Interim report - Activating student motivation, autonomy and curiosity via action research
以下の原稿中で改善すべき点
Overview of the research
The purpose of this research is to improve the way that I teach my English II lesson by exploring and understanding my students' learning context and identify the nature of their problems or difficulties in studying English, especially in relation to motivation and development of autonomy.
Conceptual Frameworks
I describe and interpret this research in relation to three main concepts: 1) The distinction between input and intake, 2) learner autonomy, and 3) teacher adaptability.
English teaching sometimes tends to focus exclusively on input, but I believe that what also matters is intake--in other words, what students can acquire through the lesson. I try to focus on how I can ensure that input becomes intake. Intake shows teachers how much students have learned in the lesson, and thus can be one of the most effective criteria on how effective the lesson is for students.
The second concept is learner autonomy. It is obvious that each student has a different level of English ability, and thus needs a different approach to learn English. There is no single ‘best learning method’ –rather, teachers need to adjust and adapt a variety of ‘best practices’ to meet the different needs of students while at the same time encouraging students to be responsible for their own language learning. One thing that teachers can do for students is to encourage them to find their own way of learning. Practically, teachers can adapt their instruction to individual differences so that students can learn English efficiently.
The third concept is teacher adaptability. Philosophically, it includes teacher development, reflective practice, and critical pedagogy. In practical terms, it requires the reconsideration and management of the class, time, as well as a rethinking about the choice of activities in the lesson. The purpose of these measures is to adapt teachers’ instruction to students’ individual differences. Therefore, teacher adaptability is the reciprocal process of learner autonomy. In order to enhance learner autonomy, teacher adaptability is essential, and learner autonomy is indispensable for efficient language learning. This is why teacher adaptability is one of the main areas of focus in this thesis.
Procedure
I conducted this research in the first semester of the second grade from April to July in 2006. To clarify the research target, I performed two questionnaires in March 2006. The first questionnaire was for 280 students and its purpose was to understand the students' environment and problems in studying English I. The items in this questionnaire were taken from what is called ‘Study Support’, published by Benesse Corporation (questionnaire A). At the same time, I performed another questionnaire for 80 students in two classes of the first grade. The purpose of this second questionnaire was to collect students' impressions regarding my teaching style in English II. I asked students about each activity I used in English I lesson from three perspectives: necessity, difficulty, and interest (questionnaire B).
From the result of the Benesse-based questionnaire A and the activity impression questionnaire B, I extracted twenty problems that students have in studying English, and prepared another questionnaire (questionnaire C). The purpose of this questionnaire was to see how serious the target students in the second grade feel about the twenty problems extracted from the students in the first grade. This was the preliminary questionnaire for the research. It was performed for 115 students in the second grade about these twenty problems on five point scale in April. This preliminary questionnaire C was to be conducted in July again as the post-testing questionnaire.
In the middle of the first semester, I conducted the questionnaire to get an idea of student reactions to tasks and teaching methods at the mid-way point in the course (questionnaire D). This mid-way questionnaire is the adapted version of the activity impression questionnaire B, done in March. At the same time, I reflected on my lessons through reflective journals and analysis of videotaped moments in the lessons.
At the end of the first semester, in July, the post-testing questionnaire E was conducted based on the same procedure of the preliminary questionnaire A. Factor analysis was done on the result of the preliminary questionnaire A and the post-testing questionnaires E.
Preliminary Results
Three factors were extracted and proved reliable as the problems that students had in studying English II. They were 'Motivation and Self-directedness', 'General Study Habit', and 'Specific Study Habit'. Using these three factors as the scale, the difference of the result between April and July seemed to be significant.
Comments
Now I am extremely busy preparing for the lesson and preparing for the thesis at the same time.
I have just finished the data analysis of the above five questionnaires. Now I am trying to fix the theoretical frameworks and explain the practice in the first semester from these frameworks. What troubles me about writing the theoretical part of the thesis is the different usage of the key concepts. For examples, the meaning of the word input is quite different among researchers. In short, I am struggling with understanding the differences in the usage of the key concepts and redefining them to fix in the explanation of the practice in the first semester.
As for the lesson, I feel quite fine, thanks to the practice in the first semester. There are three reasons. First, the research brought me a lot of options. For example, I have collected more than 15 patterns of aural reading, which greatly helps me avoid the monotonous atmosphere in the lesson. Second, I am not hesitant about getting students’ feedback. Before this research, I felt ashamed of directly listening to students, but not any more. Getting students’ feedback and reflecting on them in the next lesson is the basic pattern of my lesson now. Third, I can reflect about myself from various viewpoints. I can check the time table, utterances, gestures, and so on in the lesson with the video camera, which seemed to be a big burden to me in April.
Appendix 1: 20 items in the preliminary questionnaire C and post-testing questionnaire E
1) I do not feel like studying English.
2) I do not know how to study English.
3) I cannot get good marks even if I study hard.
4) I cannot carry out the plan / I cannot keep the plan.
5) I cannot understand the content of the lesson.
6) I cannot concentrate on the lesson.
7) I do not know how to translate the sentences into Japanese.
8) I do not know how to study listening of English.
9) I do not know how to write English essays.
10) I do not know how to pronounce English words.
11) I do not prepare for quizzes in daily lessons.
12) I do not prepare for the lesson.
13) I do not review the lesson by myself.
14) I do not practice reading the passage orally.
15) I cannot memorize English vocabularies.
16) I do not know how to solve the passage-type entrance exam in the workbook.
17) I do not know how to solve the translation-type entrance exam in the workbook.
18) I do not know how to prepare for term exams.
19) I have too much assignment to prepare for term exams.
20) I do not review term exams.
