Learning English in and beyond the classroom – action research New roles emerge for teachers as learners become more actively involved in managing aspects of their own learning.. (Richards, 2015, p. 20) Introduction In order for teachers to learn more about their classes and what motivates students in learning English, there are many possibilities. Reading articles or books could enlarge their horizons, but these would not take into consideration the particularities of all the students. Talking to your students and trying to obtain information on specific aspects would be more personal, but it is not an organized approach, therefore the results may not be accurate. Action research, on the other hand, can be personalized to one’s students and contextualized, and the results can be very relevant for the group at issue. “AR involves teachers taking ‘action’, often in the form of an intervention to systematically investigate, through ‘research’, a classroom issue they feel is worth exploring in order to better understand or enhance an aspect of teaching or learning” (Burns, 2013, as cited by Edwards and Burns, 2016, p. 6). Taking into account that 9eme classes in CO only have two English classes a week, which, in my opinion, is not enough for an adequate acquisition of the language, I decided to study what activities students prefer and consider more efficient for making progress in English in and outside the classroom. The purpose of this survey is instructional, the results being used for planning my classes, not only with the participants’ group, but also with other groups of students, if applicable: “A good research question benefits your students by informing your teaching and the curriculum, by providing new insights about students and their learning, by broadening and deepening your perspectives, or by improving practice” (Pine, 2008, p. 239) and this is the main purpose of the present research. 1. Methodology a) Participants (P) The questionnaire was completed by 22 students (N=22) in a 9th grade R3 group, 9 boys and 13 girls, in a middle school (cycle d’orientation) in Geneva. They have been learning English in school for two years. In the initial stage of the project, the survey was meant to be applied to two 9e classes, namely 9e R2 and 9e R3. As mentioned by D, “A further important consideration is whether there are any distinct subgroups within the sample which may be expected to behave differently from the others” (Dörnyei, 2012, p. 82). And since I noticed a lack of interest for school in 1 general of the R2 group and the manner in which they sometimes greeted with derision the classes and the activities, I decided not to conduct the questionnaire with this group, especially since it was anonymous and I could not have had much control on students’ attitude. I assumed it was going to affect the final results and not be sufficiently relevant. I could have used the results for a comparison between the two levels, but this would not be the purpose of this survey. A new questionnaire may be designed for this group in the future, more adapted to them in length and types of questions. b) Questionnaire description The questionnaire consists of 12 questions, as follows: one factual, one behavioral and ten attitudinal questions. The purpose of the first question is to find out about the participants’ gender, which belongs to demographic characteristics, questions 2 – 7 (Part A) aim at understanding students’ attitude and motivation regarding learning English in the classroom and the last five questions (Part B) focus on attitudes and behavior outside the classroom. The reason why I did not ask about participants’ age is because they all belong to the same group and they are about the same age. Moreover, measuring the relationship between this variable and the responses to the other questions is not subject of this research. In order for a questionnaire to be relevant and efficient, the type of questions should vary, in the present study, most of them being Lickert scale or open. The language employed should be “simple and natural”, without “loaded words”, “negative constructions” and “double-barreled questions” should be avoided (Schauber, 2020). c) Pilot test I first applied the questionnaire to one of my colleagues and I took into account his suggestions to eliminate one of the questions, which was repetitive, and to reformulate two questions (or options for the questions), which were confusing. Then, I created a Google form and I shared it with five friends of various ages and various backgrounds, either French native speakers or with excellent command of French. I asked them for feedback regarding the time it took to complete, the order of the questions, possible mistakes or ambiguous words or questions and any other aspects they found relevant to share. Only one of the participants mentioned that it was too long, having taken her 10 minutes, but considering the pilot test criteria presented during one of the Research seminars (Schauber, 2020), it should not take longer than 2 15 minutes. No major modifications were made after this stage, except for eliminating or changing a few confusing words. d) Applying the questionnaire Since students appreciate more the activities in the computer lab, I decided to use Google Forms for the questionnaire, which also proved to be more practical for data collection. The average online response to questionnaires is only 20-30% (Di Fazio, n.d.) and even though a possibility could have been to distribute it through various means, I still wanted to ensure that all the students would complete the survey and to avoid the unpleasant situation of having to insist on submitting it before a deadline. Thus, instead of giving it as homework, they responded to it during an English class. This way, the variables space and time, which may influence their answers, were the same for all. It took between 10-18 minutes to complete the questionnaire in these conditions. 2. Analysis and results For the analysis, all the data was collected in an Excel file (Annex) and some of the results were plotted in Excel while for others Matplotlib was employed. The percentages were rounded in most of the charts and this is the reason why, in some cases, the total adds up to 101 instead of 100%. Question 1 – There are 22 students in the R3 class, out of which 13 (59.1%) are girls, 7 (31.8) are boys and 2 (9.1%) chose the third option – other / I do not want to answer. As I am the class teacher, I know that the group is formed of 13 girls and 9 boys and I could assume that the two who chose the third option are boys. However, in order to respect their choices, I will only take into consideration the data and not my previous knowledge about the group. Some of the questions will be analyzed taking into consideration the Gender factor. 3 Figure 1 – Gender Question 2 – In order to understand students’ motivation, the multiple-choice question 2 focused on the reasons to learn English. Figure 2 – Reasons to learn English / per student We can see in Figure 2 how many reasons students selected, the highest number having only chosen one option. One student selected all ten given answers. As we observe from the chart, there is no obvious pattern to show a difference between boys’ and girls’ choices, this meaning that the number of selected answers is not influenced by gender. Yet, looking at the particular reasons the participants opted for, 4 there is a slight tendency related to gender, the percentage in the figure below being Autres related to each gender in particular and not to the total number of students. Figure 3 – Reasons to learn English Regarding the reasons to learn English, it can be noticed that the first choice is that it is part of the school curriculum, therefore their prime motivation is an extrinsic one. Nevertheless, their future career and travelling follow immediately with a similar pattern between the two. Nine students (46.2% of the girls and 28.6% of the boys) opted for having good grades at school and the same number of students (with 4.4% difference between boys and girls) for understanding the music, films or series in English as reasons to learn. I want to be cool and My parents expect this from me seem to be less popular among the choices, none of the boys having selected the former and none of the girls the latter. All the options were chosen and five students gave other reasons which were not mentioned. The last five options in Figure 2 are students’ other reasons for learning English. These are their exact words and, as we can observe, one of the students feels that the obligation to learn comes from the teacher. As for the student who is a native speaker, she is normally exempt from participating in the English class, but she still attends once in a while. I should have considered asking a question concerning this aspect, or, she should not have answered the questionnaire, since her perspective may not be very relevant. 5 Question 3 – The purpose of this Lickert scale is to understand students’ opinion on the efficiency of various grouping strategies in class – individual, pair, group or whole-class – in order to make progress in English. 50% 50% 41% 32% 27% 27% 23% 23% 23% 18% 23% 18% 14% 14% 9% 9% Figure 4 – Class activities to make progress in English If we add up the values for the efficient and very efficient bars, surprisingly, the participants found the individual activities and exercises the most efficient ones, followed by pair speaking activities. As it was expected, whole-class activities were appreciated as less efficient, however, not by the majority, 55% still considering them efficient. There is no particular trend regarding boys and girls and the type of class activities they prefer. As I have already employed them all in class, the only change I could introduce is to apply less whole-class strategies and more group work, but the main focus should probably be on pair work. Question 4 – Before asking the participants to decide on the importance of several aspects or activities used regularly in the English class (in Question 5), I wanted to learn what class activities students find efficient in order for them to make progress in English. This was asked in an open question and the answers suggested by the students were grouped as seen in the figure below. 6 Figure 5 – Class activities students find efficient in order to make progress in English Unfortunately, most of the students (32%) did not contribute with a relevant answer. One student in this category answered “nothing”, all the others “I don’t know”. All the other propositions are relevant and since both group (pair) work and individual work seem to be efficient for the students, a variety of tasks and activities to alternate between these forms of work could be an optimal solution. I have not included enough video watching activities in my lessons and this is one of the first changes I will make. In the Others category, I recorded the following answers: « le travaille sur ordinateur » (P no 3) – working on the computer « me mettre à une place derrière » (P no 5) – change my seat – at the back of the class « je parle déjà l'anglais » (P no 17) – I already speak English « gym » (P no 22) – gym Two of these answers are not very relevant (P no 5 and no 22). However, working on the computer, could indeed be a good class activity and, once in a while, students may benefit from a class in the computer lab. As for the students who already speak English, they can help with the preparation of activities in class. In the end, even a gym class in English could be a good idea, with the help of the physical education teacher. Question 5 – Continuing with the Lickert scale, the respondents decided on the importance of several resources and other aspects frequently used during the English class. 7 54% 36% 32% 36% 27% 27% 23% 27% 23% 23% 18% 18% 14% 9% 9% 9% 5% 5% 5% Figure 6 – The importance of … for making progress in English. Part 1 As I work more with handouts, I have not insisted much on the notes taken on the notebook. However, noticing that many students (45%) find them important, I will probably use them more in the future. Still, the worksheets seem to be the most popular, as 77% of the participants see them as important. The projector has a relatively high importance – 59% – and the seating plan appears to be valued by 50% of the respondents. 77% 64% 50% 36% 32% 23% 18% 18% 18% 14% 9% 9% 9% 9% 5% 5% 5% Figure 7 – The importance of … for making progress in English. Part 2 Looking at the second chart for this question, there are several values which stand out. The coursebook has a greater importance than the worksheets in students’ 8 opinion and, I must admit, I tend to prioritize the latter. Not much used in the English class, the participants appear indifferent to the whiteboard in proportion of 50%, while 18% rated it as not at all important. The most conspicuous value is the 77% attributed to instructions which are very important. Only one student found instructions not at all important, but it may not be relevant because I have noticed a pattern of one of the participants having always selected the extreme left values (P no 5), while P no 21, having chosen the opposite ones. I was surprised to discover that a rather high number of students (68%) found the written tests important. However, this confirmed my decision of not applying the survey to my R2 students who have previously mentioned that tests and homework were “utterly useless”. I do not argue here on the efficiency of any of the two, but I wanted to emphasize once more the difference between the two groups, therefore the decision of only considering one of them for the present questionnaire. There does not appear to be any pattern to differentiate between girls and boys. Green is more visible because there are more girls than boys, but the proportions are comparable. Question 6 – There seems to be a tendency for the participants to answer the open questions with “nothing” or “I don’t know” as it is the case for the aspects which may make the English class difficult. Here, six students responded “nothing”, and for this question, it is relevant since it may suggest that these 6 students do not find it difficult, as it is obvious for two of them: “Rien, c’est simple” (P no 7) – nothing, it’s easy – and “rien, je parle déjà l’anglais” (P no 17) – rien, I already speak English. Figure 8 – What makes the English class difficult However, the same number of students mentioned the unclear instructions and this requires immediate action, regardless of the reasons. Although three students indicated that the issue is the instructions in English, more attention should be given to this aspect and as their teacher, I should always confirm with the students that they 9 have understood what they are expected to do. This takes us back to Question 5 where we noticed that the highest importance, in a very significant rate, was given to clear instructions. As for understanding the language, the vocabulary, the accent and the language in general seem to be an obstacle, therefore preloading the vocabulary should become a priority at the beginning of every unit and it should be performed more thoroughly. Even though in this particular class, the discipline has been a concern only occasionally, for some students this seems to be disturbing, which means I need to be more aware and not allow it in the future. The Others list includes the following answers: I don’t know (P no 20), Not having enough time for group work (P no 14), working with somebody who doesn’t know English (P no 10). The last one may be a source of frustration and while it appears only once, it should still need addressing in class, either by giving everyone a chance to work with students of different levels and by explaining the stronger students how important their role is when being in a pair / group with weaker classmates. Question 7 – Regarding the more specific skills and systems of language (grammar and vocabulary), the participants seem to value them all rather highly. Taking again important and very important chart bars together, Vocabulary is the most popular (77%), closely followed by Speaking (73%) and Reading (72%). Writing obtained the greatest value for very important (27%) and this was rather unexpected since I assumed that, at this age, students did not find writing essential. 54% 50% 50% 45% 41% 36% 32% 27% 23% 18% 14% 14% 14% 23% 18% 14% 9% 9% 23% 18% 9% 18% 14% 14% 9% 5% Figure 9 – The importance of the skills and systems of language in learning English 10 I have noticed that one participant (P no 2) selected indifferent, while two participants selected not at all important for all the choices in Questions 7 and 8. This situation makes our results slightly inaccurate, but I will still take into consideration these findings, since most of the group answered the questions sensibly. There is no direct action to be taken here, but it is essential to be aware of the importance my students attribute to these skills and systems. Having learned about the participants’ attitude regarding learning English in class, the last five questions focus on learning English beyond the classroom. While in class students are more guided and their motivation is not always personal, outside the classroom their motivation is intrinsic and the results should come faster, though, not many students have this impulse. However, even if they do not envision exposure to the language as a purpose, they can still make progress without being aware of it in a short time. Question 8 – In order to learn where the students would use the language outside school, this Likert scale asks about the importance of a few possible situations. 64% 54% 45% 41% 41% 36% 36% 36% 32% 27% 23% 23% 18% 14% 14% 14% 14% 14% 14% 9% 9% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% Figure 10 – The importance of using English beyond school Four of them obtained a very high rate of importance, Conversation having the leading score, closely followed by Using the language while travelling and by Reading in English. Understanding song lyrics is the least important, only 28%, which I found 11 surprising since I had the impression that since teenagers were very interested in music, they would be more entertained if they understood the lyrics as well. Girls do not seem to have considered any of the aspects not at all important and very few were slightly important and we can deduce that they value the importance of using English beyond the class more than boys, in the context of this class. Question 9 – Since most of the respondents (32%) answered Nothing or I don’t know, this open question proves that the suggestions proposed in Question 8 covered most of the reasons why English is important for students in this age category. Moreover, the Communication / social life section (27%) includes two of the aspects already presented in Question 8, therefore, this question does not give much new information. Figure 11 – Other reasons why it is important to learn English Yet, English being spoken everywhere (partout) is an important reason for learning it, as six participants offered this answer. Even though only three students thought of their future work as a strong motivation to learn the language, this can still be considered significant since, at this age, not many of them envision a clear career path. Question 10 – The purpose of this open question was to learn how aware the students are about their possibilities to improve their English outside the classroom and this is the reason why it was addressed before the multiple-choice regarding what they already do in this respect and this way they would not be influenced by the list of suggestions. 12 Figure 12 – What they could do to improve their English outside the classroom Looking at the figure above, we notice that the highest proportion of the group deemed extra work (doing exercises, revising or taking private lessons) to be necessary in order for them to improve their level of English. I assume that they had in mind the school requirements and this is probably the only way they know they can learn a language. On the other hand, five students were well aware that speaking the language would be an efficient means of reaching a higher level. Not actively involved, but still exposed to the language, watching videos and films in English was another choice. Unfortunately, nothing and I don’t know were again the preferred answers for many participants. I am considering showing this chart to the class and discuss around it with the purpose of emphasizing the importance of communication for learning a foreign language. Question 11 – This question anticipates the last question of the survey, focusing again on the importance of several activities which could be efficient in learning English beyond the classroom. To avoid redundancy with the last question, I should have actually asked about the efficiency rather than the importance, since this may be slightly confusing. Travelling to English speaking countries is by far the most appreciated in this list (81%), followed, not closely this time, by Exchanging emails or text messages with friends in English (50%). The lowest rated is the private lessons category, only 23% having found them important and 50% indifferent. The study conducted by Elmiger, Sieber & URSP (2015, p. 109) reported a very low rate of students taking private lessons in German as well. We can therefore assume that at this level, these are not 13 yet a priority for languages. The highest not at all important rate was given to Changing the phone or computer settings to English (32%), which means that it does not sound as an appealing technique for exposure to English. The difference is not very significant, but there is however a distinction between the 45% mentioning here that music is important for learning English and the 28% who found it important to understand song lyrics, in Question 8. 54% 36% 32% 32% 27% 27% 27% 23% 18% 18% 18% 18% 14% 14% 9% 5% 14% 9% 5% Figure 13 – The importance of these aspects in learning English outside the classroom. Part 1 50% 32% 32% 32% 18% 18% 18% 18% 14% 14% 9% 14% 9% 14% 9% Figure 14 – The importance of these aspects in learning English outside the classroom. Part 214 Question 12 – As for how students are exposed to English outside the classroom, even though not with the purpose per se of learning English, we can see in the figure below for this multiple-choice question that some are rather frequent, while others are almost absent from the students’ activities. Figure 15 – Learning English outside the classroom Most of the girls listen to music in English and many travel to English speaking countries. For these two groups, there is a rather substantial contrast between girls and boys. There is not much gender discrepancy when it comes to playing games in English, but there is a 13.2% difference between the boys and the girls who have their computer settings in English. In the Other category there were only nine answers, one of them being “nothing”. I did not do a graphical representation since there are 4 answers which can be grouped and the other four are all different. However, I think it is reasonable to mention that the four similar answers refer to watching videos, series and movies in English, which is a common activity to expose oneself to the language, but I had not included it on my list for this question. 15 3. Limitations and bias Already mentioned, the low number of participants makes that the results of this survey cannot be extended to a larger scale, so they can only be taken into account for this group and possibly for a very similar group learning in a similar environment. Some of the students who took part in the questionnaire did not seem to do it seriously, as I have noticed a pattern of extreme values for some of the questions, or had a native level of English and their responses may not be relevant. A more suitable approach would have probably been to eliminate some of the answers for particular questions which would have made the analysis more elaborate. Therefore, this may affect the authenticity of the results, “regarding their value systems, possible biases, and stances and how these might affect what they [researchers] see and how they interpret what they see” (Friedman, 2012, p. 194). Freidman suggested that in qualitative we should not “read more into the data than the data can support; claims that are not grounded are speculation, not analysis” (2012, p. 194). The length of the questionnaire was slightly unreasonable in what the analysis is concerned. There were too many options for some of the Likert scales and, although interesting to obtain a more personal and objective view on some of the aspects, the four open questions proved rather difficult to code. However, this has been a thrilling experience and I have even contemplated the idea of having asked about other points, namely homework, being inspired by Elmiger, Sieber & URSP’ study (2015). As future action, the survey conducted in class will be more focused, following Dörnyei & Csizér’s suggestion: “Avoid making the questionnaire too long by covering every possible angle; focus on the key issues” (2012, p. 76). 4. Action plan and Research seminar course contributions “Action research is demanding, complex, and challenging because the researcher not only assumes responsibilities for doing the research but also for enacting change” (Pine, 2008, p. 235), without it the research being unavailing. Even though it may not be sufficient for a tangible progress in a short time, learning English in class should be transformed in an enjoyable and rewarding experience for the students. And the first step in this direction is to understand what motivates them, what they expect and what they need. We should however be aware that “student motivation cannot be guaranteed and that a core part of any teacher’s 16 role is to try to actively generate positive student attitudes toward L2 learning” (Dörnyei, 2019, p. 729). Awareness of the available techniques is the first step towards a successful motivational teaching practice (Dörnyei, 2019, p. 734). As for learning English outside the classroom, students may not be yet aware of their possibilities, but we could guide them towards what we consider efficient and interesting for them and the choice should, naturally, be theirs. “The most successful language learners often attribute much of their success to initiatives they undertook to extend opportunities for language learning beyond the classroom” (Nunan, p. 1). Participating in the survey may have made students more aware of their learning process and it may have given them suggestions on what they could use for making progress in English outside the classroom. I will use my findings in planning my classes and also advise students on what strategies they can adopt on their own. The course – Research seminar – offered during our IUFE training has proved to have an immediate application and this makes it valuable for our present and future profession. Teachers who followed an Action research programme “felt more confident, connected to their students, research-engaged, and recognized by colleagues and managers” (Edwards & Burns, 2016) and I personally already consider that conducting surveys in class will have a great influence on my teaching and, consequently, on my students’ learning. I have acknowledged the importance of research, not only by carrying it out in class, but mostly by analyzing the data. Thus, I am confident that my future questionnaires in class will be better organized and implemented. Conclusion As it is important not “generalize the findings of the research beyond the study’s parameters as defined in the research question” (Pine, 2008, p. 259), I admit that the results of the current survey may not be relevant to my peers or to other students. The number of participants is too low to reach conclusions outside this group. Nevertheless, the questionnaire is valuable for these students and for planning their classes in the future and, meanwhile, it is a starting point in understanding how significant action research is and how it should be developed. According to Dörnyei (2012), the interpretations can be extended to a general class or population if we have reasons to assume that our results apply (p. 86), therefore if I notice a similar class dynamic in another R3 group, I may take into consideration the conclusions reached 17 in this study. A similar questionnaire can be applied to the new classes at the beginning of the school year, in order to determine their experience with learning English and adapt the lessons according to their needs and expectations. As promised in the introduction of the survey, I will also present some of the findings in my class because “creating a feedback loop where students feel that their opinion is welcomed and valued will improve student engagement, as well as increase their likeliness to give feedback in future surveys” (Di Fazio, n.d.). Bibliography: Di Fazio, G. (n.d.). 5 tips to get students to answer your surveys. SurveyMonkey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/5-tips-to-get-students-to-answeryour-surveys/ Dörnyei, Z., Csizér, K. (2012). How to Design and Analyze Surveys in Second Language Acquisition Research. In Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition. A Practical Guide. Ed. Mackey, A., Gass, S. M. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp 74 – 94. Dörnyei, Z., Muir, C. (2019). Creating a Motivating Classroom Environment. In Second Handbook of English Language Teaching. Gao, X. (ed.). Springer International Handbooks of Education. New York, 719 – 736. Retrieved from https://b9f19ceb-f720-4252-a2beccde56c0821f.filesusr.com/ugd/ba734f_45eefc927eb04b3299bf28aa0ea8135 1.pdf Edwards, E., Burns, A. (2016, January). Language teacher action research: achieving sustainability. In ELT Journal. 70 (1), 6–15. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/70/1/6/2450159 Elmiger, Daniel, Sieber, Jörg & URSP. (2015). Évaluation des compétences en allemand de 6e année de la scolarité obligatoire vaudoise. Lausanne: URSP. Retrieved from http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:77939 Friedman, D. A. (2012). How to Collect and Analyze Qualitative Data. In Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition. A Practical Guide. Ed. Mackey, A., Gass, S. M. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp 180 – 200. Nunan, D. (2014). Beyond the classroom: a case for out-of-class language learning. University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from https://nsjle.org.au/nsjle/media/2014NSJLE-05-DAVID-NUNAN.pdf Pine, G. J. (2008). Teacher Action Research. Building Knowledge Democracies. SAGE Publications Inc. Retrieved from https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/27031_11.pdf 18 Reinders, H., Benson, P. (2017, October). Research Agenda: Language learning beyond the classroom. In Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 50(4), 561-578. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/researchagenda-language-learning-beyond-theclassroom/B8962125AE434C9803A60770E33E4BEC doi:10.1017/S0261444817000192 Richards, J. C. (2015). The Changing Face of Language Learning: Learning Beyond the Classroom. In RELC Journal. University of Sydney, RELC Singapore. 46(1) 5–22. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0033688214561621 Courses: Elmiger, D. (2020). Séminaire de recherche. [Présentations PowerPoint]. Genève : Université de Genève. Retrieved from Moodle Platform https://moodle.unige.ch/course/view.php?id=8398 Schauber, H., (2020), How to design and analyze surveys. (2020_IUFE_sém_rech). [Présentations PowerPoint]. Genève : Université de Genève. Retrieved from Moodle Platform https://moodle.unige.ch/mod/resource/view.php?id=385416 19