Learning a language online

The focus group for this study is people both who are currently learning a language and those who already know a foreign/second language. Data will be conducted from this group of people by distributing 11 close-ended questions. Instead of distributing questionnaire to random people, targeting people with foreign/secondary language experience is believed to give better outcome.

Among 15 respondents in this survey, there were 6 male and 9 female participants. Moreover, 8 of the were in the age group between 18 and 25, followed by 3 in the age group between 25-30, and 2 under 18 years old.

According to results, 9 out of 15 participants use 3 different languages in their daily life, which are Kazakh, Russian, and English and 5 others use only 2 languages in their daily life. Moreover, they according to the respondents, it usually takes then around 1-1.5 years to master a completely new language. However, this reply is very general and it is difficult to solely rely on this because languages like Chinese or Arabic may take longer time due to their complication level.

Furthermore, when asked the major driver in learning a new language, the answers were scattered more or less equally. And they also believe that the quality of teaching is the most important factor in learning a new language (7 out of 15) and role of a teacher in learning a new language is very critical (10 out of 15 answers).

The next three questions were related to learning a language online. Overall, the replies indicate that most respondents are neutral about using and implementing online tools in learning a new language. However, they do understand the benefits of technological improvements and they also do think that in the future online learning will become dominant in this area. 12 of the respondents out of 15 have not given a try to learning a language online. This can also explain the neutrality of the respondents to the above 3 questions about the trend of the language learning online.

Here are the mentioned 11 close-ended questions that were distributed as questionnaire:

1. How old are you?

a) younger than 18;

b) 18-25;

c) 25-30;

d) 30-35;

e) older than 35;

2. Specify your gender:

a) male;

b) female;

3. How many languages do you use in your daily life?

a) 1;

b) 2;

c) 3;

d) 4;

e) 5;

4. How long normally does it take you to learn a new language from scratch?

a) less than 6 months;

b) 0.5-1 year;

c) 1-1.5 years;

d) 1.5-2 years;

e) more than 2 years;

5. What is the major driver for you in learning a new language?

a) daily communication;

b) study;

c) business;

d) travel;

e) hobby;

6. What do you think is the most important factor in learning a language?

a) availability of resources;

b) frequency of the lessons;

c) teaching quality;

d) self-discipline;

e) difficulty of the language;

7. How critical is the role of a teacher in learning a new language?

a) not critical;

b) somewhat critical;

c) critical;

d) very critical;

e) not possible without a teacher;

8. Distance learning tools such as e-mail exchanges, phone lessons, different computer based software programs, and internet based online education are efficient.

a) strongly disagree;

b) disagree;

c) neutral;

d) agree;

e) strongly agree;

9. Online based language tutors are better than classroom teachers?

a) strongly disagree;

b) disagree;

c) neutral;

d) agree;

e) strongly agree;

10. Learning languages online will overtake classroom based teaching in the future.

a) strongly disagree;

b) disagree;

c) neutral;

d) agree;

e) strongly agree;

11. Did you try online learning yet?

a) yes;

b) no;

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16