Research Design

Draft research design
The Role of Arts in the Motivation of Language Learning
Intro.
Write a short section, 1-3 paragraphs, that introduces the research design chapter.
1.Take the questions from the statement of intent form and write one para. answering the four questions from the statement
of intent.
2.Are you trying to find out something new, or test somebody else's ideas ... or maybe to confirm your own suspicions or
beliefs?
I would like to confirm my own belief that the involvement of different branches of art can have an extremely high
motivational factor and can highly facilitate the development of language learning. This benefits of the usage of arts in
the classroom have already been investigated by many others, so I would like to concentrate on the motivational factor
mainly.
3.Write a paragraph explaining what experience made you choose the research topic. What is the dilemma, puzzle or
problem?
I know a lot of people (including myself) whose primary motivation for language learning was art (speaking of movies,
literature, music, etc.). However, I think that this motivational factor of art in language learning is not emphasized
enough. If we could highlight its importance and explain the methodology of its usage in the classroom, it could help to
a lot of unmotivated learners.
4.Background and context of the study.
I believe that the motivation of students is always the greatest challenge for a teacher and the involvement of arts could
have a positive influence on learning.
l. What do you intend to investigate?

1. Formulate your research question(s).
Why should teachers include arts in language teaching and how should they do it effectively? How can an art piece be a
motivational factor? What kind of art forms can be used in the classroom and how should they be involved?
2. If there are multiple questions, establish logical order (of subquestions).
First I would focus on the ‘why’ questions: the psychology behind the idea (why it’s important, how it affects the
learner’s motivation, etc.)
Then I would explain how teachers could include art as a tool in the classroom (methodology).
3. Explain to the reader what this logical order is.
I think that it’s important to get familiar with the psychological background and then show how this theory can be used
in practice.
2. How is your question/puzzle/problem relevant (to your current teaching situation)?
4. Explain your thinking behind these questions and generally provide justification (a rationale) for your questions.
I have always thought that the motivation is the most difficult thing in learning in general. When we’re talking about
language learning, I know that art has an exceptionally important role in the motivation of students. The main reason for
that is the emotional effect that art has on people. Emotions have a great influence on learning and we can use art as a
tool to create emotions in the students.
5. How will it contribute to your own professional practice and development? Explain.
I think that by studying the psychology behind learning and emotions, I can use art as a tool to motivate children and
facilitate their development of language learning.
6. How might it be relevant to others in the field or even beyond?
I believe that every teacher should have this knowledge and use it as a tool to facilitate the long journey of learning
(especially language learning, but it can be useful in other fields as well).
3. How do you intend to investigate it?

1. What sort of ideas or information do you need to collect? State whether it is quantitative or qualitative, or both?
2. Who would be the respondents or participants of the research?
3. What are the operationalised (practical, for the pupils especially) versions of the research questions?
4. What research methods, instruments will you use?
5. Why did you choose these methods, and why these and not others: the rationale for your choices?
6. Reliability: How will you triangulate your research?
7. Reliability: How will saturation of data be achieved?
8. Describe the process of what you do/did.
9. Describe what you will do in the planning and design stages so that your results can be both reliable and valid?
First, I would design an online questionnaire in which I would like to find out the emotional effects art has on learning. I would
like to find out if people have a positive or a negative experience about the involvement of different types of art in the classroom.
(for example, I would include a lot of Likert-scale questions to measure their emotional levels in different situations). The
participants of the questionnaire would be language learners. This part would be rather quantitative, but I would also include
some open-ended questions.
Next, I would like to get familiar with the topic from the teacher’s point of view. For this, I would do some interviews (maybe 2-
5) with experienced language teachers. I would like to find out if they’re using art as a way of approaching students or not. If not,
why not? If yes, how? I would happily listen to some personal stories to use them as examples and to support my ideas. This part
would be fully qualitative.
Last, I would do a language course of 5 classes with participants of B1-B2 level, using art as a main instrument to work on 5
different topics. I would include a music, a movie, a literary work, a drama activity and paintings. All these artworks would be
centered on different topics and would include pre- and post-activities. I would ask for a brief feedback from the participants
after every session and for a more detailed one at the end of the course. I think that in this course, I could use all my previous
knowledge in practice and experiment with real learners.
My results would be valid because of the diversity of my research instruments and because of the theoretical and practical
support I’d provide for my idea.
4. What do you expect to discover?

Describe what your study is like. Completely open ended or do you have a hypothesis? (Avoid “proving” something.)
How will you avoid foregone conclusions and/or overstating the importance of the results? Anyhow, do not begin “I want to
prove that…”
With the thesis, I would like to highlight the importance of arts in language learning, emphasizing the motivational factor behind
it. I would also like to find and show the best methods and techniques to involve it in the classroom. I want teachers to be able to
use this knowledge to approach students in an emotional level, therefore to facilitate the development of language learning for
them.

Research Design

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Research Design

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Research Design

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Draft research design

The Role of Arts in the Motivation of Language Learning

l. What do you intend to investigate?

3. How do you intend to investigate it?

4. What do you expect to discover?

You might also like