Development And Validation Of Student Satisfaction Questionnaire In College EFL Classroom Environment

The field of classroom environment research has undergone remarkable growth sincethe first classroom environment assessment instrument was applied in an evaluation ofHarvard Project Physics (Fraser,1998). It has been testified that student learning outcomecan be greatly enhanced when he\she perceives the classroom environment as active andcomfortable (Sun,2010). However, little is known about how student feel satisfied withclassroom environment or what the predictors of active and comfortable classroomenvironment are. Moreover, there is almost no exact measurement instrument in China forassessing EFL classroom environment, which makes it difficult to launch efficientclassroom reform.In light of the above-mentioned limit, this empirical research presents an investigationon student satisfaction in Chinese college EFL classroom environment and produces anevaluation system i.e. the measurement instrument of a questionnaire. Three surveys arecarried out in universities in Wuhan city in China with99participants in the first one,239in the second one and612in the third one. Item analysis and factor analysis result inexcellent reliability and validity for the refined version of our48-item six-factor scale. Theresult ends testify that dimensions of teacher, course, interaction, learner, physicalclassroom environment and resource are inseparable contributors for student satisfactionin Chinese college EFL classroom environment.This questionnaire is designed for the use of assessing educational process andoutcome against the background of Chinese colleges, which is of crucial theoretical andpractical importance for future research and EFL teaching and learning practice. Based onthis research, students tend to be more satisfied in college EFL classroom when a) theteachers are perceived to be specialized, innovative, supportive and charming; b) thecourses are confirmed to be useful; c) the interaction are designed to be peer-oriented; d) the learners are arranged to be relaxed and efficient in classroom; e) the physicalclassroom are proved to be well-equipped, spatial and undisturbed; f) the resourcesprovided are to be diversified and instructive. Among all this potential domains, teacherdimension is verified to be most influential to student satisfaction level, while others lesssignificant but still contributive.