| Background: The concept of informed consent has become a cornerstone for modern research and is generally required for any project that uses human-beings as a source of data (Haggerty, 2004). Yet research in various fields has shown that participants do not understand informed consent forms and are generally not well-informed about studies for which they have or will enroll themselves into (Freer, McIntosh, Teunisse, Anand, & Boyle, 2009; Joffe, Cook, Cleary, Clark, & Weeks, 2001a, 2001b; LoVerde, Prochazka, & Byyny, 1987). To date, relatively little empirical research has been conducted on research ethics in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and no studies have investigated the fields usage of informed consent forms.;Objectives: This dissertation attempts to answer three overarching research goals that deal with (1) the current difficulty level of SLA/ESL consent forms, (2) ESL learners' understanding of consent forms, and (3) ESL learners thoughts about the consent process?;Methods: To examine the current state of SLA/ESL consent forms, 20 consent documents were collected and analyzed for length, reading grade level, and vocabulary coverage. Two forms, an easy and a hard form, were then given to 112 ESL students and 38 native English speakers who read the forms and then took a comprehension task. Finally, five focus group interviews were conducted with ESL learners.;Results: The average ESL consent form was 1.8 pages long, rated at the 10.8 grade level, and had roughly 95% of its vocabulary at or below the 3000 word band according to the New General Service List. According to the comprehension task, the difficulty of the form did not statistically impact the participants' outcome on the task; however, proficiency was correlated with form comprehension. High level learners and native speakers performed similarly on the task answering between six to seven questions correctly, while low level learners answered roughly three to four questions correctly. The focus group interviews showed that many participants only skimmed the document prior to signing it and that they were largely apathetic to many important factors of consent such as risks and confidentiality. |
