Urgently need your help for Foreign Teachers Survey

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

The purpose of my survey of “Work Values of Foreign English Teachers in Taiwan” is to improve understanding and communication between schools and teachers.

I would really appreciate, if you can take a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire.

The link of my questionnaire is as follows. Please make a click on it.

my3q.com/go.php?url=su1163/13506

If you would like a copy of the results of my study, please send a seperate email to sesame05@hotmail.com

Thank you for you time and your help. :help:

Sincerely yours,

Graduate Student of National Chiayi University
Su, Wen-Wen

2

I took a quick look at your survey questions. In many of them, you might want to be more clear – are you asking whether the person WANTS/BELIEVES IN these conditions, or whether s/he HAS them now in the job s/he is in? Especially for the questions on the third (?) screen (in the numbers around the 50s) this is unclear, and it will definitely impact your results greatly.

3

61 questions is a tad too many…many people who may be happy to reply might be turned off by the sheer number of questions.

4

wenwen, have you piloted this questionnaire prior to posting it? there are a great many ambiguities that are going to affect your results.

i suggest removing the link and finding/paying a native speaker to go through your questions with you. this will result in a better project in the end.

5

Dear Forumosa friends,

Thank you for filling out my questionnaire and your advice. Regarding to the problems of the questionnaire, I’ve employed an American teacher whose major is bilingual education to check my questionnaire, and the third section of the questionnaire developer is a famous American professor.

I’m neither a native speaker nor a well-known professor, so I cited his questionnaire directly. However, I could not find out his original one. I’ve requested two of my American friends. who are studying for their PHD degrees to search for the original questionnaire in their library, but couldn’t find any.

I appreciate your advice and still hope more foreign English teachers help me fill it out, because the deadline that my professor set is coming in three days. I need at least 200, but I have only got less than 80. PLEASE HELP ME FILL IT OUT.
(Later, I’ve asked my professor to postpone the deadline to this Sunday.)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

ALL THE BEST,
WENWEN

6

That’s a start.

But look, Wenwen. I’ve done surveys for my first MA, my PhD and my second MA (the last one in Taiwan).

You have to get someone who knows survey writing to check this – NOT just a native speaker of English. The average person doesn’t have any experience in writing surveys, and if this is the basis for your research, you have to make sure it is measuring what you want it to measure.

As others have said, the survey also has to be of a reasonable length. There is something called “rater fatigue” that makes data collected from the end of a long survey less valid than data from earlier sections. It doesn’t matter how good the original professor’s survey is, if the subjects are so tired and annoyed by the time they get there to answer the questions. They will give more or less random answers.

The most important thing, though, is that every question you do ask has to be clear.

To get more subjects, I suggest that you try to get in touch with some of the Chinese language teaching centers around the island, and see if they will post notices on the bulletin boards there to look for foreign students who might be teaching as well as studying Chinese. Posting here is a good idea but that will help also.

Why do you need 200 subjects? What sort of statistical analysis are you going to do? Unless you’re doing factor analysis, you should be able to do an MA-level study with around 50 subjects. You can use many statistical methods with a small sample size, and even with chi-square there are modified methods for small samples that would work. Make sure your supervising professor really KNOWS statistics. This is a major problem in Taiwan. They get the idea that you need a certain number of subjects not because of genuine statistical requirements but because they saw that number in some journal article and figure that it sounds good. That would make a LOT of extra work and tension for you – because of course you can’t force people to do a survey, and it’s hard to watch the number of subjects crawl upward without getting close to the number you have been told you need.

Believe me, we are just trying to help you here – I’ve been in Taiwanese universities both as a teacher and a student, and often you just don’t get the support you need as a student to do what is asked of you – especially in research design and research writing.

7

certainly a NS who has some experience in survey writing is best. i’m going to assume that the one you hired does not, as the clarity of the questions is in serious doubt. this means that the answers you get may not reflect what you are trying to ask. also, if you take a part of a previously used questionnaire, you must make sure that those questions fit with the others.

you are going to have to defend this at some point, and are going to be asked questions about whether your data support the conclusions that you come to based on your questions.

excellent advice. has your advisor talked about the analysis stage with you yet?

8

Did youy obtain permission to copy someone else’s questions? Or is that not necessary?

In any case, are his questions relevant to your research? Why not think up your own questions that are tailored for the specific situation? And fewer of them.

I’m not even going to look at a list of 61 questions or whatever it is. Too much.

I know it’s too late, but a better option would have been to use this site to ask “what questions should I be asking?”

9

It’s my impression that most schools treat their teachers as disposable commodities, and the teachers respond in kind. Or is it the other way around? At any rate, what makes you think that the schools are interested in facilitating “greater communication and understanding” with their foreign teachers? It’s been my experience that often the opposite is true.

10

I wholeheartedly second this.

11

It’s my impression that most schools treat their teachers as disposable commodities, and the teachers respond in kind. Or is it the other way around? At any rate, what makes you think that the schools are interested in facilitating “greater communication and understanding” with their foreign teachers? It’s been my experience that often the opposite is true.[/quote]

Exactly. You’re starting out with a whole bunch of assumptions. Better to find out what people think before asking them how much they agree with your ideas. The truth is that, in many schools, English and English teachers are commodities and the school is basically a sales/marketing organisation. Many teachers are frustrated because the emphasis is not on teaching, but on money. Communication with teachers means listening to them telling you how to run your business.

I looked at page one.

1* I am satisfied with the bonus that my school pays.
I don’t get a bonus, never asked for one, never considered it. That shit happens to Taiwanese employees, who have a different pay structure. I don’t get pension benefits or paid days off either, but I get a lot more per hour.

2* The bonus that my school offers can attract superior teachers.
Not applicable. Who says schools want superior teachers anyway? A lot of them want first-time teachers.

3* In terms of my teaching skills, the salary that my school pays me is fairly reasonable.
I strongly agree that it’s reasonable? What if I think it’s better than reasonable? I would have to strongly disagree with you.

4* I am satisfied with the salary that my school pays me at present.
Not sure what you’re getting at here. You mean (as per Q3) my salary can be reasonable for my skills, but I can still be disatisfied? Also, I don’t get salary, I get pay per hour.

5* In terms of my job involvement, the salary that my school pays me is fairly reasonable.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.

6* The compensation system of my school can encourage teachers to do a good job.
Can or does? Again, it’s not really clear what you’re asking after you’ve already asked me (twice) if my salary is appropriate and if I’m happy. Is this a new question? In what way is it different from the others? Without bothering to look at the next 100 questions I don’t know what else you want to know so I don’t know what you’re assuming. Do you think that doing a good job is dependent on what you get paid? Some people do a good job anyway, but then quit. You don’t ask what the motivation is, you appear to assume the only motivation is money.

7* In comparison to other schools, the bonus that my school pays is relatively good.
I work at other schools. Many people in Taipei have numerous jobs. None of my jobs pay bonuses. I can’t compare those jobs to other schools, because I don’t work at them.

8* I think my teaching job is obviously helpful in increasing my income.
‘I think’ and ‘obviously’ in one sentence? OK, er… My job is something I do for money. The money I receive in return for my efforts constitutes an increase in my income. It’s very hard for anyone to answer anything except yes to that question. If it didn’t increase your income it wouldn’t be a job, so the question is poor.

9* The evaluation standard of teaching skills at my school is very clear and objective.
Which so-called nativer speaker helped you write that sentence? Shoot him, now. Some schools have no standard for evaluation, some do, but you’re not leaving an option for the former. You want to believe that schools don’t have clear and objective standards, when the respondees meant that the schools aren’t concerned with this issue? Also, why is this question in the middle of a list of questions about a different topic?

10* The salary at my school can encourage not only individuals but everyone to improve their teaching abilities and performance.
Everyone is an individual. In what way is this question different from the previous 73 questions about ‘salary’?

11* There are no situations of gender prejudice and unreasonable salary.
Gender prejudice is only one issue. What about other stupid biases, the ones that do appear regularly? And why ask a question with an AND in it? If Lydia gets shit from her boss, because she’s a girl, but gets paid the same then the correct answer to the question is a no because both conditions are not true. Some teachers may not consider the question properly, so the answers are going to be ambiguous.

12* In my school, there is a positive relation between the teachers¡¦ performance and their salary.
You mean that good teachers get paid more? Simple questions get simple answers. At first reading, I took your question to mean that people work harder because they get paid more. Which is it to be?

12

15* To me, the most pleasure comes from my job.

It’s a lovely sunny day. Should I go out for a :happybiker: and have a :beer: on the balcony at Carnegies? Meet a young lady and :discodance: then go home for some :hubba: ?

Or should I stay home for a :wanker: or just catch up on some :sleepy: ?

Nope, not me, I’d rather grade essays all day in a windowless office.

13

I don’t work for a Taiwanese company. Would that mess up your results?

14

Wenwen, I think if you used interviews instead of the survey you’d be more likely to get a deep and varied perspective on teachers’ experiences in Taiwan. I know that this is last minute, and that it’s a total departure from the plan you made for your study. It would be more time consuming and possibly harder to get teachers involved, but I bet you’d get a different picture. If you’d like to talk on skype, I’d be happy to tell you about my job, and I bet some other teachers would do it too.

15

So the general consensus seems to be that your survey is a mess, ambiguous, unclear and lacking in focus. It’ll do just fine for a Taiwanese professor, in other words. :wink:

16

Um…in Taiwan very possibly not. If she can get her committee to actually read the entire study she’ll be ahead of the curve. Many defenses are just formalities. I was on one committee years ago when I was struggling to find a question the girl could answer, and then the chair of the committee said to us when the girl walked out, “I don’t see how we could give less than an 80 on this one, do you?” I would have failed her for having absolutely no knowledge of her chosen field.

BUT – guys, it is no use telling poor Wenwen “your study is bad.” It’s not bad – it could be very good. It needs some work, that’s all. It’s just that almost no one teaches research design or research writing in Taiwan, and then magically during your last semester, you’re supposed to gather data and write an “original” study. She’s doing the best she can and using different resources outside her school, which is very smart on her part. It’s March now, and the paper is probably due for defense in early June (I’m assuming no one is telling her she needs 200 subjects for a normal paper, not a thesis – UNLESS there’s a Taiwanese professor behind this who needs to publish a study and is getting a little free legwork done. Strong possibility.)

Anyway, I hope you’ll contact some of us. If you need an extra committee member, I am available to fly to Taiwan to serve. :smiley:

17

Wenwen, I strongly recommend that you have a look at Using surveys in language programs by James Dean Brown (CUP: 2000). People here can give you suggestions, but you’ll be better off if you first get an all around understanding of how to design questionnaires and use data from them and then try to design something that measures what you want to measure. Brown’s book is a must read for any MA or PhD student planning to collect data with questionnaires.

If you find that you’ll need to do something beyond chi-square for statistical analysis, then I’d recommend that you look at The research manual : design and statistics for applied linguistics by Evelyn Hatch and Anne Lazaraton (Heinle & Heinle: 1991) and then buy lunch for a statistician at your university so you can run your plans by him/her to make sure the way you hope to analyze the data will work. Nail down exactly what statistical tools you’re going to use before you collect any data. If I had a dime for every time I saw an MA student first collect a mess of useless data and then ask how to crunch it, well, I still wouldn’t be rich, but I’d have a lot of dimes.

18

Dear Forumosam Friends,

I have read through all of your posts, and I appreciate all of your openions. It’s true that it’s too late to make any chages on my questionnaire. However, I would take all of your suggestions and advices to help me improve my future study on the issues related to foreign English teachers.

My motivation of this survey comes from the nice experience working with many dedicated and superior foreign teachers. However, I have heard many stories happening on teachers at the other buxibans. I know many of the buxiban owners and managers don’t have a correct attitude toward their teachers. I think that is cross culture problems. Maybe they are lack of language communication skills, or just are lazy to spend some time trying to understand different values.

A professor who teaches at a famous national university recommanded me to do “work value”, and I took his advice. Because this is my first paper writing, there must be many defects. I have learned a lot from all of your openions. I hope my survey can be the first small step. Another graduate student contacted a few weeks ago. She is proceeding with a different survey for foreign teachers, too. She needs my experience and suggesitons.

If we can get more support from many teachers, I am sure that can encourage more people to study this industry. Cross culture is always an important issue cross countries. More information will help people understand each other better.

Thank you all.

Warm regards,

Wenwen

19

Um…in Taiwan very possibly not. [/quote]

anything’s possible, but it is a national school we are talking about. i had to do a real defence with real questions for my thesis at a “lesser” school.

[quote]BUT – guys, it is no use telling poor Wenwen “your study is bad.” It’s not bad – it could be very good. It needs some work, that’s all. It’s just that almost no one teaches research design or research writing in Taiwan, and then magically during your last semester, you’re supposed to gather data and write an “original” study. She’s doing the best she can and using different resources outside her school, which is very smart on her part. It’s March now, and the paper is probably due for defense in early June (I’m assuming no one is telling her she needs 200 subjects for a normal paper, not a thesis – UNLESS there’s a Taiwanese professor behind this who needs to publish a study and is getting a little free legwork done. Strong possibility.)

Anyway, I hope you’ll contact some of us. If you need an extra committee member, I am available to fly to Taiwan to serve. :smiley:[/quote]

most people do want to help, and are focusing on areas that could be improved. having also gone through the process here, i’m aware of how little research design/writing gets taught - it’s one of the reasons i wound up with an american advisor for my thesis.

your assumptions on the dates sound probable to me (although late july is usually when many get finished). there’s not really time to alter the survey, get the 200 (?) responses, and write a thesis in english. but at least being aware of some of the above potential issues means that when the defence roles around, if there are questions, you will be aware of them and able to prepare some sort of answers, rather than appearing “like a deer in the headlights”.

i’m teaching in the north of taiwan, so it may be difficult to help directly. if you think it might help, send me a PM (private message) and i’ll give you my university email, and through that any help/suggestions i can offer.

20

It’s time if that’s all she’s doing, and if she knows what she’s doing. Big assumptions, both. If you’re doing a survey in Taiwan, the main time element is setting up your subjects; the actual administration of the survey, if you’ve found source(s) of large numbers of target subjects, doesn’t take very long. As I said, as a research convenience, I’d go to language schools and see if I could get teachers to cooperate by “lending” me their foreigners. You might have to reject a few responses as not being from actual teachers, but on the whole you’d probably get more usable responses faster in bulk than by posting to the Web (although that is useful too). Of course control of data quality is a huge issue using a Web survey especially given the amount of knowledge of survey administration that we’re seeing here. But that’s another question.

With the scandals about plagiarism among professors at some of the “top” Taiwanese public universities, it’s not hard to imagine why committee members often (truly) do not read theses. Some of them just don’t have the level to debate these issues the way they would be debated at a defense in the US or elsewhere. Or the cultural thing kicks in: “It’s hard to test into our program” (meaning that we generally graduate everyone who does get in and manages to attend class fairly regularly). Or “I’m supervising her thesis because her mother is married to …” so naturally she’s going to pass. It does happen.

It happens in the US as well, but generally the committee members did have to write their own dissertation at one point in the past. That’s not always true in Taiwan. I put myself through grad school in the US by editing Taiwanese theses in English…even at US schools, many of these future profs did not actually write their own work. And in language teaching, you’re all the more likely to get that sort of thing going on. It’s easy enough to fake it in a classroom discussion on language teaching. I imagine it would be a lot harder to sustain a false impression of knowing particle physics in the lab.