Questionnaire on Learning English as a Foreign Language

Hanna Kryszewska, Poland

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Background
The questionnaire
Conclusions

Background

Ever since Mario Rinvolucri came across the list What Chinese Students Expect I have been wondering about the opinions of Polish students. So I asked three groups of my university students, most of whom had been learning English for about nine years. When answering the questions they were to refer to their general experience of learning English, but of course their most recent experience of an English class strongly influenced their answers. (NB. When there is xxx in the survey it means the given student did not give a reply)

NB. Please note the original grammar and spelling have been retained

The questionnaire

1. In an English language class I enjoy

• my teacher
• conversations and chatting
• possibility of speaking and using English
• well prepared materials, atmosphere
• a very nice atmosphere
• High level and challenge
• learning interesting things, getting knowledge
• speaking with native speakers
• speaking
• speaking
• exercises with grammar
• conversations
• speaking
• English
• speaking warm-ups
• atmosphere, many aspects of use of English
• speaking, learning lots of new words
• speaking
• discussion ( but those between 2-3 people)
• speaking, discussions
• conversations
• reading articles, discussing, listenings
• speaking, discussions
• talking in groups, additional materials, nice atmosphere
• It’s hard to say
• my teacher
• learning new words, reading literary texts
• expanding vocabulary
• discussion in group, everybody has to talk, that’s the most important in my opinion
• atmosphere
• the freedom of thoughts
• I am quite stressed
• speaking in a foreign language and practising conversations

• gap fills
• grammar
• hard structures, not enough discussions
• translating things into polish/english
• that we don’t talk a lot about grammar
• sometimes we focus on unimportant details
• learning a lot of vocabulary
• working with dictionaries, working on grammar
• learning new vocabulary
• grammar, reading
• reading
• xxxx
• grammar
• grammar
• writing tests
• getting up early in the morning
• xxx
• writing
• reading long articles ( wasting of time)
• grammar, reading
• xxx
• talking about pictures
• homeworks
• writing tests
• listening
• homophones
• grammar, exercises
• writing
• ‘ talk with your partner about’, nobody do this
• stressful situations
• translating
• my level of English
• grammar

• I can talk much
• we talk much
• we talk a lot about real life, spontanious problems
• we use dictionaries
• we talk about British culture
• I hear my teacher speaking, learn how to pronounce difficult words
• we have an occasion to speak out in front of the group
• I am being corrected when I make a mistake while speaking
• I am corrected for every mistake
• we do more exercises
• we talk a lot in english
• the teacher encourages people
• reading
• we are speaking
• we did the same grammar
• we talk about things from our life, dreams, travels etc
• we use dictionaries
• we discuss problems together
• xxx
• we work in groups
• we use dictionaries
• the teacher explains new words
• writing articles, writing foreign institutes
• we practise grammar, learn idioms, speak
• we repeat the same words, phrase every lesson
• I learn new vocabulary
• the teacher gives personal feedback
• I can freely communicate with a teacher
• we talk about
• we learn vocabulary
• students can tell their opinions so that they can practice, public speeches in some way
• teacher talk about ‘tricks’ in English
• we discuss a specific subject

• I am doing too much grammar
• we are to do grammar exercises
• I don’t have book
• we check homework
• I can’t focus on the topic
• we do easy grammar exercises
• we do reading in class
• learn the same things again and again
• I concentrate on the same grammar structures again and again
• I am not making any progress
• I do things that I am good at and I don’t need to exercise them
• I have to read longer texts
• nothing is done
• listening to faulty radio
• xxx
• I find words in English-english dictionary; English definition don’t tell me what the word exactly mean. I must guest and choose between some possible variations
• xxx
• I have to compare pictures
• doing too much grammar exercises
• I have to do grammar exercises, I have to talk about something I have no idea about
• additional writings, ex. writing sentences
• xxx
• I don’t come regularly
• xxx
• I learn in groups bigger than 10 people and when they are better than me
• xxx
• I write too many grammar exercises
• I become disorientated when the instructions are unclear
• I do all test ‘english in use’
• I’m sick or we have to talk about organisation’s issues
• we translate or focus most on the grammar
• they do exercises which I don’t understand
• waiting for my turn

• that she is always well prepared
• her strength in english at its best
• good knowledge, using English when talking about organisation issues
• talking loud and clear
• that she is very helpful
• a passion for teaching and attitude towards students
• when he/she cooperates with the group
• real interest in language
• knowing students’ strong and weak points
• the ability to interest students
• knowledge of english words
• his pronunciation and fluency
• an important factor of progress
• his general knowledge
• her great english pronunciation
• xxx
• amazing vocabulary, fluent speaking
• ability of explanation
• fluent in English
• his ability to motivate and activate the students
• the wide knowledge, wide vocabulary
• ideas, vocabulary, sense of humour
• perfect known of English, being very helpful, knowing how to ‘tell’ us her knowledge
• frequent changing the type of exercises to not get us bored
• when he/she is prepared for lesson and doesn’t waste time
• in good preparation
• knowledge, good pronunciation and broad vocabulary
• the wisdom, the knowledge and being understandable as well as understanding
• knowledge
• that she is really involved and she likes english language
• his knowledge and experience
• having big experience which helps in life and impress me
• the use of difficult or original phrases and a communicative attitude

• lack of her free time
• focusing on activities consisting of too much grammar
• holding too much to stiff structures
• sometimes talking to fast
• that she’s sometimes unorganised
• forgetfulness
• when she does to agree that he/she can make mistakes, when she goes too fast
• concentrating too much on formal aspects of language
• not adjusting the programme to students needs/ abilities
• the ability to teach too much in the same time
• poor accent
• when he is too hesitant
• not knowing the language almost perfectly
• his accent
• xxx
• xxx
• xxx
• lack of ability to explain problem easily
• a little variety in exercises
• routine
• lack of specialistic voc. e.g. biology
• using only the course book
• xxx
• hmm
• xxx
• bad accent
• a low level, no challenges
• paying too much attention to vocabulary
• as a person who should know everything
• xxx
• bad accent, lack of knowledge
• that you don’t like some of your students, but you can’t show it
• too much grammar

• high level of the group
• study hard
• that there is still much to learn
• that everybody likes each other
• that I know them well
• that it’s small and therefore the lessons are nice
• similar level of language of all the members
• feeling ok with my mistakes
• to know and like each other
• cooperation and if they are open minded
• that people know each other well, are eager to share their thoughts with the group
• the same level english
• quite level
• small number of participants
• that they are not afraid of speaking English
• it is useful
• regular learning at home
• that everybody tries to do its best
• the level of participants is similar
• to deepen our university language, written forms, practice specific vocabulary
• high level of english
• xxx
• we all are in the same age, we can better ‘feel’ each other
• I don’t understand this question
• xxx
• fine atmosphere
• improvement of my abilities, high level
• I like these people and our English level is similar
• level
• I know some people and I don’t so much nerve
• the same level of students
• xxx that the level is high

• often it’s useful
• good idea
• they’re very helpful
• it helps us
• it’s very good idea, we can be more creative
• important and widen our knowledge
• I like it because it’s different and interesting
• it makes the classes more interesting
• it broadens horizons
• it’s very usefull
• such things are necessary and quite helpful during learning foreign language
• additional audio materials are very useful as samples of ‘real’ spoken language
• it’s useful
• they’re usefull
• they are great
• it is useful
• they are necessary though slow down the work with a book a little bit
• sometimes they can be helpful but sometimes they can be a reason of loosing focus
• they are very useful
• they are useful
• it improves the vocabulary
• additional materials are useful and they make the class more interesting
• is very helpful
• they could sometimes be more interesting than the subjects in our study book, especially if they are connected with our research subject
• they are very helpful
• very good and important
• OK
• I don’t like too much paper flying around
• it’s good idea – materials which are useful for us
• they are very helpful
• they can help, the variety is good
• it is ambitious
• it is useful and completes the books, besides we have a variety of materials to base on

Conclusions

I find the answers very interesting, and there is clearly a pattern. When I read the responses, I cannot help wondering if the respondents had my classes in mind or some other teacher or teachers. No matter what the student had in mind, looking at the answers made me think about my own teaching and revise some of my practices. As with every feedback, it led to a bit of ‘soul-searching’. Perhaps you would like to do the same and share the outcome and reflections with HLT readers.

Please check the CLIL Materials Development ( Advanced Level) course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How the Motivate your Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.