Page 90 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 4
Despite the fact that the three core curriculum standards apply to all foreign languages taught in Dutch secondary education (i.e. English, French, German, and Spanish), in this study we focus only on English as a foreign language. The findings may differ for elective languages.
4.3 Method
4.3.1 Participants
Between September 2014 and September 2015, the researcher contacted several secondary schools in the north of the Netherlands through her professional network. The selection of schools was based on convenience sampling where the researcher knew at least one of the EFL teachers. The schools were all located in the four northern provinces of the Netherlands, representing both rural and small town schools, with a relatively very low level of cultural diversity in the student population. A total of 635 students (all pre-university level year 5 students aged between 15 - 17) from 15 different schools and 28 different classes participated. Even though participation in this research was voluntary, all students cooperated. Data collection was completely anonymous and students’ answers were not shared with their teachers. Table 4.1 presents an overview of the data collected.
Table 4.1 Overview of 15 participating schools
School No. of classes participating A3
B2
C1
D2 E1 F3 G1 H4 I2 J1 K2 L2 M2 N1 O1
Total no. of students 61
50
28
48 21 75 16 88 45 19 51 50 23 31 29
88