Questionnaires in Second Language Research

Zoltán Dörnyei was a Hungarian-born British applied linguist. He was Professor of Psycholinguistics at the University of Nottingham, UK. He was one of the most prolific and influential researchers in second language acquisition and the psychology of foreign language learning. His work on motivation remains central in the field. He was awarded the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize in 1989.Jean-Marc Dewaele is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He has published widely on individual differences. He is former President of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA) and is General Editor of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. He won the Robert Gardner Award for Excellence in Second Language and Bilingualism Research in 2016 and the EUROSLA Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2022.

• Table of ContentsPreface to the Third Edition Introduction 1 Questionnaires in Second Language Research1.1 What Are "Questionnaires" and What Do They Measure? 1.1.1 What a Questionnaire Is Not 1.1.2 What Do Questionnaires Measure? 1.2 Using Questionnaires: Pros and Cons 1.2.1 Advantages 1.2.2 Disadvantages 1.3 Questionnaires in Quantitative and Qualitative2 Constructing the Questionnaire 2.1 General Features 2.1.1 Length 2.1.2 Layout 2.1.3 Sensitive Topics and Anonymity2.2 The Main Parts of a Questionnaire2.2.1 Title 2.2.2 Instructions 2.2.3 Questionnaire Items 2.2.4 Sociobiographical Information2.2.5 Additional Information2.2.6 Final "Thank You" 2.3 Appropriate Sampling of the Questionnaire Content and the Significance of "Multi-Item Scales" 2.3.1 Appropriate Sampling of the Content 2.3.2 Using Multi-Item Scales 2.4 "Closed-Ended" Questionnaire Items 2.4.1 Rating Scales 2.4.2 Multiple-Choice Items2.4.3 Rank Order Items 2.4.4 Numeric Items 2.4.5 Checklists 2.5 Open-Ended Questions 2.5.1 Specific Open Questions 2.5.2 Clarification Questions 2.5.3 Sentence Completion Items 2.5.4 Short-Answer Questions 2.6 How to Write Good Items 2.6.1 Drawing Up an "Item Pool" 2.6.2 Rules About Writing Items 2.6.3 Writing Sensitive Items 2.7 Grouping and Sequencing Items 2.7.1 Clear and Orderly Structure 2.7.2 Opening Questions 2.7.3 Factual (or "Personal" or "Classification") Questions at the Beginning or that the End?2.7.4 Open-Ended Questions at the End 2.8 Translating the Questionnaire2.8.1 Translation as a Team-Based Approach2.8.2 Translation with Limited Resources2.9 Computer Programs for Constructing Questionnaires2.10 Piloting the Questionnaire and Conducting Item Analysis2.10.1 Initial Piloting of the Item Pool 2.10.2 Final Piloting ("Dress Rehearsal") 2.10.3 Item Analysis 3 Administering the Questionnaire3.1 Selecting the Sample 3.1.1 Sampling Procedures 3.1.2 How Large Should the Sample Be? 3.1.3 The Problem of Respondent Self-Selection 3.2 Main Types of Questionnaire Administration 3.2.1 Administration by Mail 3.2.2 One-to-One Administration 3.2.3 Group Administration 3.3 Strategies to Increase the Quality and Quantity of Participant Response 3.3.1 Advance notice 3.3.2 Attitudes Conveyed by Teachers, Parents, and Other Authority Figures 3.3.3 Respectable Sponsorship 3.3.4 The Presence of a Survey Administrator 3.3.5 The Behavior of the Survey Administrator 3.3.6 Communicating the Purpose and Significance of the Survey 3.3.7 Emphasizing Confidentiality 3.3.8 Reading Out the Questionnaire Instructions 3.3.9 The Style and Layout of the Questionnaire 3.3.10 Promising Feedback on the Results 3.4 Questionnaire Administration, Confidentiality, and Other Ethical Issues 3.4.1 Basic Ethical Principles of Data Collection 3.4.2 Obtaining Consent for Children 3.4.3 Strategies for Getting Around Anonymity 4 Processing Questionnaire Data 4.1 Coding Questionnaire Data 4.1.1 First Things First: Assigning Identification Codes 4.1.2 Coding Quantitative Data 4.2 Inputting the Data 4.2.1 Creating and Naming the Data File 4.2.2 Keying in the Data4.3 Processing Closed Questions 4.3.1 Data Cleaning 4.3.2 Data Manipulation 4.3.3 Reducing the Number of Variables in the Questionnaire 4.3.4 Main Types of Questionnaire Data 4.3.5 Examining the Reliability and Validity of the Data 4.3.6 Statistical Procedures to Analyze Data 4.4 Content Analysis of Open-Ended Questions 4.5 Computer Programs for Processing Questionnaire Data 4.6 Summarizing and Reporting Questionnaire Data 4.6.1 General Guidelines 4.6.2 Technical Information to Accompany Survey Results 4.6.3 Reader-Friendly Data Presentation Methods 4.7 Complementing Questionnaire Data with Other Information 4.7.1 Questionnaire Survey with Follow-up Interview or Retrospection 4.7.2 Questionnaire Survey Facilitated by Preceding Interview 5 Online questionnaires 5.1 The effect of setting and social obligation in paper and online questionnaires 5.1.1 Social context in online questionnaires5.1.2 The ephemeral relationship between participant and researcher5.2 Fear and distrust of all types of questionnaires5.3 When online questionnaires are impractical or impossible5.4 Non-probability sampling in online questionnaires5.5 Developing a good online questionnaire5.5.1 Knowing something about statistics before creating a questionnaire5.5.2 Choosing a platform5.5.3 Pilot testing the online questionnaire5.6 Getting the snowball to roll5.6.1 Producing an attractive call for participation5.6.2 The appearance of the questionnaire5.6.3 The use of a progression bar5.6.4 Friendly academic nudging5.6.5 Rewarding participants5.7 When the harvest is in5.7.1 Cleaning the data5.7.2 Calculating internal consistency5.7.3 Being careful with automatic coding5.8 Running the statistics to answer the research questions: the Hallelujah moment5.8.1 Double-checking suspicious results5.8.2 Playing by the rules 5.8.3 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)6. Developing psychometrically sound instruments6.1 Developing and Validating the Short-form Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (S-FLES) (Botes et al., 2021)6.1.1 The background6.1.2 Developing a Short-Form through Sequential Steps6.1.3 Concluding Remarks on the S-FLES6.1.4 Final Short-form Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (S-FLES)6.2 Developing and validating a questionnaire to measure intensity and quality of L2 engagement (Teravainen-Goff, in preparation)6.2.1 Background6.2.2 Key challenges in developing the intensity and quality of L2 engagement questionnaire6.2.3 Final version of intensity and quality of L2 engagement questionnaire (Teravainen-Goff, in preparation)6.3 Developing and validating the Foreign Language Learning Boredom Scale (FLLBS) (Li et al., 2020)6.3.1 Initial conceptualization of the target construct6.3.2 Development of the initial questionnaire6.3.3 Validation of the questionnaire6.3.4 Final Foreign Language Learning Boredom Scale and its English translation7. Conclusion and ChecklistReferencesAppendixAuthor Index Subject Index