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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY
This study aims to investigate New Immigrant Children’s English learning achievement, learning attitude and learning challenges. This chapter deals with the methodology of the research, including the introduction of the participants, the instruments, the procedures, and data analysis.
Participants
The participants in this research include two groups of students and two English teachers. All participants come from the public elementary school the researcher teaches in a county in central Taiwan. The school is located in the semi-urban area of the county with five to seven classes in each grade, making the total classes
thirty-seven in the school. Each class contains about thirty students. Because of its location, the school can represent a mix of both urban and rural schools. Students in this school come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and their academic performances are heterogenous. According to the school’s English curriculum, all students are required to attend two forty-minute sessions of English class each week from grade three to grade six. The first group of participants consists of NIC and the second group consists of TC. All NIC in fifth and six grades except those whose mothers are from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao were asked to participate in this investigation, including nine students in fifth grade and five students in sixth grade. All students in fifth grade were taught by one English teacher, while all
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students in sixth grade were taught by the other English teacher. Students in fifth and sixth grades were chosen because they are old enough and have the maturity to clearly express their feelings and viewpoints. Moreover, in fifth and sixth grades, they have been learning English for two to three years at school, so their English learning achievement would not fluctuate too much and would be stable. Children whose mothers were from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao would be viewed as TC because they have similar L1 language backgrounds as children whose parents are both Taiwanese. As for the other group of children, one class in fifth and six grades were randomly chosen as comparison group. A total of fourteen NIC and sixty TC took part in this study. Two English teachers teaching at the school, one is a formal teacher and the other is an experienced substitute teacher, also participated in this study.
Instruments
The instruments employed in this study include NIC’s Background Questionnaire, the English Scores of all student participants, English Learning
Attitude Scale of all student participants, a Semi-structured NIC Group Interview, and an Interview for English Teachers.
Participants’ Background Questionnaire
This background questionnaire is designed to collect a comprehensive background data of all participants. Most questions in this questionnaire are
multiple-choice questions with some open-ended questions. The construction of this
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questionnaire is based up Yang’s research (2009). In this questionnaire, participants were asked to answer questions such as “Which class are you in?”, “Are you a male or a female?”, “What language do you usually speak at home?”, “Which country do your mother come from?”, “What is your mother’s native language?”, “Does your mother talk to you in her native language at home?”, “What is your father’s
profession?”, “What is your mother’s profession?”, “Do you have prior experience in learning English before third grade?”, “Do you go to English cram-school after school?”, “Does your father/mother help your review your English homework?”, etc.
For a review of the entire questionnaire, please refer to Appendix A. The following section presents the background information of NIC collected with this Background Questionnaire.
NIC’s Parents’ Educational Background and Their Careers
With the exception of four NIC, most NIC’s fathers and mothers have an educational level lower than high schools. Five of these NIC’s fathers are workers, and three of them are unemployed. NIC’s mothers are mostly housewives, with four of them helping their husbands with their work, and two of them doing handiwork to help support the family. According to the Background Questionnaire, most of these NIC come from low socio-economic status families.
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NIC’s Mothers’ Nationalities
Table 3.1 NIC’s Gender and Their Mothers’ Nationalities
No.* Grade Gender Mother’s Nationality NIC-1 5th Female Vietnam
NIC-2 5th Male Vietnam NIC-3 5th Female Indonesia NIC-4 5th Female Indonesia NIC-5 5th Female Vietnam NIC-6 5th Male Vietnam NIC-7** 5th Male Vietnam NIC-8 5th Male Vietnam NIC-9 5th Male Indonesia NIC-10 6th Male Vietnam NIC-11 6th Male Indonesia NIC-12 6th Female The Philippines NIC-13 6th Male Indonesia NIC-14** 6th Female Vietnam
*NIC’s numbers are arranged according to which class they are in.
**7 and 14 are siblings.
Table 3.1 shows the fourteen NIC’s mothers’ nationalities. Eight of them came from Vietnam, five from Indonesia, and one from The Philippines. NIC-5, 6, 7, and 14’s parents are divorced, and they all reside with their fathers. NIC-5’s mother visits her often. NIC-7 and 14’s mother visits them occasionally. NIC-6’s mother never visits him.
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NIC’s Languages Spoken at Home
Table 3.2 Languages Spoken with NIC’s Fathers at Home
No. Grade Mandarin Taiwanese Dialect Others
NIC-1 5th 100%
NIC-2 5th 100%
NIC-3 5th Hakka Wa (100%)
NIC-4 5th 100%
NIC-5 5th 50% 50%
NIC-6 5th 100%
NIC-7 5th 100%
NIC-8 5th 100%
NIC-9 5th 60% 40%
NIC-10 6th 80%% 20%
NIC-11 6th 100%
NIC-12 6th 100%
NIC-13 6th 100%
NIC-14 6th 100%
Table 3.2 shows that NIC mostly communicate with their fathers in Mandarin or Taiwanese Dialect at home. NIC-3 communicates with her father in Hakka Wa (客家 話) mostly.
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Table 3.3 Languages Spoken with NIC’s Mothers at Home No. Grade
Mandarin Taiwanese Dialect
Mother’s Native
Tongue Others
NIC-1 5th
80% Vietnamese
(20%) NIC-2 5th
100% Vietnamese
(0%) NIC-3 5th
80% Indonesian
(10%)
80% Vietnamese
(20%)
100% Vietnamese
(0%) NIC-8 5th
100% Vietnamese
(0%)
100% Vietnamese
(0%)
100% Vietnamese
(0%)
Table 3.3 shows that most NIC communicate with their mothers in Mandarin at home. NIC-12’s mother talks to her in Filipino daily (90%) and English occasionally
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(10%). NIC-5, 6, 7, and 14’s parents are divorced. When NIC-5’s mother visits her, she talks to her mostly (80%) in Mandarin and occasionally in Vietnamese (20%).
When NIC-7 and 14’s (they are siblings) mother visits them, she talks to them completely in Mandarin. NIC-6’s mother never visits him, so he doesn’t know what language his mother will speak to him. NIC-6, however, talks to his father completely in Taiwanese Dialect.
NIC’s English Learning Background
Table 3.4 NIC’s English Learning Background No. Grade Start Learning English
Before 3rd Grade
Go to English Cram School After School
Review English with Someone’s Help
Table 3.4 shows that only three out of the fourteen (21%) NIC go to English cram-schools after school, which is well below the estimated 75% ratio of TC that go
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to cram-schools. Five of these NIC receive help from their mothers or older siblings at home in learning English.
The English Scores
In this study, all student participants’ English learning achievement were represented by their English Scores. The English teachers in the school discussed the criteria to evaluate students’ English performances at the beginning of each academic year. In these English scores, students’ formative assessment results and summative assessment results such as paper-and-pencil test scores, oral test scores, assignment scores, and English class participation scores in the first semester of 2010 of all student participants were collected and compared.
English Learning Attitude Scale
An English Learning Attitude Scale adapted from Chen’s study (2004) is used to look into participants’ English learning attitude. All student participants were asked to fill out the English Learning Attitude Scale. Results of the scale would be computed, analyzed and compared. This four-point Likart-type scale has been adopted in a lot of studies pertaining to English learning attitude and has both content validity and high reliability (α=.9479). The attitude scale is divided into six dimensions: (1) Students’
attitude toward school English course; (2) Students’ attitude toward learning English autonomously; (3) Students’ attitude toward doing English homework; (4) Students’
attitude toward the English teacher; (5) Students’ attitude toward the English teaching at school; (6) Students’ motivation toward English learning. A seventh dimension
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pertaining to students’ English learning efficacy was added to examine whether or not students’ achievement meet the demands made by MOE’s English Curriculum
Guidelines. All of the questions in this scale were discussed and adjusted by the researcher and her advisor before formalization to ensure validity. Eleven elementary school teachers teaching the fifth and sixth grades and a university TESOL professor were consulted to further ensure the content validity of the scale. Items not suitable for this research were rejected. Cronbach α coefficient was measured to insure internal consistency reliability. The Cronbach α Coefficient of this attitude scale is 0.967 (Appendix G), which denotes that this scale has a very high internal consistency reliability. For a review of the entire attitude questionnaire, please refer to Appendix B.
Group Interview for New Immigrant Children
In order to get an in-depth understanding about students’ perception about their English learning, a semi-structured group interview was employed in this study to learn more about students’ English achievement, attitude and learning challenges. NIC in five and six grades were asked to attend a group interview to discuss about their achievement, their attitude, and the challenges they face while learning English. As Nunan (1992) contended that “semi-structured interview gives interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview. It also gives the interviewer a great deal of flexibility. Most importantly, it gives one privileged access to other people’s lives.”, it would be suitable to be applied in this study to learn more about NIC’s English learning situation. In the interview, three aspects about English
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learning challenge were investigated. The first aspect looked into participants’ own perception toward learning the English subject. Question such as “Do you work hard to learn English? How?”, “What do you think you can do to learn English well?” were asked. The second aspect looked into participants’ English learning environment at home. Questions such as “Do you review English at home?”, “Does your
father/mother help you review your English at home?” were discussed. The third aspect looked into the challenges participants face in learning English at the school setting. Questions such as “Do you enjoy learning English at school?”, “Do you think it is difficult to learn English at school? Why?” were asked. All questions in the interview were generated by discussions and negotiations among the researcher and her English-teaching colleagues to ensure their adequacy. Before implementation, the researcher discussed with her advisor about each question to make sure that each question was appropriate to answer the research question. For a review of the entire interview questions, please refer to Appendix C.
Interview for English Teachers
A semi-structured interview exploring English teachers’ perspectives about students’ English learning is designed by the researcher. Two English teachers, one formal teacher with four years experience in teaching elementary school English, the other substitute teacher with more than eight years experience in teaching English, participated in an interview to share their experiences and opinions about NIC’s English learning situation. These two English teachers were the only English teachers other than the researcher herself teaching at the school at the time of the study. The
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two English teachers were given a list of NIC and asked by the researcher a half year earlier to pay special attention to NIC’s learning behaviors in their English classes. All the interview questions were generated through discussions between the researcher and her advisor. In this interview, teachers’ viewpoints about NIC’s English learning achievement, attitude and challenges were discussed. Teachers were encouraged to elaborate on their perspectives about NIC’s English learning situation. Teachers were also encouraged to come up with some feasible ways to help English-learning
low-achieving students. For a review of the entire interview questions, please refer to Appendix D.
Procedure
The procedures (See Figure 3.1) in this study are as followed:
Before conducting the study, a form (Appendix E) asking for student
participants’ consent to take part in this study was given to all potential participants to take home to their parents. In this form the purpose and procedure of this study were briefly explained. Potential participants’ parents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with their children’s partaking in this study. If they disagreed, their children would simply be dropped out of this research. All the participants’ names and
identities would be kept in secret.
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Figure 3.1 shows the procedures of this study.
For the formal study, first, all NIC were given a Background Questionnaire to fill out. They could take this questionnaire home to finish it with the help of their parents and then return it back to the researcher.
Second, all student participants’ English scores, including NIC’s and TC’s, were collected.
Figure 3.1 Procedures of the Study
Asking for participants’ consent
NIC’s Background Questionnaire
English Score of all participants
English Learning Attitude Scale of all participants
Interview for English Teachers
Data Analysis
Result and Conclusion NIC Group Interview
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Third, all participants were gathered together at the same time to fill out English Learning Attitude Scale at school. The participants had forty minutes to finish this scale. All participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with these questions by marking one of the four responses ranging from
‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. When ‘strongly agree’ was marked, the
participant scored ‘4’ points in that question; when ‘agree’ was marked, ‘3’ points was scored; when ‘disagree’ was marked, ‘2’ points was scored; when ‘strongly disagree’
was marked, ‘1’ point was scored. The mean score of the forty-five questions stood for the participant’s attitude toward learning English. The higher the mean score was, the more positive the participant’s attitude toward learning English was. The score for the reverse-coded questions in this scale would be the opposite of the positive-coded questions, which meant that the higher the score was, the more negative the
participant’s attitude toward learning English was.
Fourth, a group interview for NIC was conducted in this study. The researcher notified these participants one week before the interview to assure their participations.
The day before the interview, the researcher informed these participants to confirm their attendances. The participants sat in circle with the researcher in the center of the circle and took turns answering the questions. Discussions in the interview were recorded and transcribed for further analysis.
Finally, the two English teachers in the school negotiated with the researcher for an appropriate time for the interview. Discussions in the interview were recorded and transcribed for further analysis.
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Data Analysis
The SPSS/PC 18.0 for Windows was used for quantitative data analysis. In this study, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and Pearson product-moment correlation were adopted to answer different research questions.
To answer research question 1: “How well do NIC achieve in the English subject?
Are they generally high-achievers or low-achievers? Are there any differences between NIC’s English achievement and TC’s English achievement?”, independent sample t-test was used to compare NIC’s English scores and TC’s English scores to find out whether NIC were high-achievers or low-achievers in the English subject, and whether there was a significant difference between NIC’s and TC’s English achievement.
To answer research question 2: “What was NIC’s attitude toward learning English? Did NIC generally have a positive attitude or a negative attitude toward English learning at school? Are there any differences between New Immigrant Children’s English learning attitude and Taiwanese Children’s English learning attitude?”, the scores of all the participants’ responses to the questions on the
four-point Likart-type attitude scale were computed. Descriptive statistics was used to illustrate NIC’s and TC’s English attitudes. Independent sample t-tests were then adopted to compare the scores of NIC and the scores of TC to find out whether there existed a discrepancy between NIC’s and TC’s English learning attitude. The scores of the respective seven dimensions and the whole attitude scale would all be compared to find out if there were significant differences.
To answer research question 3: “Was there a correlation between NIC’s English
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achievement and learning attitude?”, Pearson product-moment correlation would be performed to examine the relationship between individual NIC’s English achievement and learning attitude.
To answer research question 4: “What kind of challenges do these NIC face while they are learning English at school?”, the verbatim transcription of NIC’s group interview was organized by the researcher into appropriate categories on the basis of the pre-determined three aspects: (1) NIC’s own perception toward learning the English subject; (2) NIC’s English learning environment at home; (3) The challenges NIC face in learning English at the school setting. Common themes were singled out for further exploration.
To answer research question 5: “What are English teachers perceptions about these NIC’s English learning?”, the verbatim transcription of the interview for English teachers was examined by the researcher. The content of the transcription was
analyzed on the basis of the three aspects: (1) NIC’s English learning condition; (2) Challenges NIC face when learning English; (3) Feasible ways to help NIC improve their English.
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