Context-responsive attitudinal surveys about technology in language classrooms

Abstract

ABSTRACT Language learner attitudes about technology have traditionally been studied using survey data, but those surveys have primarily been based on disparate constructs and conceptualizations of learner attitudes. The lack of a common measure, or one that reflects other levels and contexts of learning, has limited the investigation about language learner attitudes about technology. One possible solution, suggested by mixed methods research methodologists, involves the inclusion of qualitative data in adapting extant surveys to new contexts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate this type of adaptation, and to highlight the challenges and insights that occur as a result. In this study, qualitative data were used to adapt extant instruments to the secondary world language instructional context in the United States. The initial survey was administered to high school students of Spanish in the United States (N = 268), eight students then participated in qualitative interviews, the survey was revised, and quantitative findings from the revised instrument (N = 1039) were analyzed for validity and reliability. This study shows that this method for adapting a survey to a new context is viable yet complex, offering researchers an important model of how to tailor surveys to new contexts while remaining in conversation with prior scholarship.