimed to identify which topics students like the most; the ones proposed in the questionnaire were taken from their current textbook. Then, some communicative contexts are presented so that students can identify the main 12

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purposes for studying English. Later, they are asked to visualize what they can do with the foreign language in the future. Next, taking into account some aspects of the language they will choose those that they consider need improvement. Finally, they are asked some open questions regarding resources, teamwork, classroom management, and so on.

Pierre de Fermat School Ongoing assessment Name: _______________________________ Date: _______________________________ Age: _______________________________

1. What topics do you like to study? Please tick

THREE.

I want to studyâ&#x20AC;Ś

Online Worlds

Fashion

The country and the city

The weather

Entertainment

Celebrations

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Food 2. Circle

Jobs and professions

Recycling

THREE of the following options.

I Think English is useful for:

A. Understanding telephone B. Listening to Music. C. Writing or chatting online. Conversations.

D. Playing games.

3. Please, mark X

E. Reading books.

F. Watching TV or movies.

on the picture. MORE THAN ONE option is possible.

I think studying English is important in the future for:

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A. Teamwork in the community

D. Travel or business

B. Work

C. School or university

E. Communicating with people around the world

4. Please check

F. Moving around cities

the activities YOU LIKE THE MOST in the English class:

I like…

Listening Activities

5. Please mark

Speaking Activities

Reading Activities

Writing Activities

on the aspects that are MORE DIFFICULT for you in English.

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It is difficult for me:

Reading Activities

Writing

Pronunciation

Conversations Or Dialogues

Listening

Grammar

Please, answer the following questions: 6. Which resources or material would you like to use in the English class? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 7. What would you like to change to improve your English learning process? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 8. Would you like to know about other cultures? If so, which cultures are more interesting for you and why?

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______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _

9. Describe those things you consider you have talent for. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 10. Do you like working in groups? Yes _____ No _______ Why? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 11. How do you describe your attitude towards your English learning process? a. Excellent (Enthusiastic, dynamic, optimistic, participates responsibly in activities) b. Good (Responsible and participative, carries out what asked by the teacher and subject goals) c. Fair (Carries out activities irregularly, participates occasionally) d. Apathetic (Considers subject far from his/her expectations, feels uneasy in class, not responsible with activities) Excellent ____________ Good _____________ Fair _________ Apathetic

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Conclusion Questionnaires and their results may vary depending on the number of individualities we have in our classrooms, factors are not that far from this either. Our main goal was to study these learner’s individual factors and differences to have a more efficient and integrative view of the teaching and learning process. We focused on the cognitive, affective, physical and psychological factors and even techlology inclusion as a learning strategy, with this, we hope our questions have covered, if not all of them, a good and necessary part to establish relevant data to know better our students’ needs, preferences, abilities and also weaknesses. General reasons on the choice of questions were given by questionnaire sections (teacher and students) and not question by question; theoretical support was also provided to reaffirm our point of view. In brief, we can say that posing questions, implementing them, getting results and interpreting them requires a time of maturation; we have taken the first step not without being conscious about the benefits in the present and future this action could afford for valuation of our “raw material”, our students.

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References Ball, P., Gassó, E., Palacios, I. (n.d). Individual Factors in the Learner's Development. Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana – FUNIBER. Brown, H. (2007). Teaching by Principles. San Francisco State University: Pearson Longman Burgess, T. (2001). A general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research.

Information

Systems

Services;

Guide

the

Design

Questionnaires. University of Leeds. Eddy, E. (2012). On

the involvement of cognitive processes in the acquisition of

English grammar by Slovak learners. Prešov. https://www.academia.edu Graves, K. (2000). Designing language courses: A guide for teachers. Canada: Heinle & Heinle publishers. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. (4th ed.). China: Pearson Longman Education. Schutz, N. & Derwing, B. (1981) The problem of needs assessment in English for specific purposes: some theoretical and practical considerations. In Richards, J. Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. Spada, N. & Fröhlichs, M. (1995). The communicative Orientation of Language Teaching Observation Scheme: Coding Conventions and Applications. In D. Zoltán (2007), Research Methods in applied linguistics (pp. 182). New York: Oxford University Press. Zoltán, D. (2007). Research Methods in applied linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Appendices Appendix 1 Pierre de Fermat School Needs analysis questionnaire Questionnaire 1 (for students) Level: Seventh grade. Name: _________________________________________________ Age: ___________________________________________________ Gender: Male _______ Female _______ Please, answer the following questions: 1. ¿En qué áreas consideras que el aprendizaje del inglés te puede resultar útil? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 2. ¿Teniendo en cuenta la respuesta anterior, para qué y cómo utilizarías la lengua inglesa en esas áreas? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 3. ¿Consideras que solo utilizarías la lengua inglesa para temáticas referentes a inglés o para cuales otras asignaturas o áreas sería útil? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 4. ¿Con quién utilizarías en el presente o en el futuro la lengua inglesa para entablar un proceso de comunicación? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 5. ¿Dónde utilizarías en el presente o en el futuro la lengua inglesa para entablar una comunicación? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 6. ¿Con qué frecuencia utilizas la lengua inglesa para comunicarte? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 7. ¿Si la asignatura de inglés no fuera obligatoria en el colegio sino opcional, la tomarías o no? Justifica tu respuesta. _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________

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8. Podrías describir el tipo de actividades que te gustan y aquellas que no te gustan en la clase de inglés. _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 9. ¿Consideras que el salón de clase es el adecuado para tus clases de inglés? ¿Qué otros espacios te gustarían para el aprendizaje de este? _____________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 10. Menciona las cosas que más se te dificultan en tu aprendizaje del inglés y aquellas en las que te gustaría que se diera más énfasis. ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

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Appendix 2 Pierre de Fermat School Questionnaire: The use of technology in the language classroom Questionnaire 2 (for students) 1. Marca con una X. De la siguiente lista, ¿cuáles tecnologías utilizas?: Celular _____ Cámara digital ______ Reproductor MP3 _____ Internet ______ Ninguno _____ Otros _____ Por favor indica cuáles: ________________________ 2. Marca con una X. ¿Cuál es tu grado de interés respecto a las innovaciones y avances tecnológicos? Poco _____ Algo _____ Bastante _____ Mucho _____ 3. Marca con una X. ¿Con qué frecuencia te conectas a Internet? Todos los días _____ 2 o 3 veces por semana _____ Una vez al mes _____ Únicamente en las clases de informática _____ Nunca _____ 4. Por favor indica, ¿Cuáles páginas de internet visitas con frecuencia? Redes sociales ______________________________________________________ Juegos en línea _____________________________________________________ Paginas con contenido musical _________________________________________ Otros- Por favor especifica cuales otras páginas web_________________________ 6. Visitas páginas o chats de contenido educativo? Si _____

No _____

7. Normalmente qué tipo de información buscas en internet: _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________

8. ¿Cuentas con conexión a internet en casa? Si _____ No _____ 10. ¿Qué usos le das a la conexión a internet en casa? Entretenimiento _____ Consulta _____ Comunicación (Chat, e-mail) _____ Apoyo a las tareas escolares ____ Otros. Por favor especifica cuáles otros: _______________________________ _______________________________ 11. ¿Alguna vez en la asignatura de inglés se ha utilizado algún tipo de tecnología? Si _____ No _____ Si la respuesta es SI, especifica cuál o cuáles se han utilizado: ___________________________________________________________________

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12. ¿En qué aspectos te gustaría que la tecnología te ayudara en la clase de inglés? ___________________________________________________________________ 13. ¿Crees que el uso de la tecnología te facilitaría el desarrollo en las clases de inglés? Si _____ No _____ Justifica tu respuesta ___________________________________________________________________ 14. Después del colegio, ¿sigues en contacto con tu profesora de inglés y/o compañeros a través de internet? Si ____ No _____ Si es así, ¿qué medio les sirve de contacto? _______________