Post-project pupil questionnaire

The questionnaire answered by the pupils after the project had ended consisted of four main parts: how they had enjoyed working on the project, their preferred activities, and the benefits and challenges of working on the project.

Table 4 shows how the pupils enjoyed the project in general, to what extent they enjoyed various activities and their attitude towards doing another CLIL project.

Table 4: The pupils’ enjoyment of the project

Statement (N = 29) Strongly

I enjoyed presenting my chosen work to others.

75 Eleven pupils agreed or strongly agreed that they enjoyed working on the project while 14 partly agreed. Only four did not seem to enjoy working on it. Watching the films was clearly the favourite activity enjoyed by an overwhelming majority of the pupils (24). In contrast, fewer pupils enjoyed presenting their work, writing and reading than those who did.

Nevertheless, only three of the pupils were completely negative towards having more projects of this kind.

Table 5 shows the pupils’ preferences of the activities they did during the project.

Table 5: Preferences of activities during the project (N28)

The texts The films The writing tasks The presentation Classroom discussion

- 26 1 1 -

An overwhelming majority of the pupils (26) preferred working with the films during the project. None of the pupils had working with texts or classroom discussions as their preference.

Table 6 shows how the pupils had benefited from the project.

Table 6: Affective and cognitive benefits from the project

Statement (N = 29) Strongly I learned a lot of new English words by

working on this project.

1 3 15 8 2

My English has improved during this project.

- 3 14 10 2

I learned a lot about the topic by working on this project.

4 11 9 5

I have become more interested in World War II after working on this project.

2 11 7 8 1

Choosing my own topic for my presentation made it more interesting.

6 13 8 2

Having the opportunity to choose between several optional tasks was motivating.

1 11 11 6

The texts in the project were more interesting than the ones in the textbook.

5 5 9 9 1

Very few of the pupils agreed or strongly agreed that their English in general, or their vocabulary specifically, had improved, while approximately half of the class partly agreed that they had developed in these areas. In contrast, more than half of the class believed that they had learned a good deal about the topic, whereas only five disagreed that they had done so. A higher number of pupils (13) claimed to have become more interested in the topic after the project than those who did not (9). The class was divided as to whether or not the texts

76 they used during the project were more interesting than the ones in the textbook. However, twice as many pupils (12) found it motivating to choose between several optional tasks than those who felt the opposite (6). Roughly two thirds of the class felt that choosing their own topic for their presentations made it more interesting, and only two of them were negative towards being able to do so.

Table 7 presents challenges the pupils experienced while working on the project.

Table 7: Challenges of working on the project

Statement (N = 29) Strongly Learning about the topic in English was

difficult.

1 2 9 11 6

I would have learned more if the project had been in Norwegian.

The majority of the pupils (17) did not find it difficult to learn about the topic in English and only 9 of the pupils agreed or strongly agreed that they would have learned more if the project had been in Norwegian. Although the majority (19) believed that there were too many texts, only seven of them agreed or strongly agreed that the texts were too difficult. Only three of the pupils reacted strongly towards the number of films that were shown. Finally, opinions were divided as to whether the project had lasted for too long.

The questionnaire included two open-ended items. In the first question the pupils were asked what their opinion was on: ‘learning language by using it to explore a topic’. Some of the mixed responses were as follows:

‘I think it is a good way to learn language.’

‘My opinion is that I did not learn that much of the language.’

‘My opinion is that you maybe use your own word and that is (lærerikt).’

(Educational)

‘I think it is a good idea, because then I not only learn English.’

‘It doesn’t teach us enough about English as a language.’

‘I think it’s very important for all of us to experience how it is to learn a topic in another language.’

‘Jeg synes at det er gøy å lære engelsk gjennom prosjekter.’ (I think it’s fun learning English through projects)

’Learning language by using it to explore a topic is fun, and we learn much more by doing it like that.’

77 ‘I didn’t learned so much english.’

‘I think it’s more motivating then a regular English-lesson. (and more fun).’

‘It’s a great way to improve your language + you learn more about a topic.’

‘I don’t feel like I have learned more English by this project but it was fun. ‘ For the second item, the pupils were asked to write one sentence to: ‘sum up how you experienced the project’. Some of the written replies were:

‘The project was fun but I think te texts were too difficult.’

‘I think it lasted a little too long, but it was very interesting.’

‘I think it was boring but I learned a lot of WW2.’

‘It was interesting to see how peoples lived during the war.’

‘I learned a lot about the 2WW, and I learned some new words connected to it. I think that the project was very interesting and fun.’

‘It was fun, and I learned a lot by working with this project.’

‘Extremely boring, awefull, got too many booklets, and texts, folders…and so on.’

‘We learned about how it was to be a child juring the war.’

‘The project was ok, it was fun having presentasjon and writing, but there were too many films and texts, and it became a little boring.’

‘It was fun to learn about WWII.’

‘Easy because the English does not differ from the Norwegian, when it comes to understanding and learning. ‘

‘It could have provided more facts and knowledge than it did.’

‘This project was funny and (kjekt) we did a lot of different things and that was very positive.’