LLORG Poll

General discussion about learning languages
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eido
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LLORG Poll

Postby eido » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:25 pm

Disclaimer: This is an assignment for a class of mine, but I was still curious beyond what I have to do for my class. I hope this is alright with the mods - I ask no questions that are inflammatory. At least, I don't think so.

This is a Google Forms poll containing basic questions about language learning and this forum. I just need to collect some simple data from the poll to finish my work. Maybe it will start some (positive) discussion. I know r/languagelearning has a similar poll they do every two years or so. This is my first time making a poll so I may not have designed some of the questions correctly, such as the native/target language questions. Feel free to correct me on that front, but be polite.

Thank you if you participate.

https://goo.gl/forms/Wz6bh8GNwScL5X143
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby eido » Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:18 pm

I already messed up by not articulating my thoughts clearly. There's a question that asks "how many languages are you fluent in" but I meant "besides your native one". I thought that would be obvious apparently but the results are reflecting that it wasn't clear, so I've edited it. Don't retake it if you were confused. We'll just... um... maybe discount a couple responses for that question? I wouldn't know how to do that as I'm no statistician but I read somewhere you might be able to do that.

I'm also terrible at math so if anyone is terribly interested in getting the complete statistics from this poll, I'm going to need help. I was going to say 'might' but that's too modest.

Thanks to all who have responded so far!
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby Melkor » Fri Oct 12, 2018 9:21 am

I have completed the poll.

Bantu languages are a part of Niger-Congo languages (N-C B, to be exact). You may want to correct that duplication. ;)
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby Cavesa » Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:16 am

I loved this: What do you come to the forum for: To commiserate :-D

A question: to the preferred methods: the traditional classroom-type course, you mean a course book of that kind or going to classes?
Some people use course as a synonyme for class, others for the book (that depends on where are we from usually, "kurz" in Czech is clearly a class, while coursebook is učebnice, which is textbook as the first translation, which often leads to misunderstandings as people think I mean a boring book without CD, when I use "textbook" on a forum in English)
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby eido » Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:19 pm

Melkor wrote:I have completed the poll.

Bantu languages are a part of Niger-Congo languages (N-C B, to be exact). You may want to correct that duplication. ;)

Oops! When I searched in Google for a list of names of language families they came up separate. I'm kind of ignorant to this part of language study. This poll has so many problems.
Cavesa wrote:I loved this: What do you come to the forum for: To commiserate :-D

A question: to the preferred methods: the traditional classroom-type course, you mean a course book of that kind or going to classes?
Some people use course as a synonyme for class, others for the book (that depends on where are we from usually, "kurz" in Czech is clearly a class, while coursebook is učebnice, which is textbook as the first translation, which often leads to misunderstandings as people think I mean a boring book without CD, when I use "textbook" on a forum in English)

I had to put that one there, of course.
And I was thinking like the one I'm taking now for Korean, which is like guiding you through the basics by giving you examples - having a teacher! I'll correct it, though by now it's probably too late. If we do this poll six months from now, we should list what we'd want on there with all the corrections for what I'd done wrong. :cry:

I guess it's the intent that counts? Ah, who am I kidding - no it's not.

EDIT: I fixed these errors hopefully to everyone's satisfaction.

EDIT 2:
I'm summarizing the results with my basic analysis skills as they stand as I write this post.

Target languages:
Romance, Germanic, Slavic
Native languages:
Germanic, Slavic, Romance
Continent:
North America, Europe
Reasons for learning:
Enjoyment, business/job opportunities, connecting with other cultures, travel
Skills focused on:
Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing - S/L tied
What keeps you studying if it for enjoyment? This question wasn't meant to say that you don't enjoy it, just might not enjoy it all the time.
Talking with people from that culture, the culture itself
45% of respondents can speak at least one language at a B2 level
34% of respondents study one language at a time
50/50 on whether a log helps you keep accountable, IF you have one
Why are you on the forum?
To learn, to get motivation, to discuss, to ask for advice, to update my log
40% of respondents spend 5-10 hours a week studying their languages
What method you prefer at the beginning?
Translation practice, immersive, traditional classroom-type course, audio-lingual, combination
Last edited by eido on Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby Ogrim » Fri Oct 12, 2018 3:49 pm

eido wrote:
Cavesa wrote:I loved this: What do you come to the forum for: To commiserate :-D

A question: to the preferred methods: the traditional classroom-type course, you mean a course book of that kind or going to classes?
Some people use course as a synonyme for class, others for the book (that depends on where are we from usually, "kurz" in Czech is clearly a class, while coursebook is učebnice, which is textbook as the first translation, which often leads to misunderstandings as people think I mean a boring book without CD, when I use "textbook" on a forum in English)


I had to put that one there, of course.
And I was thinking like the one I'm taking now for Korean, which is like guiding you through the basics by giving you examples - having a teacher! I'll correct it, though by now it's probably too late. If we do this poll six months from now, we should list what we'd want on there with all the corrections for what I'd done wrong. :cry:

I guess it's the intent that counts? Ah, who am I kidding - no it's not.

EDIT: I fixed these errors hopefully to everyone's satisfaction.


I understood the one about tradional classroom-type course in the meaining of a coursebook like e.g. the Colloquial series or Linguaphone, but I see you actually meant attending class. In that case you could also maybe add as an option "Traditional self-learning course", because some people, like myself, prefer those kind of courses to courses like Pimsleur or Michel Thomas. That said, I like the initiative and if you get a good response rate I'd be curious to see the results.
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby Serpent » Fri Oct 12, 2018 9:29 pm

In what language group are your target languages? Select the two you spend the most time with each week.
The two groups I spend the most time with, or the one(s) where my top-2 languages belong, so that if my top-2 languages are Spanish and Portuguese I just pick Romance?
Also should English be in the top-2 even if I don't really consider it a target language anymore?
How much time do you dedicate to learning languages a week?
Does input count? Does my intent matter?
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby eido » Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:42 pm

Serpent wrote:The two groups I spend the most time with, or the one(s) where my top-2 languages belong, so that if my top-2 languages are Spanish and Portuguese I just pick Romance?
Also should English be in the top-2 even if I don't really consider it a target language anymore? Does input count? Does my intent matter?

1. I realized grouping them by family would allow for problems like that. The poll on the Reddit forum allows you to select a specific language, which is more efficient/accurate from a polling standpoint. However I didn't have time to input every possible language that could be studied, so I simplified it which was probably a mistake. This forum is also not as diverse as the Reddit forum because it's not as big, so I didn't suspect that there'd be people learning things that hadn't been documented by linguists or had no resources, though perhaps that's an incorrect assumption, too. I would for now pick one group if those are your top 2.
2. If you don't consider it a target language, I suppose don't choose it. I guess it could roll over into the section about how many languages you speak fluently, though perhaps we'd need to change the definition of fluent to accommodate situations like yours. I'm not sure what you mean by input - could you clarify? And intent for studying? Like, "I intended to study but nothing happened"? I suppose not, though maybe it should. I wouldn't know how to word that, though. That'd have to be a separate question from the current one.

This surely helps for my assignment - "what did you learn about polling?" - but it doesn't help us forumers.
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby Serpent » Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:55 pm

I meant watching/reading. As for intent, obviously I didn't mean planning a study session and then skipping it :lol:
I mostly meant the situation where you watch/read stuff for the sake of information, not to improve your language skills. (and it gets even more murky if you enjoy figuring it out like a puzzle but don't care that much about the content)
And I guess intent can also apply to having inefficient sessions and not learning anything, but that's not what I had in mind.
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Re: LLORG Poll

Postby eido » Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:38 pm

Serpent wrote:I meant watching/reading. As for intent, obviously I didn't mean planning a study session and then skipping it :lol:
I mostly meant the situation where you watch/read stuff for the sake of information, not to improve your language skills. (and it gets even more murky if you enjoy figuring it out like a puzzle but don't care that much about the content)
And I guess intent can also apply to having inefficient sessions and not learning anything, but that's not what I had in mind.

Ah, okay. That could be a new question if we do this poll again sometime later in the year (next year technically, but also technically within the year the poll was made).

The results haven't changed much from what I posted above, but if you'd like a full report, I can give it. (Though it'll be like the one above, unless you want me to export it [the data] to a spreadsheet.) As of this post we have 46 responses. I'll leave it open for another week, starting today.

Let me know what kind of questions you like to see on the next poll, any corrections you'd like to make, or if you'd even like to see a next poll! Thank you all who sent in a response!
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