Dornyei (applied linguistics, U. of Nottingham, UK) has some 15 years of experience in using questionnaires in his research on language learning motivation. He offers this practical textbook for use in courses in quantitative research methodology and survey research in language acquisition programs in linguistics, psychology, and education departments. Coverage includes the nature, merits, and shortcomings of questionnaires; the construction and administration of the questionnaire; and processing questionnaire data.
Author(s): Zoltán Dörnyei
Series: Second Language Acquisition Research Series
Edition: illustrated edition
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 165
Team DDU......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
INTRODUCTION......Page 10
1 QUESTIONNAIRES IN SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH......Page 12
1. 1 What are 'questionnaires' and what do they measure?......Page 14
1. 1. 1 What a questionnaire is not......Page 15
1. 1. 2 What do questionnaires measure?......Page 17
1. 2. 1 Advantages......Page 18
1. 2. 2 Disadvantages......Page 19
1. 3 Questionnaires in quantitative and qualitative research......Page 23
2 CONSTRUCTING THE QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 25
2. 1. 1 Length......Page 26
2. 1. 2 Layout......Page 28
2. 1. 3 Sensitive topics and anonymity......Page 30
2. 2. 1 Title......Page 34
2. 2. 2 Instructions......Page 35
2. 2. 3 Questionnaire items......Page 37
2. 2. 4 Additional information......Page 38
2. 2. 5 Final 'thank you'......Page 39
2. 3. 1 Appropriate sampling of the content......Page 40
2. 3. 2 Using multi-item scales......Page 41
2. 4 'Closed-ended' questionnaire items......Page 44
2. 4. 1 Rating scales......Page 45
2. 4. 2 Multiple-choice items......Page 52
2. 4. 3 Rank order items......Page 53
2. 4. 5 Checklists......Page 55
2. 5 Open-ended questions......Page 56
2. 5. 2 Clarification questions......Page 57
2. 5. 4 Short-answer questions......Page 58
2. 6 How to write good items......Page 59
2. 6. 1 Drawing up an 'item pool'......Page 60
2. 6. 2 Rules about item wording......Page 61
2. 6. 3 Writing sensitive items......Page 66
2. 7 Grouping and ordering items......Page 68
2. 8 Computer programs for constructing questionnaires......Page 71
2. 9 Piloting the questionnaire and conducting item analysis......Page 72
2. 9. 1 Initial piloting of the item pool......Page 75
2. 9. 2 Final piloting ('dress rehearsal')......Page 76
2. 9. 3 Item analysis......Page 77
3. 1. 1 Sampling procedures......Page 79
3. 1. 2 How large should the sample be?......Page 82
3. 1. 3 The problem of respondent self-selection......Page 84
3. 2 Main types of questionnaire administration......Page 85
3. 2. 1 Administration by mail......Page 86
3. 2. 2 One-to-one administration......Page 90
3. 2. 3 Group administration......Page 91
3. 3 Strategies to increase the quality and quantity of participant response......Page 92
3. 3. 1 Advance notice......Page 93
3. 3. 3 Respectable sponsorship......Page 94
3. 3. 5 Communicating the purpose and significance of the survey......Page 95
3. 3. 6 Emphasizing confidentiality......Page 97
3. 3. 8 The style and lay out of the questionnaire......Page 98
3. 3. 9 Promising feedback on the results......Page 99
3. 4. 1 Basic ethical principles of data collection......Page 100
3. 4. 3 Strategies for getting around anonymity......Page 102
4 PROCESSING QUESTIONNAIRE DATA......Page 105
4. 1. 1 First things first: Identification code and 'Research Logbook'......Page 106
4. 1. 2 The coding frame and the codebook......Page 107
4. 2 Entering the data into a computer file......Page 110
4. 3 Processing closed questions......Page 112
4. 3. 1 Data cleaning......Page 113
4. 3. 2 Data manipulation......Page 114
4. 3. 3 Reducing the number of variables in the questionnaire......Page 116
4. 3. 4 Main types of questionnaire data......Page 118
4. 3. 5 Examining the reliability and validity of the data......Page 119
4. 3. 6 Statistical procedures to analyze data......Page 123
4. 4 Content analysis of open-ended questions......Page 125
4. 5 Computer programs for processing questionnaire data......Page 127
4. 6. 1 General guidelines......Page 128
4. 6. 2 Technical information to accompany survey results......Page 131
4. 7 Complementing questionnaire data with other information......Page 134
CONCLUSION AND CHECKLIST......Page 141
REFERENCES......Page 146
APPENDIX: SELECTED LIST OF PUBLISHED L2 QUESTIONNAIRES......Page 153
AUTHOR INDEX......Page 159
SUBJECT INDEX......Page 162
