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DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS-1

QUESTIONNAIRES

QUESTIONNAIRES

What is a questionnaire? Advantages/Disadvantages of questionnaires Selecting Participants Steps in Designing Questionnaires Some tips and Suggestions Types of questions in questonnaires Providing Reliability Data Analysis- Summarising Findings A Sample Questionnaire

What is a questionnaire?

A questionnaire is a data collection instrument used to gather data on the characteristics and views of the participants about language teaching/learning.

Questionnaires provide three sorts of information

Factual information (Characteristics)(e.g., age, gender, level, language background etc.) Behavioral information: (Behaviours)(e.g., frequency of using a dictionary or teaching by visuals?

etc.) Attitudinal information:

(Attitudes/Opinions/beliefs/Interests)(e.g., What is your purpose in learning English?

etc.)

The advantages of questionnaires:

Practical (time)

Economical (cost)

The disadvantages of questionnaires:

Unreliable information (Partcipants’ tendency to give expected

responses)

Limited information (Not detailed)

Steps in Designing Questionnaires

1. The purpose of the questionnaire

2. Who it will be given to? (Participants)

Methods in selecting Participants

Random Sampling

Stratified Random Sampling

Sample of Convenience

Random Sampling

Everbody has an equal chance of being a participant.

1. Decide your probable population 2. Give a number to each individual in the population 3. Randomly select the numbers and decide your

participants.

Stratified Random Sampling

Preferred in heterogeneous groups in order to control some strata(salient characteristics)

such as age, gender, level etc.)

1. Decide your probable population2. Identify the salient characteristics of the population

3. Select members randomly from each strata4. Examine the proportions of each characteristics

Sample of Convenience

Using participants that you are able to get access to

Make sure that it is in some way representative of the larger population

Designing Questionnaires

1. Decide the list of topics you are planning to cover

2. Write individual queationnaire items.

Types of questions:

Open-ended:Participants write their own answers.

+ provide rich data, + easy to design

- extremely difficult to code and analyse Close-ended (Closed) Participants choose

one of several specified answers.+ uniformity of responses, + easy to answer, code, analyse- narrower data, - difficult to prepare

Open-ended Questions:

They take two forms:

Fill-in: Usually in demographic questions E.g., Age: _____

Grade: ______

Short answer: Participants might give detalied information

Describe the types of classroom activities that you find helpful.

Close-ended Questions-1:

They take four forms:

1. Alternative Answer: E.g., Do you keep a vocabulary log?

YES NO E.g., Years of studying English:

1-2 years 2-5 years 5 and more years

Close-ended Questions-2:

2. Likert-Scale:

E. g. Circle the response that best describes your interest in the following reading materials.

Very Somewhat Not Interesting Interesting Interesting

Interesting_____________________________________________Magazines 1 2 3 4Novels 1 2 3 4Comics 1 2 3 4Web Pages 1 2 3 4

Close-ended Questions-2:

The Controversy:Whether to include even(4, 6) or odd (3, 5)

numbers

The Danger in odd numbers is choosing the middle option (Neutral)

Close-ended Questions-3:

3. Checklist Format: Participants are asked to check all the answers that apply to their situation. E.g., Check all the kinds of materials you find

interesting to read:- Magazines- Novels- Comics- Web Pages:- Others:

Close-ended Questions-4: 4. Ranking Answers:

E.g., Rank which skill you feel most confident about from 1 (the best) to 4 (the worst):

_ Reading_ Writing_ Speaking_ Listening

Keep the number of ranked items limited (3 to 5) They are difficult to analyse

Tips in Wording Questions

Avoid Negative Questions• Spelling words correctly is not difficult for me. T F

Avoid Double-barreled Questions(Asking two or more things in a question)

* We should spend more time on reading and less time on speaking. AGREE DISAGREE

Tips in Wording Questions

“Avoid Leading Questions(Items that encourage participants to respond

in a certain way.)

* Do you use the effective learning strategy of keeping a vocabulary log? YES NO

Tips in Wording Questions

Avoid Embarrassing Questions(Social or cultural differences)

* Salary* The literacy level of your parents

Tips in Wording Questions

Avoid Biased Questions:(Favouring one race, gender, religion or

nationality)

* I like working in small groups with women because they are better language learners than men.

Ordering Questions

Three ways:

Topic-based Type of Question Function

Final Survey Form:Layout 1

Add a short statement describing the purpose of the research and who is conducting it.

This research is conducted to find more about your interests and needs in learning English.

Name

Final Survey Form:Layout 2

Add a statement clarifying the instructions and make sure participants realise that the results will be kept confidential.

There are no right or wrong answers. Please respond all the questions. The responses will be kept confidential and and used only for research purposes.

Final Survey Form:Layout 3

Organise the questions. Give instructions for each part of the

questions. Demographic questions are advised to put at

the end. Do not forget to say “thank you” to the

participants.

Additional SuggestionsDornyei. (2003)

The questionnaire should be no more than 4 pages.

It should take no more than 30 minutes to complete.

Decide the list of topics first- what to cover. Start with a brief introduction. Give clear instructions and exemplify where

necessary.

Additional SuggestionsDornyei. (2003)

Start with particularly involving opening questions.

Organise the questions well. Avoid questions with too lengthy responses MIf there are open-ended questions, put them at

the end. Create an attractive, well-designed

questionnaire format. Don’t forget to say thank you to the participants.

Piloting

Giving the questionnaire to a group of people who are similar to the actual participants.

Usually the 10 % (30-3)

Pilotting- Purpose

To find out problems that exist in the clarity of the instructions and to diognase any items that might be confusing of difficult.

Item Analysis

Check for common responses- leading ??? Check omissions- confusing/difficult ???

For Reliability

Try giving twice- for consistency

Prepare two forms and ask the participants to respond to the both forms.

Put control items- to check internal consistency, put several questions that are the same things with different forms

Data Analysis- Close-Ended Questions

A nominal Scale: For demographic informationMale:1 Female: 2

An Ordinal or Ranked Scale: For ranked scale

Interval Scales: For likert-type questions

Data Analysis- Forming Tables

Write the names of the participants to the left-hand column

Use the rows in the tabel to note down the participants’ responses for each question

When no response, leave a blank space

Data Analysis

Frequencies- HOW MANY ?

Percentages- To What Percent? (Page 124)

Graphics- Bar/ Pie/ Chart

For Likert-scale questions- decide the central tendency

Data Analysis- Open-ended Questions

Start by transcribing the answers

Be careful about variables such as gender, age, proficiency etc.

Try categorizing the data: Highlighting key ideas Reoccurring themes

Summarizing Findings

Do not overgeneralise your findings

Make conclusions specific to your population

E.g., The students / teachers in this study appear to ………..

Explore the Ideas, 2.3 Page: 125

Fukuda (2003) Purpose of the study: To get students’

opinions on the treatment of spoken errors in oral communicaion classes.

Participants: 1000 Japanese High-school students

Let’s evaluate the questionnaire in terms os sequencing of the items, the wording of questions, and the general layout.