RE SE ARCH WORKSHOPS FOR U NDE RGRADUATE STU DENTS

Session 6
Questionnaire and Interview Design
TASK 1
Identify the types of questions of the following questionnaire items.

1. I liked my errors in speaking to be corrected by my teachers. Likert Scale

Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree
disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
2. Teaching speaking as a separate skill is Semantic Differential Scale
Unnecessary __:__:__:__:__:__:__ Necessary

3. What is your date of birth? Numerical Item

(Please write the corresponding numbers in the spaces below)
Day Month Year
__ __ ____
4. How effective do you consider the overall job performance of your trainee? Rating Scale
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Very low Very high
5. What were you doing the year before you enrolled in this program? Multiple Choice
 Full-time employment  Full-time student
 Part-time employment  Part-time student
 Unemployed  Other (Please specify) ______________
6. Please rank the following activities in order of importance in your work as a school head by putting
the position (1 – 5) against each activity. (‘1’ is the most important activity, ‘6’ is the least important
activity) Rank Order Item
(a) evaluating the staff 
(b) discussing educational objectives with teachers 
(c) pursuing administrative tasks 
(d) organizing in-service teacher training courses 
(e) organizing extra-class special programs 
(f) talking with students in case of problems 
7. What is your first language? ______________________ Specific open-ended question

8. Your speaking score last semester is: Multiple choice

 Lower than 5  5 to 7  Higher than 7 to 8  Higher than 8

9. If you rated the workshop as “poor” or “very poor”, please briefly explained why. Clarification
_____________________________________________________

10. What was it about the workshop that you found most useful? Short-answer question
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

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TASK 2
Identify any problems that you see in each of these questionnaire items. Write in the box above each question a rule
about item wording.

RULE 1

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 1
How many teachers are there in your school who have been at the school for at least five years and who
are involved in special initiatives outside the normal class activities at least once per week?
_ _ _ _ _ _ teachers

RULE 2

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Question 2
I learn grammar better when the teacher teaches according to Task-Based Language Learning Approach.
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree agree
1 2 3 4 5

RULE 3

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 3
How often do you visit your school‟s library?
 Never  Not often  Fairly often  All the time

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RULE 4

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 4
People who are not good at Math are not good at learning a foreign language.
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree agree
1 2 3 4 5

RULE 5

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Question 5
To what extent are you happy with the course workload and contents?
Very Somewhat Neither Somewhat Very happy
unhappy unhappy happy
1 2 3 4 5

RULE 6

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Question 6
What do you want your teacher to give written feedback on? (Tick all that apply)
 grammar
 spelling
 vocabulary
 ideas
 organization
 format of the writing

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RULE 7

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 7
Many students find the workload in the course is too heavy. What is your opinion towards this?
_________________________________________________________ ___
____________________________________________________________

RULE 8

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Question 8
Which of the following best describe your age group?
 Under 18
 18 - 25
 25 - 40
 40 or older

RULE 9

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Question 9
People grow up in all different types of family. Which type of family did you grow up in?
 Mom as single parent
 Dad as single parent
 Both Mom and Dad

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TASK 3
Identify any problems that you see in these extracts of questionnaires in some B.A. graduation papers. Suggest how
to address the problems and explain the changes you have made.

Extract 1
Topic: Students’ perception on factor affecting English learning motivation in stragetic
mission project at ULIS, VNU

1 2 3 4 5 6
Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly agree Moderately Strongly
disagree disagree disagree agree agree
My motivation to learn English has decreased because
9. The syllabi of my English do not meet my expections (nor 1 2 3 4 5 6
suitable for me). failed to
10. I do not enjoy most of the English lessons in my program. 1 2 3 4 5 6
They are not interesting enough. fail to interest
11. The English program has not helped me to reach my goal(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6
of studying English. I haven‟t improved enough. fail to
12. I am very active in learning English. I am not clear about 1 2 3 4 5 6
what and how I should learn.
confused about the objectives of the course/ the learning
methods
13 Many of my teachers DO NOT always encourage me to 1 2 3 4 5 6
learn. failed to
14 Many of my teachers are NOT friendly, approachable or 1 2 3 4 5 6
helpful enough. unfriendly/ unapproachable/ helpless
15 Not many members in my class are willing to help each 1 2 3 4 5 6
other to learn. unwilling

Extract 2
Topic: Students’ writing practice and their perceptions of teachers’ written feedbackat
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU

4. How often do you write during the semester?

Never Sometimes Rarely Often
1 2 3 4
How many times did you write in class under pressure in the last semester?
5. Do you find the activity of writing in class under pressure useful?
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree agree
1 2 3 4 5
The activity of writing in class under pressure helps improve my time management skills in writing.

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Extract 3

Comments:
- Question a: „very‟  loaded word
- Question b: it‟s a fact, not an opinion. You cannot agree or disagree with a fact like this.
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States, whether you agree or disagree.
- Quedtion d: the first half “I find listening sections easy because” is not necessary. Actually, it can
even confuses the respondents.
- Question e: a really confusing question. “When I listen to the record[ing]s” should be omitted.
“often” is an ambiguous word. “Encourage me how to” doesn‟t make sense. “Practice listening
skill effectively” is vague.

Extract 4

Ambiguous words (seldom, sometimes, often, usually)

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Extract 5

- Lack of options: What about people who do not like it or those who don‟t like it but don‟t hate it?
- Oversimplistic: Yes/no question isn‟t informative
- It‟d be best to use a rating scale.

TASK 4
Make comments on the formatting of the following questionnaires. Give suggestions on how to improve it.

1.

Comments:
- no title, no salience, no sponsor‟s name and address, no initial directions
- inappropriate density: not space-saving

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2.

- not easy to follow: a sentence is spread onto two different pages. The scale is missing on the second
page, causing difficulty to follow.

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3.

- The page is not designed in a space-saving kind of way. Questions are not grouped
appropriately.

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4.

- The page is not designed in a space-saving kind of way. Questions are not grouped
appropriately.
- 104 questions seem to be too many. Consider the survey length.

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TASK 4
Identify the types of questions of the following interview items.
1. Can you walk me through your last experience searching the library catalog? Experience
2. Tell me about a typical day at work; what are you likely to do first thing in the morning? Behavior
3. What are the busiest times of day for the computer lab? Knowledge
4. What is your major? Background
5. How important is it for you as a teacher to assist in the development of positive self-concepts in
students? How would you do this? Opinion + Knowledge
6. Is there funding to support the introduction of new methods of teaching and learning in your school?
If so, how is it allocated? How would you go about getting some? Knowledge
7. How do you feel about the way students behave in this school? Experience
8. When you enter your classroom, what do you see? Sensory
9. What do you like about your teacher‟s homework policy? Feeling
10. If I had been in your class during the past semester, what kinds of assignments would I have been
doing? Experience
11. What do you think about the principal‟s new policy concerning absenteeism? Opinion
12. What would you like to see changed in the ways things are done in your English class? Opinion
13. Are there any prerequisites you must fulfill before you can take this class? Knowledge
14. What sorts of things does a student counselor do anyway? Knowledge

TASK 5
Identify any problems that you see in each of these interview items. Write in the box above each question a rule
about item wording.

RULE 1

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 1
How satisfied are you with the course?

RULE 2

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Question 2
Are you satisfied with the program?

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Question 3
Have you changed as a result of your participation in this program?

Question 4
Was it an important experience for you?

RULE 3

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Question 5
How well do you know and like the staff in this program?

Question 6
To help the staff improve the program, we‟d like to ask you about your opinion of the program – what
you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the program, what you like, what you don‟t like, what
you think could be improved or should stay the same – those kinds of thing and other comments you
have.

RULE 4

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 7
What do you think about parking?

RULE 5

............................................................................................................................. ..........................

Question 8
Why do you join this program?

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TASK 6
Identify any problems that you see in these extracts of interviews in some B.A. graduation papers. Suggest how to
address the problems and explain the changes you have made.

Extract 1
Topic: The exploitation of motivational strategies in social English class of first -year
mainstream students at FELTE, ULIS, VNU.

- Question 1: Yes/ No question

How important is it to you to apply motivational strategies in teaching social english class?
- Question 2: Where  unclear
From what sources did you learn about motivational strategies?
- Question 3: Why  unclear
How do the strategies help you motivate students in the class?
What characteristics/ features of the strategies do you find suitable for being used in your class?
- Question 4: Overlapping with question 3
- Question 5: Leading
In which class is it more difficult to motivate students? Integrated skilled classes or individual skilled
ones?

Order of the question:

The first few questions should be easy to answer. For example, you can start with background,
experience, behavior questions. In this interview, the reseacher started with an opinion question, which
is a rather difficult one to answer. This can reduce the level of commitment of the respondents to the
interview.

Suggestion: start with easy questions, such as: “What motivational stategies have you been using in your
social english classes?”
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Extract 2
Topic: Washback effects of C1-level test on students’ English learning motivation as
perceived by 2nd-year mainstream students, FELTE, ULIS, VNU

- Question 1: the interviewer confuses opinion with feeling

- Question 2: “Can you specify it”is not clear. What‟s the real purpose of the question? Do you
want to know the reasons or the degree?
- Question 3: Yes/ No question
- Question 4: Same as question 2. Besides, “thought” refers to opinion, “desire” is feeling. Again,
opinion and feeling are mixed up.
- Question 5: “think” ~ opinion, „enjoy‟ ~ feeling.
„Why‟ question should be considered.
- Question 6: yes/ no question.
“can you tell me about that”  unclear question
- Question 7: “Is that right?”shows that you doubt what the respondent says. “Why” question
evokes defense.

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