collaborating with students to understand their motivation

Collaborating with students to understand their motivations

Glen A. HillObihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Etsuko ShimoKinki University, Faculty of Applied Sociology

Matthew AppleRitsumeikan University, Dept of Communication

Joseph FaloutNihon University, College of Science and Technology

Overview

•Introducing CPL (Critical Participatory Looping)

•Stage 1 (Large quantitative study)

•Stage 2 (CPL)

•Stage 3 (Analysis and augmentation)

•Summary and conclusion

Critical Participatory Looping (CPL)

• (Falout & Murphey, 2010; Murphey & Falout, 2010)

Students reflect on data that is “looped,” or returned to them for further feedback

Stage One - 2012 Spring

•Kaken-funded research into the L2 Motivational Selves of science and engineering students (SES)

•2400+ students from 19 institutions across Japan

•Nine separate psychological constructs

Stage One - Psychological constructs

Abbrev Construct name

SA Speaking anxiety

SC Perceived speaking competence

CA Classroom atmosphere

IC Interest in English culture

IF International friendship

SV Perceived social values

IS Ideal L2 Self

PS Probable L2 Self

OS Ought-to L2 Self

Stage One - Structural equation model

• Hypothesized model


• Final model (N = 2412)

(Apple, Falout, & Hill, in progress)


• Final model (N = 2412)

Stage Two – Critical Participatory Looping (CPL)

•Descriptive data and the model from the N = 2412 study were “looped” back to a smaller sample

•608 students at three institutions (technical college, undergrad, grad)

•Students asked to evaluate the data results from fellow science and engineering classmates

3 demographic items

4 Likert-scale questions

3 open response questions

Stage Three - Analysis of CPL Likert-scale answers

• Technical college students reported a below average perception of positive classroom atmosphere

• There was a steady progression of imagining future English usage throughout the three levels of education

Stage Three - Analysis of CPL Likert-scale answers

• While above average, there were virtually no differences between technical college students’ and undergraduate students’ perceptions of the need for English

• Graduate students had a stronger sense of the need for English following their formal studies

Stage Three - Analysis of CPL open responses

Q5. I can picture myself speaking English well in the future.

Q8. I can picture myself being required to use English in the future

•Text mining software (SPSS Text Analytics) was utilized to uncover patterns among Q5 and Q8 responses

•Most frequently occurring responses were coded

Q10. What do you think of this study and study results?


Q5. I can picture myself speaking English well in the future.

Q8. I can picture myself being required to use English in the future

•Text mining software (SPSS Text Analytics) was utilized to uncover patterns among Q5 and Q8 responses

•Most frequently occurring responses were coded

Q10. What do you think of this study and study results?Q10. What do you think of this study and study results?


Q5. I can picture myself speaking English well in the future. (1-6 Likert Scale response and reason)

Q8. I can picture myself being required to use English in the future. (1-6 Likert Scale response and reason)

Q10 (Comments about research): Comparison between three groupsLow

Visionaries(71)

Mixed Visionaries

(129)

High Visionaries

(54)

Res to Q5 1 or 2 1 or 2 5 or 6



Q5. I can picture myself speaking English well in the future. (1-6 Likert Scale response and reason)

Q8. I can picture myself being required to use English in the future. (1-6 Likert Scale response and reason)

Q10 (Comments about research): Comparison between three groupsLow

Visionaries(71)

Mixed Visionaries

(129)

High Visionaries

(54)



LV MV HV


LV MV HV

• LVs tended to give fewer or no comments (48%)

• Some found the research “meaningless” (11%)

• Only 18% of the comments indicated looking at the results (CPL) helped LVs reflect over their English learning.


LV MV HV

• Many people around me are poor at English and I hope that educational methods should be improved by finding out the background reasons, so I think this [CPL] is a wonderful study.” (Category A)

• I thought the research results show Japanese people's characteristics well. (Category B)

• This gave me a chance to think about my feelings towards English. (Category B)


LV MV HV

• I think [the research results indicate] there are not so many [students] who want to get an international job or get a job that requires foreign languages including English in the future. (Category B)

• I didn‘t think this is necessary enough to do by cutting the class time short.” (Category D)


LV MV HV

• MVs often did not respond in detail, but were more similar to responses from HV than LV.

• MVs wrote more comments showing their reflection about their English learning (37%).


LV MV HV

• I think it‘s good because you can understand the students’ perceptions about learning English. (Category A)

• I kind of thought that it would be nice if you could provide even better English education based on this research. (Category A)


LV MV HV

• The items regarding speaking competence show our weak points, so I think it is necessary to have more opportunities than now to speak with native speakers and to use English if we want to improve our speaking competence. (Category B)

• I‘m very much interested in the fact that a study is done about English. I certainly feel resistance to speaking English, and I care if my grammar is correct (because I don’t have confidence). If we can speak English, our future self will be different, and it is cool if we can speak English. (Category B)


LV MV HV

• HVs had a relatively high percentage (37%) of comments showing their reflection with detailed comments.

• HVs also had the highest percentage (13%) of responses about research purposes and designs

• While lower than other groups, many students (31%) still did not respond.


LV MV HV

•I think this [CPL study] is meaningful in terms of reflecting over how English education should be done. (Category A)

•Why (SV) ave was high? I think, in Japan we need to speak English a little in daily life. So, if we can talk more English with many people, Japanese will study more harder and more popular.” (original in English) (Category B)


LV MV HV

•I think many Japanese people cannot speak English because we are not in situations or contexts where we have to speak English. Such opportunities should be implemented in education. (Category B)

•I can agree with the research results because I think that it is true that having an interest and enjoying it is the first step to be able to speak English. (Category B)

Stage Three: Augmentation

•Interview stages of kaken-funded study now in progress (2013 - 2014+)

•Analysis of CPL gives additional perspective

•Specific variables mentioned in CPL can be examined in interviews

Stage Three: Augmentation - Student suggestions

•Analysis of CPL gives additional perspective

• “In terms of English learning, I feel that there is a big difference between the way motivated students engage themselves in improving their English abilities and in doing class activities and the way non motivated students do. I also think classes at school do not offer enough time for us to practice English expressions such as writing in English and conversations.” (HV)

• “We should have more opportunities to speak English, increase chances to study abroad. It is necessary to strengthen our ideal L2 selves. It is because English is used as a second language in other countries.” (HV)

• “From the results, it looks like many people will lose confidence about this unfamiliar English language. I thought that it was the right answer to keep on learning it over a long period of time because we cannot get the outcome so soon.” (HV)

Stage Three: Augmentation - Follow-up questions

•Specific variables mentioned in CPL can be examined in follow-up interviews with select study participants

• “[Languages] besides English is necessary. My own study field is more important than English.” (LV)

• “I know English will be useful for the society, but many people cannot have a picture of themselves speaking English in the future, and I felt that that‘s the case for me, too.” (MV)

• “I think speaking anxiety occurs because the person thinks English is a kind of code rather than a language. The person is afraid that the slightest mistake will make his /her utterance a series of sounds with no meaning and so his/her utterance has to be perfect.” (LV)

Stage Three: Augmentation - Follow-up questions

•(cont.)

• “ I think that, because they haven‘t been used to doing English activities since childhood, many students have speaking anxiety. It's often difficult to start studying English in a new field, so I'd like to get use to English in areas familiar to me.” (MV)

• “There seems to be a lot of students who are fully aware of the importance of English but responded that they don't have speaking competence. I am one of them.” (MV)

Summary and conclusion

Coritical Participatory Looping (CPL) provides:

•additional opportunities to reflect on English learning processes and motivations; but seems to have worked for certain groups of students better than others

•triangulation of quantitative (e.g., Likert-scale) and qualitative (e.g., interview) data

•a deeper understanding and interpretation of the Model presented in the previous study

Thank you for your attention

Glen A. HillObihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Etsuko ShimoKinki University, Faculty of Applied Sociology

Matthew AppleRitsumeikan University, Dept of Communication

Joseph FaloutNihon University, College of Science and Technology

Collaborating with students to understand their motivations

collaborating with students to understand their motivation

Education

cpl stage

results cpl

q8 responses

english graduate students

future english usage

english culture

english learning

study results