Saturday, April 23, 2011

Questionnaires in Second Language Research

One of the most common methods of data collection in second language
(L2) research is to use questionnaires of various kinds. The popularity of questionnaires is due to the fact that they are easy to construct, extremely versatile, and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable. In spite of the wide application of questionnaires in the L2 field, there does not seem to be sufficient awareness in the profession about the theory of questionnaire design and processing. Although questionnaire design, and more generally, survey research, has a substantial literature in the social sciences, this has not been sufficiently reflected in L2 methodology texts. The structure of the book is straightforward. After an initial chapter that discusses the nature, the merits, and the shortcomings of questionnaires, separate chapters cover the construction and the administration of the questionnaire, as well as the processing of questionnaire data. The book is concluded by a detailed checklist that summarizes the main principles and recommendations.


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