Individual Differences Survey for Learners of Chinese

Too bad, you don't live in Chengdu. We have Starbucks here, too. you could just send me the gift voucher??

John, I guess sambil274 answered by expanding his profile :-)

Thanks a lot Kyle for your participation in the research! Let me know if you are in Tianjin, and I will treat you to a cup of joe. I expect that it will be 6 to 8 weeks before I have all my data in (the survey was put out to the public only 36 hours ago). I already would like to get about 200 responses altogether. That way, you can see how your results compare to others. Also, you will get a description of your self as a motivated, strategy-using language learner. Now, back to work!

I had some difficulties filling out that particular questionnaire. It seems to be designed for quantitative analyses, as there are no open or mixed questions at all. Many times I couldn't give exact answers as I: - never took Chinese classes - I only had a real teacher for a month (Aggie). - I never had to do any "assignments". - I never took had to take any tests. - I am not from the US. - My mother tongue is not English. - I do not memorize vocab. I listen to podcasts. - My motivation is of pure personal nature (the husband/wife/kid/kid in law option that is important for so many here is not included) Besides: Some results will definately look contradicting. But that is the way with Chinese. Sometimes it seems like a total waste of time, on other occations it feels like it is exactly what fates wants me to do (despite a lack of talent).

I, also, have never attended a class. I've been studying on my own since day 1. I hope that doesn't affect my the questionnaire!

Done. I will provide you with a mailing address to send the Starbucks voucher to....(-:

And my times in class are many, many years back. I smiled at times filling out the questionnaire. Some answer will seem to contradict one another -for some of the reasons mentioned by Henning. Maybe you should limit it to North Americans?

I will admit, some aspects of the survey were designed with North Americans who have learned in a somewhat traditional way (i.e. going to class, having a text book, etc.) in mind. I am grateful for all of you who have taken the survey so far. If you don't study vocab, only listen to chinesepod podcasts, then fine. Those questions about strategies involved in learning vocabulary may no be applicable to you. I thank you Henning for filling out what you could. Some people whose primary exposure to Chinese learning is through Chinesepod may or may not have explicitly attempted to learn vocabulary. But for those who listen, take notes on what they listen to, look at the pdf lesson files that come with each podcast, are all using strategies to learn vocabulary. I am going on a hypothesis that In general one can't really learn a language without learning vocabulary. There is more to learning vocabulary strategy-wise, than just memorizing lists. For example, repetition, thinking about how the word was used in an example sentence, using it in a sentence yourself, etc. Regarding a couple of quesitons that seem to be targeted primarily at North Americans, don't let that stop you from taking the survey. They are a very small part of the survey, one that reflects some North American attitudes toward learning languages, not a big part of the learning motivation construct. I love that I am getting so much European response because it adds some great perspective to the study. REgarding open-ended questions, I am planning on following up the quantitative part of the data gathering process with a more qualitative one. This is why I requested names and contact information on the last line, so that I could keep in touch with those willing to discuss their Chinese learning journey. So Henning, if you don't mind, I will be looking you up in the next few weeks to chat. I'm out like Andy Roddick.

You can contact me. As I am off to Beijing tomorrow I am not certain about my availability during the next 4 weeks, though. Hope, I get my own Internet access, but am not certain yet.

I understand your reasons for making the survey the way you did but couldn't help smiling at some of the questions. It would be fun to know how the European responses reflect our prejudices on North Americans and language learning. Especially the one about learning two languages. I can't help thinking: only two? Also I wasn't quite sure what to do with all the vocabulary questions. I've almost never in all my language learning, not even as a child, studied vocabulary, or at least not in the way I understood the questionaire.

Done and done. It will be interesting to get the completed results back from everyone's survey. And how I wish Harbin had a Starbucks. =/

So is this research for a Masters in Applied Linguistics?

Lunetta, I am going to look into the wording of the questions. I feel like you might be reading some things into the questions that aren't there (like limiting the definition of learning vocabulary items to memorizing lists or something, though I am guessing that is what you think the questions are referring to). Your comments are valuable, and I will see if there are any ways I can phrase the questions better for future participants. Thanks.

Sambil, that was more or less what I was trying to say. It may just be my own idiosyncratic reading of the questions but on the other hand it could also be my non-american background that makes me read the questions in a different way. There were a couple of other questions in the last sections that I found ambiguous as well but unfortunately I can't remeber them exactly now.

When I did the vocabulary section, I detected some underlying assumptions - that vocab learning is boring - and I don't actually agree with it. What do you base your assumptions on when designing a survey?

I didn't take the survey - unless there's a good reason to I generally don't. I think the least one can do when making such requests for "20-30" minutes of people's time is give comprehensive background about what they're trying to achieve, as well as their own background. I'm not impressed by a bunch of Starbuck vouchers or profile limited to "来自美国, 在天津读书."

I took it because I know when I was doing my research on Japanese Chinese relations I really appreciated the 30 or 40 people that agreed to participate in my survey. It really added valuable insight to my paper. I drew conclusions from it and they would be certainly be questioned if it was a phd thesis, but it was ok for an undergrad paper. Ok, my language study has been a little messy. I took Chinese for two years at University but the classes did nothing but bump my GPA with A+'s. I was also taking Japanese at the same time and that is where most of my langauge effort went. I had lived in China before and put some effort in to learning so when that at the end of two years they had just reached the level I was at when I entered the class. Actually the best student in the class minus myself and my friend from HK, received all A+'s and he can't even carry on a conversation in Chinese. We all went out to shoot pool one night and he was lost in the mix of English, Cantonese, Mandarin and really bad Spanish. I think that attests to the limitations of a university class once a week for 3 hours for 2 years. For me the best thing is a combination of intensive study along with the ability to use it. That is the only way that I will every remember vocab, if it becomes useful in a situation. I was helping the Chinese association in Fredericton NB with there program and I saw that the students were all just memorizing unless vocab. I mean cauliflower? The kids can't even put together a sentence, how are they every going to be able to include this and remember it. They were all bored and hated learning Chinese so I felt bad for them. I mean i look forward to sitting down with my books and spending a couple hours slogging through them. They were doing all the work but getting none of the satisfaction of being able to actually use it. Henning, Have fun in Beijing. Do your best to force people to speak to you in Chinese. Don't let move to English just because it might be better than you Chinese.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the survey so far. Thanks also for the helpful comments you have provided, which are going to make the survey more and more effective. Luneta, I am taking into account what you have said about the survey, and am in the process of tweaking the questions a bit. Henning, thanks for your helpful comments about research in general and specifically about the survey. Goulniky, your point is well taken. Tianfeng, I really appreciate your accounts of your language learning experiences.

How about my question? It was: is this research for a Masters in Applied Linguistics?

In the fourth part of the survey, there are some questions posed about how one goes about learning vocabulary (i.e. "When learning vocabulary I have special techniques to achieve my learning goals"). As I see it, there are three main pre-suppositions involved in asking these questions: 1. Vocabulary learning is a big part of learning any language. It is hard to get around the fact that the stream of speech that is language is composed of individual units, words, which the learner needs to acquaint one's self with. I would suggest that if you are not learning words, then you are not learning the language. 2. We all have ways we learn vocabulary items, varying in levels of effectiveness and ability to keep ourselves mentally involved. Some strategies that work for one will not work as well for others. Some strategies are probably inferior, and are the result of a lack of creativity in the learning process. 3. When we talk about vocabulary learning we are not necessarily talking about memorizing a list of words, in fact, usually the best learners know that we are not really talking about that at all. We may be referring to repetition (visual, audio or both), but also to use in context, mental maping, selective attention, use of two or more in combination with each other, etc. The list goes on, and the use of different strategies or tactics for learning vocabulary items differ in levels of effectiveness for different people. The questions are asking to what degree have you found and used what works for you, that is makes you better at understanding and using these lexical items. What works for you may very well be listening to podcasts. If so, congratulations!