My original thought was to carry out a study on gifted students, since most of my limited teaching experience deals with them. I realized after considering the schools in which I'd be carrying out the study that most foreign language classrooms don't distinguish "gifted" or "advanced" classes from regular classes. I could still obtain this information from school records, so I haven't completely discarded the idea. I also pondered the possibility of questionable ethics in obtaining records from the schools to determine the classification of the students in my sample; or how I would report the findings without offending or upsetting the subjects of the study.
I've been thinking about a few questions about reading; specifically the amount of reading assignments in Middle School Spanish classrooms and the effect on the students' overall acquired language proficiency. It would be easiest to test overall proficiency by either giving a test or assessing their performance on oral assignments after several weeks of additional reading assignments. Perhaps I should focus on the relationship between additional reading assignments and oral proficiency? My thought is to compare two groups to study: a control group that would complete the classroom teacher's typically assigned reading assignments versus a group given additional reading assignments to prepare outside of class (or in class). My thought was that the study group would consist of "gifted" students in the class, or rapid learners who may easily complete the regularly-assigned reading material and who may be intrinsically motivated to read more. My hypothesis would sound something like, "Do additional (or more challenging?) reading assignments improve overall acquired language proficiency in a Middle School (or grade specific) Spanish class? I realize I would have to provide operational definitions of "additional reading", "more challenging reading", and "overall language proficiency". I believe the hypothesis as it stands is more of a non directional hypothesis because I'm attempting to find a relationship between addtional reading and acquired proficiency. I assumed, prior to reading about research methodology, that a foreign language study would be qualitative; however, if I'm to compare two clearly defined variables, it sounds more like a quantitative experimental study. Thoughts?
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3 comments:
Kelsey, you could get permission from parents to view student records, but I don't think you want to limit your work to gifted students. I like your interest in amount of reading assignments. I think that is a good possibility. You will need to be open to other methods such as surveying or interviewing teachers to ask their experiences with readings. This is an excellent beginning.
Kelsey, I know that where my aunt teaches French in Greenville, SC, they do divide the foreign language classes into "regular" and "advanced". There is Honors French (the higher level) and CP French (I have no idea what that stands for) so I don't think you need to completely throw that idea out the window.
I find the topic of outside reading assignments interesting. I didn't take a foreign language in middle school, but generally, in high school I did not have outside reading assignments (not until I took AP Spanish) my senior year. The homework assignments were either grammar focused or vocabulary focused, not reading for comprehension. So I would definitely find a study relating outside reading assignments to perhaps oral skills quite interesting.
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