Page 86 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

Chapter 4. Perspective of the students - adaptivity 4.4 Method
4.4.1 Participants
Experimental group
The study was conducted among 329 students learning a foreign language at regular secondary schools in the Netherlands. Their foreign language teachers (two German teachers, four English teachers, three French teachers and two Spanish teachers) were recruited by Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching. They were asked in an e-mail whether, in the context of a study, they and their students were prepared to fill in questionnaires on speaking skills in the classroom and to try out a new approach for adaptive feedback and support which consisted of self-evaluation procedures in order to improve students’ speaking skills. The self- evaluation procedures were carried out at 10 different schools offering three different types of secondary education: two year-2 vwo classes, two year-3 vwo classes, one year-4 vwo class, three year-5 vwo classes, two year-6 vwo classes, one year-2 havo class, three year-3 havo classes, one year-4 havo class, three year-5 havo classes and one year-3 vmbo class. For the purpose of this study, it was not necessary to select students with the same level of language skills, background, motivation or other variables, because we were particularly interested in the extent to which students, who are learning a foreign language at regular secondary schools and may have all kind of different characteristics, perceive the feedback and activities for improvement provided as tailored to them.
Control group
The control group consisted of 369 students learning a foreign language at regular secondary schools in the Netherlands. Their teachers were recruited by Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching and asked in an e-mail whether they and their students were prepared to fill in two digital questionnaires on speaking skills in the classroom in the context of a study into adaptive feedback and support for speaking skills. 329 students of 17 modern foreign language teachers (five German teachers, five English teachers, six French teachers and one Spanish teacher) completed both questionnaires (pre- and post-measurement) about teaching speaking skills in year-3 vwo, year-4 vwo, year-5 vwo, year-6 vwo, year-2 havo, year- 3 havo, year-4 havo, year-5 havo, and year-3 mavo/vmbo classes.
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