Questionnaires with the ‘bar’ in social sciences

Vougiouklis & Vougiouklis have proposed the replacement of Likert scales, usually used in questionnaires, with a bar. With this proposal a discrete situation is replaced by a fuzzy one. There are identified certain advantages concerning the use of the bar as compared to that of a scale during both the stages of filling-in as well as processing a questionnaire. The main advantage is the fact that it is much quicker to fill in and much easier to explain to participants. The bar provides the potential for different types of processing Likert scales cannot offer. Therefore the researchers are allowed to ascertain that the given answers follow the Gauss or a parabola distribution, and they have the opportunity to ‘correct’ this tendency. In this research it is offered a possibility of choosing amongst a number of alternatives by utilizing fuzzy logic in the same way as it has already been done in industry and combining mathematical models with multivalued operations. Finally, the suggested method is applied in a Course and Teaching Evaluation process by the students of Democritus University of Thrace

Teaching the systematic dictionary use for self-study and confidence building

Twenty-four high-school pupils, equal numbers of boys and girls, aged 13-14, whose MT is Turkish or Pomak, attending the Greek state school in Thrace, participated in this experiment.  We are investigating whether and to what extent the systematic use of monolingual Greek dictionaries might result in a better reading comprehension and an improvement/enrichment of their vocabulary. Our aim is to reinforce both their linguistic and strategic competence by encouraging them to use dictionaries for home study. Additionally, we are investigating their confidence that they understand meanings of certain unknown words before and after they have been given systematic instruction of dictionary-use

Confidence Hypothesis about Efficiency of Specific Strategies (CHESS): A Novel Parameter and its Possible Significance in Application

In this paper a novel term is introduced to cover for a parameter already investigated in a number of experiments conducted in the Democritus University, without, yet, being identified with a specific name. The aim of all those studies was to investigate the learning strategies frequency of use  in correlation with the confidence of the subjects as to whether and to what extent such strategies enhance their language learning. In the specific experiment forty eight students from the first three grades in a State Secondary school, in Thrace, Greece, were recruited through convenience sampling, twenty four Greek native speakers and  twenty four Turkish native speakers with Greek as their second language. There were sixteen learners out of each grade, eight of low and eight of high level in English, four male, four female, forty eight learners altogether, twenty four male and twenty four female students. The students had to indicate not only the level of frequency of strategy use but also their confidence in those strategies’ effectiveness; this is the introduced term Confidence Hypothesis about Efficiency of Specific Strategies (CHESS). Furthermore, the students used the Vougiouklis & Vougiouklis bar (2008) instead of the widely used Likert scale for the filling in of the questionnaires minimizing  time and effort. The questionnaire used was the translated in Greek and validated SILL questionnaire with 50 items. Each of the 50 questions was followed by two bars: on the first bar the students had to specify the frequency of use of each strategy and on the second their confidence about each strategy’s effectiveness.

An innovative electronic device for the implementation and processing of SILL questionnaire applied on Muslim pupils in Thrace

Twelve Turkish-Greek bilingual learners of English were orally administered a translated version of the SILL questionnaire (Oxford 1990) and had to specify frequency of language learning strategy (LLS) use as well as confidence in the effectiveness of each strategy on a [01] bar instead of the usual Likert scales. Deviations between frequency and confidence in the results indicate that learners either appreciate the effectiveness of a strategy but they do not know how to use it or that they use a strategy without firmly believing in its usefulness, which suggests the need for pedagogical interventions to raise the learners’ awareness of language learning strategies and how to use them. More proficient learners exhibit higher frequency and confidence in reported LLS use than their less proficient peers, while the age of the learners does not seem to affect LLS use

Oral application of SILL questionnaire using the bar for frequency and evaluation of strategy use by Muslim pupils in Thrace

Twelve Turkish-Greek bilingual learners of English were orally administered a translated version of the SILL questionnaire (Oxford 1990) and had to specify frequency of language learning strategy (LLS) use as well as confidence in the effectiveness of each strategy on a [01] bar instead of the usual Likert scales. Deviations between frequency and confidence in the results indicate that learners either appreciate the effectiveness of a strategy but they do not know how to use it or that they use a strategy without firmly believing in its usefulness, which suggests the need for pedagogical interventions to raise the learners’ awareness of language learning strategies and how to use them. More proficient learners exhibit higher frequency and confidence in reported LLS use than their less proficient peers, while the age of the learners does not seem to affect LLS use

Η V&V ράβδος ως μέσο αμέσου και ‘ειλικρινούς’ μεταφοράς του αισθητού στο ιδεατό

The VV bar is a tool for completing and editing questionnaires, an alternative to Likert scales. It was introduced in 2008 and since then many of the aspects and possibilities it provides to both researchers and informants have been highlighted and studied, in terms of completing and processing the questionnaires. Its main advantages are the drastic reduction of the time of filling in the questionnaires, the avoidance of verbal characterizations of the subdivisions, e.g. good enough, good, very good, excellent, and, finally, the many possibilities of data processing to make them comparable to other researchers’. In other words, it is a record of a subjective situation or phenomenon, so close to the objective that we dare to call it 'sincere'. With this presentation we will try to highlight the last, mainly, advantage in the research of Applied Linguistics

Greek and English Readers' Accuracy and Confidence When Interpreting Meanings of Unknown Words

This paper investigates the possible role of NL transfer in using the LD Strategy in lexical inferencing, how readers use internal and external cues in their guesses, and what kind of cues plays a more important role. It also investigates the important relationship between objective success (accuracy) and subjective success (confidence)

Delving into the use of L2 vocabulary learning strategies by Greek ESP university students and the role of self-esteem

Strategic competence and affective factors have recently been empirically considered to be the key determinants of successful autonomous learning in the SLA field. This study investigated the self-reported use of L2 vocabulary learning strategies among 297 Greek university ESP students based on gender and level of vocabulary knowledge to determine the extent to which their self-described degree of self-esteem affected their strategic competence in learning technical vocabulary in English. The pedagogical implications of the study indicate a need for the adoption of individualized strategy training programs accompanied by a social-emotional teaching approach