Perceptions of Language Futures: student and teacher surveys
Language Futures is a PHF education initiative that works to improve language learning in schools. It was originally conceived as part of the Learning Futures initiative, in which we learnt about student-led learning and informal education as a driver of pupil engagement. Language Futures builds on these approaches within a particular area of the curriculum.
During the 2013/14 school year, a number of schools developing Language Futures conducted student and teacher perceptions surveys. This article, also published on the Language Futures website, explores what can be learnt from the perception data gathered.
What data was gathered?
Three of the pilot schools surveyed teachers and pupils to capture information about their perceptions of Language Futures. In 2013/14, Ely College used Language Futures approaches for all Year 8 students, Linton Village College for some Year 8 students and Gladesmore Community School for some Year 7 students.
- Pupils in Language Futures classes at all three schools, and those receiving traditional language education in the same years at Gladesmore Community School and Linton Village College (hereafter referred to as ‘non-Language Futures’ students), completed perceptions surveys during the autumn and summer terms.
- Teachers from all three schools who were using Language Futures approaches completed a perceptions survey in the summer of 2014.
Student perceptions surveys
The survey was designed to capture pupils’ views across five different areas associated with their language learning: motivation, learning approach, relevance, progress and relationships. In total, students were asked to rate their level of agreement with 39 different statements.
Table 1. Number of survey respondents
School | Date | Language Futures | Non-Language Futures |
Ely College | Autumn 2013 | 87 | NA |
July 2014 | 96 | NA | |
Gladesmore Community School | Autumn 2013 | 26 | 17 |
July 2014 | 23 | 13 | |
Linton Village College | Autumn 2013 | 30 | 39 |
July 2014 | 26 | 15 | |
Autumn 2013 Total | 143 | 56 | |
July 2014 Total | 145 | 28 |
The results provide a high-level summary of the responses from the second survey, in July 2014, comparing the responses of students experiencing Language Futures approaches across the three schools (n=145) with the responses of those receiving other language provision (n=28).
It is important to note that the students were not randomly allocated to receive the different types of language learning and therefore it is not possible to say that the differing survey results are solely caused by Language Futures. It is most likely that the results observed are also due to the different characteristics of Language Futures and non-Language Futures students (for example, their different levels of motivation or prior knowledge of a second language) which might have affected their selection into a particular group.
Across the 39 statements, 33 were framed positively, e.g. “I am happy to be learning a language” and six were framed negatively, e.g. “I am usually bored in my language lessons“.
In general, a higher proportion of Language Futures students from the three schools either agreed or strongly agreed with the positive statements than the non-Language Futures students; and for the negative statements more non-Language Futures students tended to agree. This was true of all the statements designed to measure ‘Motivation’, ‘Learning Approach’ and ‘Relevance’. However, there were some less consistent results for the statements relating to ‘Progress’ and ‘Relationships’.
Motivation
Ninety per cent of the Language Futures students agreed with three of the positive statements measuring motivation, in all cases a higher percentage than the non-Language Futures students: “I am happy to be learning a language” (non-Language Futures = 71%); “I am interested in what I’m learning in my language lessons” (non-Language Futures = 54%); and “I put a lot of effort into my language learning” (non- Language Futures = 71%).
Learning Approach
There were sizeable differences in the percentage of students agreeing with two of the five statements: “I enjoy my language lessons more than most other lessons” with 63% of Language Futures and 14% of non-Language Futures students agreeing; and “My language learning has given me the skills and confidence to learn independently“, with 75% of Language Futures and 25% of non-Language Futures students agreeing. The smallest difference was for the statement “I know how to use the internet to support my language learning“, with 87% of Language Futures and 82% of non-Language Futures students expressing agreement.
Relevance
Over 80% of Language Futures students agreed with three of the seven relevance statements, in all cases a higher percentage than the non-Language Futures students: “My language learning is important to me” (non-Language Futures = 39%); “I’m learning useful things in my language lessons” (non-Language Futures = 57%); and “My language learning is preparing me well for life after school” (non-Language Futures = 36%).
Progress
There were some slightly unusual patterns in the responses to three of the statements. While a comparison of ‘All Language Futures’ and ‘non-Language Futures’ responses followed the prevailing pattern of agreement, the results were more variable across the three Language Futures school groups considered separately. These statements were: “I worry about the difficulty of learning my language“; “I’m confident of achieving my target in my language learning” and “I’m confident reading in my language“. These results highlight that it is important to look at the evidence from individual schools as well as the overall picture to investigate where there might be opportunities to share learning and further adapt or embed the Language Futures approach.
Relationships
A slightly higher percentage of non-Language Futures students (75%) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I regularly receive helpful feedback on my language learning” in comparison to the Language Futures students (71% in total). The difference is small, but potentially worth further investigation.
These early findings give a flavour of the survey responses. They suggest that Language Futures might be experienced positively by some students; however, further work with a larger cohort would enable stronger conclusions to be drawn.
Teacher perceptions survey
Ten language teachers from across the three schools completed a perceptions survey in the summer of 2014. They were asked for their views about how Language Futures affected their students’ learning and how it affected their practice.
The responding teachers expressed their most consistent views about two statements in particular, where nine out of the ten teachers either ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’, that “Since introducing a Language Futures approach…”.
- The pupils in my group(s) responded well to Language Futures; and
- I found Language Futures challenging to implement
Followed by three statements, where eight out of the ten respondents either ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that “Since introducing a Language Futures approach….”
- My students have a more positive approach to language learning;
- My students are more confident and skilled in learning independently; and
- Language Futures will have a long term impact on my teaching.
Given the small number of responses it is not possible to say anything very concrete about teachers’ perceptions of Language Futures. However, these findings show that some teachers do see positive impacts from Language Futures on their students, but also that it can be challenging to implement. These issues would benefit from further investigation as the programme and evaluation work develops.
What next?
The small number of respondents and the underlying differences between the Language and non-Language Futures students make it difficult to draw strong conclusions from the data. These early findings do, however, highlight some areas for exploration and further testing as Language Futures approaches are adopted by different schools and in different settings.
It is promising that some of the findings indicate that Language Futures approaches are viewed positively by students and some teachers, but it is also true that some teachers experienced challenges in implementing the programme.
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