Analysis: End of School Year 2010 Survey, CLIL & Non-CLIL Classes

Last updated: 15 June 2010

Complete details of the survey can be seen here: http://spreadsheets.google.com

I'd be lying if I said I was pleased with the number of students participating in the survey. A total of only 140 students from 3 schools completed the questionnaire. Here's the breakdown:

Los Tarahales:

1ºB (CLIL) --> 27

1ºA (Non-CLIL) --> 24

2ºA (Non-CLIL) --> 27

Total --> 78

Alonso Quesada:

1ºB (CLIL) --> 9

School X:

1ºA (CLIL) --> 18

1ºC (Non-CLIL) --> 6

2ºA (CLIL) --> 17

3ºA (CLIL) --> 11

4ºA (CLIL) --> 1

Total --> 53

In the case of Los Tarahales, I personally had the opportunity of bringing one class to the computer lab, and the other classes were brought by other teachers.

The turnout from Alonso Quesada was severely disappointing, to say the least.

It was rather difficult since I was no longer in the schools to remind the students to do it. I managed to cajole some of them through the various social webs I happen to find the students in, and I was hoping the teachers would be reminding the students about the survey, but I suppose they had more important matters in their minds, or they hadn't attached as much importance to this survey as I had.

ANALYSIS

It is worth noting that an overwhelming majority like being on the project and believe that their level of English has improved since they started on it. It is also hardly surprising that most would like to have more class time with the linguistic assistant.

Those who said they do not have the assistant in their English class unanimously agreed it would be a good idea if they did.

Since I started this project, my English has _____

I like being on this project.

To some, perhaps the most popular answer to the question, 'What do you like most about your English class?' will come as somewhat surprising. Games are, naturally, very popular, but significantly, 'grammar' scored quite high, too. For me, it's perfectly understandable as grammar provides a learner with confidence to use the language. This also explains the popularity of the grammar activities I have in the blog.

This leads us to the usage of the blog as a teaching resource. Unfortunately, teachers don't bring the students to the computer lab often enough, either due to lack of availability of computers, or the lack of belief on ICT as a resource, or, quite simply, they don't consider my blog activities as useful enough. I'm inclined to plump for either of the last two reasons as, significantly, half of those who responded said that their teachers never set the blog activities as homework.

Does your teacher set the blog activities as homework?