Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b)The most helpful source I had for this component was this published experiment called "Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theory" this source helped me create and analyze my questionnaires.
(c)--------------------->
(d) For my independent component I explored the answer two my EQ more in two ways by observing foreign language classes and by analyzing the data collected from the questionnaires filled out by students in a second language class.  Observing classes helped me answer my question because I got to see how SL teachers try to motivate students.

INTERPRETIVE 
Usually during mentor ship I am up walking around actively helping the class with its language learning process. For two weeks (4 classes) I instead sat in the back of the class and observed the students behavior in class. I then created and administered questionnaires to both the college students and students that take Spanish at I-Poly. I had to explain the questionnaires and answer any question any particular person had. I then analyzed the questionnaires based on what I knew about the course that they are currently enrolled in and all of my SLA knowledge. I collected 94 questionnaires and each questionnaire took me about ten minutes to analyze and record. (If needed I can produce the questionnaires, but I felt as if it would be a waste of time to scan and upload them) I then used this data to create the wonderful graphs and findings that are pictured bellow. 

This is the questionnaire that I created using information from my main source "Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theory". The purpose of this questionnaire was to access whether a students motivation was intrinsic or extrinsic and to also see what they believe has been most important int heir opinion to their L2 acquisition process.

This graph shows the motivational reason students had to learn a second language. Their motivation either intrinsic or extrinsic was determined using the answers to the questionnaires. 17% of students  had intrinsic motivation and 83 % had extrinsic motivation. Of the students that were intrinsically motivated 11 of them were college students and 5 of them were high school students. Of the students that were extrinsically motivated 69 of them were high school students and 9 of them were college students.

This table shows the various answers that were given in response to the second to last question on the survey. The most popular answer was family which is an extrinsic motivation.

This graph shows all the languages that the students that were surveyed put down on the questionnaire.

APPLIED
When I first started this component I already had all three of my answers to my EQ. I used this component to solidify my answer and discover which of my answers should be my best answer. Most of the research I have done and found so far has all been from a linguists or teachers perspective. For this component I went on the other side of the language acquisition process to the learners of a second language. by giving out questionnaires i was able to determine that my best answer to me EQ should be age. A lot of this component had to do with determining motivation, but when it comes down too it the age in which a person started their acquisition process determined their fluency. The younger the students were when they started their acquisition process the better they were at the language.