serious stuff

about student questionnaires:

- what are my constructs?
- which questions relate to which construct? and how many questions per construct?
- need to test the questions
- verify the order of the questions, the wording, if they can tell which statement goes with which construct
- how many positive/negative questions?
- Q-sort: random set of questions, 5 constructs (or whatever), match them
- discrimination rating: respond to statements on likert scales as if you were an ESL student with a positive attitude, eliminate those who are unclear
- ask participants to suggest modifications
- add follow-up interviews w/sts too!
- find 5-10 people to take the Q-sort+discrimination rating

- include a clear definition of NS and NNS on the questionnaires!

- ask NNS AND NS to participate?? what about specific questions at the end?'
- if so, need about the same # of NS and NNS!

- intensity sampling to select who's going to participate? don't think so, 1) the director will approve or not, 2) the teachers will accept or not to participate.


hypotheses: there will be significant differences in responses according to:
1. country of origin/first language of the students
2. country of origin of the teachers
3. age of the students
4. gender of the students
5. intents to return to country of origin
6. previous exposure to other cultures (especially that of the teacher) (=how many NNS teachers before, if visited country of teacher, if speaking language of teacher, etc.)
7. level of proficiency in english of the students
8. reasons for learning english
9. expected grade in the class
10. the class taught

constructs:
1. teacher is a good role model
2. teacher looks/sounds typically american
3. teacher is a good teacher overall
4. student is not worried about NNS
5. teacher knows about american culture
6. student is willing to learn about other cultures
7. teacher is a good cultural/emotional(?) resource
8. teacher understands language learning difficulties
9. class will be (was) a good experience