Page 104 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind
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Chapter 4. Perspective of the students - adaptivity
on a specific cycle of the self-evaluation procedure. The perception of the feedback and improvement activities would be more concrete in such interim questionnaires than when asked about feedback and activities in general over a longer period of time.
Another explanation for the decline in the post-measurement might be that students had become more critical through the self-evaluation procedure, that is, more conscious by thinking about whether they were getting what they needed.
Research question C To what extent did students experience the self-evaluation procedure as motivating and did their speaking anxiety change during the course of iterations of the self- evaluation procedure?
The results showed a mean of 3.65 for appreciation of the different main activities of the self- evaluation procedure on a scale of 5. It was expected that recording and re-listening to their own speaking performances would be the least motivating because listening to one’s own voice can be a strange experience, but it was still appreciated with an average score of 3.28. Making and executing a plan for improvement was most appreciated.
We did not find any change in speaking anxiety after the self-evaluation procedure. As with the questionnaire on adaptivity, the questions addressed anxiety about speaking in the classroom in general, rather than anxiety during a self-evaluation-procedure cycle specifically. Additionally, it may be that the period of the intervention (four months) was too short to bring about a change in speaking anxiety. Longitudinal research in which the self-evaluation procedure is used structurally for a long time should show whether the procedure has an effect on the level of speaking anxiety.
Limitations of this study
The ultimate goal of the self-evaluation procedure was to help students to improve their speaking skills themselves. A limitation of this study was that we did not measure whether there was any improvement in speaking skills. The scope of this study was constrained by its aim which was to help students to learn to self-regulate their speaking skills. Therefore, we did not measure speaking skills and cannot say whether and to what extent they may have improved.
Another limitation is that this study focused on the perceptions of the students. Shifts in evaluations and plans were found. However, we cannot conclude that these shifts mean
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