| English Classes are Beginning | | | | and movie preferenceso What types of digital |
| It's time to start a new round of classes. There are | | | | equipment they owno Any preferred websiteso |
| new groups of English as a foreign language learners, | | | | Favorite entertainers problem areas in English language |
| new classes and new schedules for the | | | | learningo Eating habits and food preferences |
| recently-started scholastic year, semester or course | | | | Using the Survey Information |
| period. With that of course, comes the never-ending | | | | Whether you choose to do one or several simple |
| challenge of getting to know yet another entirely new | | | | surveys or more in-depth ones, you might ask, "what |
| group of English language learners - essential | | | | can you do with the information you've gathered?" |
| information if you're going to successfully motivate | | | | You can use it to:o Create graphs or chartso Prepare |
| them through the rigors of language acquisition. | | | | lesson planso Make adjustments to class agenda and |
| You Need to Know | | | | curriculumo Identify a progression of activitteso |
| You need to know your learners' likes, dislikes and | | | | Prepare home assignments and online webquests and |
| preferences as well as their learning styles and | | | | taskso Formulate effective teaching strategies for the |
| characteristics. Why? It's because these help you to | | | | class group |
| plan and prepare more effective lessons that take full | | | | Conducting In-class Surveys |
| adfvantage of learner traits. | | | | A final but all-important idea when conducting in-class |
| What and How | | | | surveys is for you NOT to do the work yourself at all. |
| During the course of the first few weeks of class you'll | | | | Have your English or other foreign language learners |
| quite likely develop a detailed knowledge of many | | | | conduct the surveys among themselves - using the |
| learner profile characteristics. You can however, | | | | target language as much as possible, of course. This |
| greatly accelerate phases of the process. The fastest, | | | | could done during a regular class session or for extra |
| easiest and simplest way to do this is by conducting | | | | work in written and spoken language use or discourse. |
| in-class surveys. | | | | It's a series of techniques I quite often use during the |
| Survey Question Point Ideas | | | | beginning of a semester with new EFL class groups. It |
| Here are a few ideas you might consider surveying | | | | works very well both for me and for my English |
| your learners on:o Favorite activity typeso Hobbieso | | | | language learners. It should be a valuable technique for |
| Likes and dislikeso Musical preferenceso Television | | | | you to use too. |