2004 Spring Oral/Listening English Evaluation Analysis

After each student completed the 2004 Oral/Listening English Final Exam, formally concluding their coursework for the spring semester, they were given a copy of the 2004 Oral/Listening English Evaluation to optionally fill out in their free time. Here I present some findings based on compiling the resulting forms with three major goals: first, to chronicle my shared attempt with my students to better understand language learning and instruction, for memory's sake; second, to bring to light changes that can be made in the short term to improve the quality of instruction offered to my students by the International Education Program at HIE; and finally, to help future teachers of my students to understand their temperaments and needs.

A total of 65 evaluation forms were collected from the 115 distributed, a return rate of 57%. First, please consider the evaluation form and the quantitative data presented in the following chart (click to view an enlarged version):

A perusal of the data suggests several trends. First, all students believed the style of teaching (the first group of bars) and material taught (the third group of bars) was average or better; the mean for these two items is somewhere on the good side of average and good. Well, that's encouraging for me! There was, however, a greater variation of opinion on the quality of the classroom environment (the second group of bars). My interpretation of this can be found in the following paragraph. The final two groups of bars are interesting in that they show, while most students neither studied very hard nor completely neglected their studies, they also largely felt that their oral and listening English improved this semester. Disclaimer: I am not a statistician. However, one might hypothesize a direct, linear relationship between how much students study and how confident they feel that their English has improved. A correlation analysis on these two groups of data yields an index of 0.406, indicating the said direct, positive, linear relationship. I do not pretend to know how much certainty this figure provides, and neither will I discuss the causal relation between the two factors at this time.

I did not specify what was meant by "Classroom Environment" on the survey, and students apparently interpreted the phrase variously as the study atmosphere I created as the teacher, the atmosphere generated by their classmates, and the physical layout of and facilities available in the classroom. Many students mentioned how pleasant it was to have classes outdoors on occasion, and suggested that classes be held outside more often. However, even more students complained about the difficulty or impossibility of studying in overheated classrooms, and thought air conditioners would make it much easier to study in the summer months. For example, because of the AC, it was a relief to have class in room E-201.

One student pointed out the awkward setup of E-201 as an impediment to student-teacher interactions, though, and I must concur; this is something I have discussed with John previously. While being able to use the computer is great for instructional purposes, the large desk protecting the teaching podium and the walls and glass barriers built into each student desk all obstruct the movement of energy between possible conversants. Far from giving each his or her personal space, they constrict and suffocate. Currently, there is also no easy way for the teacher to move from one aisle to another without either crossing the teaching podium or walking all the way to the back of the room. One solution would be to remove all wings and glass panes on the desks, and remove the front row of desks altogether to create a space for the teacher to walk in directly in front of the students, without any desks in between. To maximize the "breathability" of the room (some might say Feng Shui), students should get in the habit of always pushing in their chairs after the end of class, as well as stacking any extra chairs neatly instead of leaving them to block the aisles, which are narrow enough as it is.

Students thought the classroom was relaxed and comfortable, and liked it that way. "I think everyone should speak English, and needn't worry about make mistake." "When I made mistakes he did not point out immediately, and he told me after I finished my talking." Students enjoyed the synergy of active classmates on the good days, even if the took the form of heated arguments. They loved role plays. But they were also annoyed when the energy level was low. On these days, class was "just so so. It [the quality of the classroom environment] is up to the classmates." Several commented that dividing the classroom into two halves of 20 or so students each was a good way to give them more chances to talk directly with the teacher. Others wrote that I was a patient teacher and appreciated it: "Everytime Bino asked us questions, when we didn't know how to answer them, he always gave us a lot of encouragement, and gave us some promptings." However, some didn't like being nominated to answer questions: "I don't like he asks everyone should answer his question which we are not interested." "I dislike Bino's asking questions." To which I can only say, the discomfort of answering questions likely stems from either a fear of answering incorrectly and losing face, or simply the challenge of learning and putting knowledge to use.

Students uniformly complained that listening classes were boring or learned nothing from them. (Although some students said they found all topics to be interesting, none identified any of the listening topics as particularly interesting.) Ergo, I believe the listening exercises, as I taught them, were not primed for or well-integrated with the other topics of discussion. Perhaps another contributing factor is that listening is by nature more passive and similar to test-taking; there is virtually no room for creativity when completing the exercises. Listening to the radio or other programs informally, as some students have suggested, might provide more space for creative thought simply by releasing students from the obligation of answering questions; they become free to concentrate on how what they hear provokes their interest. However, both teacher and student lose any so-called "objective" measures with which to gauge the student's progress. Perhaps a mixture of formal and informal listening exercises would make the overall experience more bearable. Sheer lack of time made listening seem more of an appendage of sorts to oral class than a genuine component, despite the change made towards the middle of the semester to hold combined classes the second class of each week, strictly reserved for listening. Listening really ought to be a separate class. My inexperience in providing appropriate listening exercises may also have played a role in the students' dissatisfaction; the CSWE III Workbook material and IELTS practice exercises were not deeply appealing to many. Here are some examples of students' comments and suggestions about listening:

• I would like to have listening class like last semester Mrs. Qi let us listen to the radio, it is a best way to improve our listening comprehension.
• It's better that if we could talk more, can give us more time on speaking English. The listening have little effect sometimes.
• I want to Mrs. Cao teach us more grammars. Give us a chance to listen to the radio, such as VOA, BBC to improve our listening skills. Let us listen to the English song or watch the movies.
• I hope our listening lessons should be improved.

Below, I have grouped responses to question 6 on the evaluation form into categories. The number of instances students mentioned each category in each context is given. Of course, the organization is somewhat subjective; however, I tried to be as methodical as possible in grouping student responses:

Nearly all commenting students thought using computers in class and for Wiki assignments was interesting. This seems to show that practical computer usage is still a novel phenomenon in their academic regimen. Many students, while having a measure of basic computer knowledge, could do little more than open a web browser and click links at first, and had a hard time mastering the concepts required for negotiating the EnglishWiki assignments. As their familiarity with computers grew, so did their enjoyment of these assignments, working together, and enthusiasm in going to the computer lab after their regular classes. This emphasizes the absolute necessity of a practical computing component in their coursework, which is impossible to implement without a functional, modern, well maintained, staffed and supervised computer lab.

Travelling was an incontrovertibly well-liked topic. Students were excited to share their experiences from the Guilin trip, to talk about places they hope to travel to in the future, and expand on the seeds ofhypothetical vacation plans. A discussion of shared feelings and opportunity for reflection on the meaning of travel immediately following the Guilin trip would be a timely exercise; students could even practice storytelling or reenact interesting anecdotes. To neglect this would be a waste of the juiciest of opportunities! Care must be taken to select authentic activities that capitalize on the enthusiasm generated by the trip; students were nearly unanimous in their disapproval of the speeches about travelling given during the trip itself; they thought the topic was dry and played out. Instead, a fun activity might be for all students to bring one or two photographs they took during the journey to class, and explain in English to classmates why the picture is significant. A more integrative approach might be to have students create English travel brochures which describe the place, suggest tour routes, and provide information about food and accommodations, in color and complete with drawings or photographs!

All commenting students were very positive about the interview activity, which I also felt was very successful. In fact, it was so popular that it garnered the most votes for activity deserving of more time. I believe the key was that in the activity, students could engage each other in meaningful, one to one conversations, with enough structure given by the interview format to provide interest and avoid uncomfortable stretches of silence or losses for words. The preparatory homework required students to become experts in themselves, essentially, and insofar as people love talking about themselves or imagined selves ("possible selves") and also are curious about each other, the role assignments of interviewer and interviewee felt natural. There was first confusion, then great excitement when I told the interviewers and interviewees to keep their roles, but rotate among different classmates. I remember that the students were so caught up in their English interviews that they were very reluctant to leave class after the activity! In hindsight, I should have continued the activity for another day or two, or at least revisited it at the end of the semester!

Many students liked the speech exercise, even putting it down as the activity they learned most from. Others who mentioned speeches disliked it. One of the primary reasons seemed to be that it was seen as a waste of time. I made all of the students give speeches using outlines written by classmates. I readily admit that, it being my first time putting this activity together, I was quite disorganized and took more time trying to figure out how to randomly pair students up with outlines while also giving them at least a few minutes to prepare for their speeches than should have been necessary. It was a battle deciding what language and discussion points to bring up about each speech, and which to simply sit on until later in order to save time. I told students that each speech need not be longer than 1-2 minutes, but many students spoke for much longer than the required time, which was a blessing and curse; the latter for time management. The limit to how much a single teacher can accomplish in a 45-minute class became all too apparent. Students probably found the prospect of speaking in front of all of their classmates without having prepared for more than a few minutes, using a completely foreign speech outline, spiteful on my part. Of course it was painful for some, but I insist that they all participants learned something of confidence, outline usage, and improvisational thinking in the process. My conclusion is that better planning and smoother transitions would have made the experience that much more enjoyable!

The two movies Philadelphia and Japanese Story were not commented upon as much as I expected. Students are not used to thinking critically about movies in this fashion, evidenced the rampant plagiarism that occurred on the compare and contrast essay task. Many liked talking about food and recipes, and while some did not, the topic was apparently more memorable than others. The divide between those who liked debating the merits and demerits of marriage was likewise polar and marked. Data for the remaining elements is too sparse to base general conclusions upon.

In conclusion, an exit survey in the form of a course evaluation can be an informative component of any academic class. It is a tool the instructor can leverage to gauge student reception to and the efficacy of different teaching styles, content, and activities. Additionally, students also have a rare chance to offer, anonymously, suggestions on how the teacher may improve his or her teaching, as well as how the school administration may improve the teaching environment. All of these are positive, constructive forces which can only help present and future teachers better understand and fulfill the needs of their students by broadening the avenues of communication between teachers and students. On a more personal note, careful analysis of such a survey can provide both reassurance to the teacher who, truth be told, can easily become discouraged by perceived failures in teaching, and a shot in the arm where needed, to remind the teacher to be honest and vigilant in assessing the effectiveness of methods and their outcomes.

2004.7.26