Page 116 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 5
5.4.3 Research Question 3: What is the relationship between the students’ level of engagement and the importance they ascribe to EFL literature lessons?
In order to reduce the data for further analysis a principal components analysis using a Varimax rotation was performed on the 15 underlying elements of the Comprehensive Approach. Based on the scree plot and the interpretability of the factor solution, a three-factor solution was selected, all with eigenvalues greater than 1, explaining 54% of the variance. Table 5.3 presents the pattern structure of the exploratory factor analysis, the items loading on each factor and the reliability coefficients of each factor as estimated by Cronbach’s alpha.
Table 5.3 Factor analysis of Comprehensive Approach / Loadings for three factors
No Factor 1:
8 7 3 6 4 1 5 2
15 Factor 2: 12 13 14 Factor 3: 10 11 9
Item F1 Literature (α = .855)
F2 F3
Literary history
Historical, cultural, and social context
Setting
Biographical information
Story, plot, and theme
Literary terminology
Characters
Genre
Language development & variety
Language (α = .721)
Grammar and syntax
Vocabulary and idioms
Language skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) Personal Development (α = .578)
Literary taste
Personal development
Reading experience
0.800 0.029 0.772 0.041 0.692 -0.089 0.662 -0.035 0.639 -0.040 0.607 0.428 0.596 -0.186 0.581 0.038 0.550 0.100
-0.054 0.820 -0.014 0.759 0.075 0.741
0.192 0.063 -0.006 0.262 0.259 0.153
-0.049 0.152 0.355 0.118 0.448 -0.155 0.354 0.053 0.213
0.053 0.176 0.176
0.794 0.657 0.511
The first factor contained 9 items with factor loadings from .550 to .800 and had an eigenvalue of 4.7, which explained 31% of the total variance. We labelled this factor Literature: the items are related to the Text approach (Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Context approach (Items 6, 7, and 8), and Language approach (Item 15). The second factor contained 3 items with factor loadings from .741 to .820 and had an eigenvalue of 2.2, which explained 15% of the total variance. It was labelled Language, as the items clearly relate language areas – grammar, vocabulary, and the four skills (items 12, 13 and 14 respectively). The third factor was contained by
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