1. I enjoy doing homework
3.4.5 Piloting of Learner questionnaire
The first draft of the learner questionnaire was piloted at the researcher's school amongst his students. The reason for the piloting was to test whether the language used in the learner questionnaire was understandable and of a level that suited the target population. The time taken to complete the questionnaire was also of concern to the researcher.
From the responses of the learners there were no ambiguities and no changes were made to the questionnaire. One flaw in the piloting of the questionnaire was that the students in the pilot study were both Indian and African learners while in the main study all respondents were African. Thus the level of the understanding of English between the two groups was different. The pilot group is exposed to more usage of English and the home language of most of the learners in the pilot group is English. The "ideal" would have been to pilot the learner questionnaire with African learners that were exposed to lesser usage of English.
3.4.6 Data Collection
Because of the constraints placed on the researcher [he is a full time educator], and the planned arrangements made with the principals and educators, the integral part of the data collection that was the administration of the questionnaire to the learners, had to be completed first. This gave the researcher an indication of issues that were not clear enough when learners answered the questionnaires. This would have given the researcher the opportunity to clarify the issues with the educator when the interviews were being done, obviously on another day.
The difficulty experienced with the administration of the learner questionnaires was the number of learners that were present at school. This was the period when all high schools were in the process of writing trial examinations. These examinations were vital because it contributed 25% towards the year mark.
However, when learners are not writing an exam, they do not generally attend school. They also leave school immediately after completing the exam.
In addition, the weather in the two weeks I intended to carry out the administration of the questionnaires was very inclement. It had rained for a whole week and the temperatures were below twenty degrees. The weather aggravated the situation because the start of such weather meant mass absenteeism.
On two occasions I had to leave the schools without having administered a single questionnaire because of the absenteeism of the grade twelve learners. The other learners in the schools were also not at school. The principals assured a definite date when he could carry out the research. This was a day on which the grade twelve learners were going to write a paper after which he promised that they would remain so that I would be able to administer the questionnaires.
At Mnandi High School only those that wrote mathematics turned up. Of the total number that arrived to write mathematics, the researcher discovered that not all learners study Afrikaans FAL.
Similar problems were experienced at Pezulu High School. The researcher almost had the misfortune of being bogged in the mud because of the poor conditions of the road leading to the school. On a day like that not many learners turned up at school.
The only school where everything went off as planned, was at Nomfundo High School. All the learners that were studying Afrikaans FAL in grade 12 were housed in a classroom where they were taught Afrikaans. The researcher noticed that there were two chalkboards full of Afrikaans notes and explanations for the learners to copy. The researcher found this interesting and wondered whether that was done to impress him, considering the fact that he was going to carry out research on Afrikaans.
Eventually, the questionnaires were administered to learners from all three schools. The number of learners that were involved in the study is as follows:
Table 3.4 Table indicating the number of learners in the research.
Name of school
1. Mnandi high school 2. Nomfundo high school 3. Pezulu high school
Total
No. of learners 37 24 23 84
Percentage of sample 44%
29%
27%
100%
The number of questionnaires that were administered and collected was 84. This was 75% of the total number of learners that study Afrikaans FAL in grade twelve in these three schools. This percentage satisfied the requirements for a valid and reliable study. According to Behr (1983) and Manion (1986), a sample size of at least thirty should be used if the researcher wants to use some form of statistical analysis on his data. This is the reason behind using all learners for the research project. In spite of this the researcher did not manage to attain this number from two schools. The reason for the shortfall will be discussed later.
It is the opinion of the researcher that the missing 25% of learners' responses would not have affected the findings of this research study. To obtain a 100%
response from the learners is a very difficult task.
Arrangements were made to meet the educators during school hours to carry out the interviews. All educators were willing to meet the researcher and answer questions. The educator interviews lasted not more than forty minutes. With the permission of the educators concerned a tape recorder was used.