Lang learning research - participants wanted

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Cainntear
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Location: Scotland
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Lang learning research - participants wanted

Postby Cainntear » Fri May 26, 2017 12:51 pm

Hi all,

As I previously mentioned, I'm doing some research into the effects of task types and task orders on the learning of languages, as material for my masters dissertation.

In order to research this, I'm setting up a website to teach several beginner's lessons in Scottish Gaelic (a language most of you will have no experience in, and which is likely to get a bit of interest from people I know around Scotland) and I'm looking for a number of participants to use the site over the course of 3 weeks during June (starting Monday the 5th, but if you're reading this after that date, I'm holding the survey open until 23:59 on the 11th and late starters will still be allowed -- after that date, feel free to PM me to ask). You'll need to visit the site 5 times each week, for a period of 10-30 minutes each time. (The only pilot tester that took over 20 minutes on any task was a monolingual retired woman who doesn't use computers much, so I'm expecting most people here would complete even the longer tasks in under 15 minutes.)

The only personally identifiable data stored in the system is an email address, which is required for administering access to the Moodle site hosting the course. You are free to set up a temporary "burner" account for this purpose if you don't want me having your real address. ;-) In any case, addresses will not be stored past the end of the study.

If you're interested in participating, there's a sign-up sheet and background questionnaire at https://stirling.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/gaelic-learning-research. The details asked for are general demographics (age and self-identified gender) and language learning background.

I'll add some extra materials to the site and leave it open for a while after as a thank you, so you can continue to play around with it if you want.

As this is a research project, and as you will be set into groups viewing different types of tasks, I'd appreciate it if you didn't discuss the materials until the study is finished. Of course, I will share my findings here when I write them up.

All assistance is very much appreciated, and if you know anyone outside this forum who might be interested, please feel free to pass on the link.

Thanks very much,
Níall/Cainntear
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Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3469
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8667
Contact:

Re: Lang learning research - participants wanted

Postby Cainntear » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:56 pm

The study started yesterday, and so far everything seems to be proceeding quite smoothly despite a few initial hiccups.

If anyone's still interested in takiong part but hasn't yet signed up, the signup survey is open until Sunday. It's no problem following the course a few days behind everyone else -- just go at the normal pace and I'll gather the data from you as you go.

Cheers,
Cainntear/Níall.
0 x

Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3469
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8667
Contact:

Re: Lang learning research - participants wanted

Postby Cainntear » Sat Jun 10, 2017 12:04 pm

(Bump)
Last call -- the sign-up survey's open until the end of the weekend (well, Monday night actually, to assure no-one gets tripped up by time differences) so that I can get my last cohort started on Monday/Tuesday of next week.

Obviously with free courses on the internet, there's a high drop-out rate, but at the moment I'm quite happy with my retention levels, and several users have already commented that they're enjoying using the materials.

If you start and later change your mind, that's no problem -- just stop using it (plenty of others already have -- free courses on the internet ;-) ).

What have you got to lose?

All welcome.
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