An Investigation Into The Conception And Application Of Questionnaire Survey Among Preservice English Teachers

As a common scientific research method,questionnaire survey plays an important role in foreign language education research.While it's widely applied,there are relatively insufficient studies on it and certain problems in its implementation.As the main force of future English educators and researchers,preservice English teachers'conception and application of questionnaire survey can have a significant impact on their teaching and research.This study intends to answer three questions:1)What is the status quo of preservice English teachers' conception of questionnaire survey?2)How do preservice English teachers apply questionnaire survey in their studies?3)What are factors impacting the application of questionnaire survey in foreign language elementary education research?Questionnaire survey,interview and content analysis are used to investigate preservice English teachers' conception and application of questionnaire survey in foreign language elementary education research,and factors impacting its effectiveness.The research subjects are 168 preservice English teachers from a normal university in Zhejiang Province:fresh graduates of 131 undergraduates and 37 postgraduates.The major findings are as follows:1)for the overall conception of questionnaire survey,the participants basically know its definition,pros and cons in an unsystematic way.For the conception of developing questionnaires,they notice the length within four pages,appropriate density and orderly layout,with little attention on paper quality,booklet format,researchers' contact and results feedback.They think that question types are confined within multiple-choice questions and open questions.They know limited rules of writing good questions.For their conception of administering questionnaire survey,they lack the awareness of questionnaires' piloting and evaluation,and their conception of sampling strategies mainly lies in random sampling.They realize that sample number is closely related to overall population.To improve response,they know the importance of getting participants' permission and emphasizing confidentiality,without focus on advance notice and administrators' presence.For their conception of processing data and reporting results,they lack enough awareness of handling incomplete questionnaires.They know the significance of reliability and validity analysis,but they are unfamiliar with particulars.They notice that they should report questionnaire content,implementation process and research limitations,2)For their application of questionnaire survey,most develop questionnaires based on existing questionnaires,without explaining reasons and adjustments.They introduce questionnaire content,dimension and questions in an incomprehensive way.Questionnaires' length and format are rational,but there are still problems,such as questionnaires without titles or specific instructions;and some deficiencies in the contents and forms of questionnaire design,including questions with ambiguous words,too long questions.For questionnaire survey administration,piloting and selecting sample strategies are always missing.The accounts of research subjects merely focus on the number,background information and administering time,without mentioning sampling strategies and return rate.Their questionnaire data is directly analyzed without cleaning and manipulation.Statistical analysis methods are mainly descriptive statistics and there are problems in result reporting,such as overgeneralizing results,unfocusedly displaying tables or figures.3)As for factors impacting its application,researcher' conception of research methods can influence research validity.Participants'serious and active participation can promote effectiveness.Its own features can lead to certain defects and affect its effectiveness.With quantitative and qualitative research methods,this paper studies preservice English teachers' conception and application of questionnaire survey and its influencing factors.It's hoped that the study findings can promote the application of questionnaire survey and increase the attention on educating scientific research methods among normal university students,which will be helpful to further their professional development in the long run.