INVESTIGATING DIFFERENCES IN 7TH GRADE TURKISH STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH ACCORDING TO GENDER, TYPE OF SCHOOL AND SOME SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Transcription

1 International Journal of Arts & Sciences, CD-ROM. ISSN: :: 4(18):1 6 (2011) Copyright c 2011 by InternationalJournal.org INVESTIGATING DIFFERENCES IN 7TH GRADE TURKISH STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH ACCORDING TO GENDER, TYPE OF SCHOOL AND SOME SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS Devrim Erdem-Keklik Ankara University, Turkey Similar with many other countries, English is by far the most popular foreign language taught in Turkish schools. One of the major goals of the National Educational Policy in Turkey is to promote social, economic and cultural development. English is one of the main subjects in primary education in Turkey. There is an English subtest in the Level Determination Examinations (LDE: Seviye Tespit Sınavı-SBS) given to 6, 7 and 8 th graders at the end of their respective school years. Thus, students scores on these tests are used in part determining their placement in high schools. An examination of the English subtest according to a group of variables is important as it will provide insight on foreign language education in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine if students achievement levels on the English subtest of the LDE held for 7 th graders during the academic year of differed according to gender, parental level of education, family income and type of school. Participants of the study were th grade students who took the LDE examinations in 2009 in Ankara metropolitan area. An additional form inquiring students information on their gender, parents levels of education, and monthly household income developed by the researcher was used for data collection. Analysis of variance and t-test were used for data analysis. Results showed that students scores on the English subtest did not differ according to gender. Scores did differ according to parental level of education, monthly income and the type of school. The significant inequalities in educational outcomes of different kinds of high schools can be taken seriously by policy makers and should foster greater efforts toward equal opportunities for every child. Keywords: National exam, Second language learning, Achievement in English, 7 th graders. INTRODUCTION Present times witness innovative changes in every area of life as well as in science and technologies. This poses challenges for countries in equipping their citizens with skills and knowledge to adapt and take active roles in social, political and economic advancements. In other words, individuals of this age are expected to possess skills and knowledge to access, process and effectively use up-to-date information and technologies. A great bulk of available information in areas of science and technologies (approximately 75%) is in English. Therefore, learning the English language has become a priority for today s young generations. Similar with many other countries, English is by far the most popular foreign language taught in Turkish schools. One of the major goals of the National Educational Policy in Turkey is to promote 1

2 2 Devrim Erdem-Keklik social, economic and cultural development. Effective foreign language education is an important element of this goal. The Educational Board of the Ministry of National Education (T.C Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Talim Terbiye Kurulu Başkanlığı) defines the purpose of English Language Curriculum for Primary Education (grades 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) as enabling children to develop lifelong ability to communicate with more people and have a deeper understanding of their own as well cultures of others. In addition to that, children may derive other benefits from early language instruction, including improved overall school performance and superior problemsolving skills. Empirical evidence suggests that children who receive second language instruction are more creative and better at solving complex problems. Furthermore, knowing a foreign language provides better employment opportunities. Competence in foreign languages can contribute to countries economic development, enrich their capacity in global communication and serve to their political and security interests (MEB Handbook, 2006). English is one of the main subjects in the primary education in Turkey. There is an English subtest in the Level Determination Examinations (LDE: Seviye Tespit Sınavı-SBS) given to 6, 7 and 8 th graders at the end of their respective school years. Thus, students scores on these tests partially determine their placement in high schools. An examination of the English subtest scores according to a group of variables is important as it will provide insight on foreign language education in the country. Studies on foreign language education have often been based on cognitive theories (Brown, 2000; Birdsong & Molis, 2001; Zuengler & Miller, 2006; Yang, 2009). In addition, studies on motivation and learning strategies in foreign language teaching have been in significant numbers (Ta Tseng & Schmiitt, 2008; Al Rifai, 2010; Mohammadi, Moenikia, & Zahed-Babelan, 2010; Nacera, 2010). Thus, exploring achivement leves in foreign language education according to some sociodemographic variables will add to the diversity of research in this area. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine if students achievement levels on the English subtest of the LDE held for 7 th graders during the academic year of differed according to gender, parental level of education, family income and type of school. The Level Determination Examinations (LDE) involve subtests of Turkish, mathematics, science and technology, social studies and foreign languages aimed at assessing students academic skills. These tests measure students achievement levels on skills and information provided on the respective courses. The 2009 LDE English subtest consisted of 15 questions. METHOD 2.1. Participants A total of 377 paaticipants were included in the analyses for the present study. Participants were 7 th graders from schools in the Çankaya district of Ankara, Turkey who took the 2009 LDE. The sample consisted of nearly equal number of females and males. The majority of participants were university graduate parents children and, based on family income, middle socio-economic status attended to public schools Procedure Information on the socio-demographic variables was obtained with a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Items included questions regarding gender (female, male); parental level of education (illiterate, elementary school graduate, middle school graduate, high school graduate

3 Investigating Differences in 7 th Grade Turkish Students Achievement in English... 3 or university graduate), monthly income of the family (less than 1000TL, 1000TL-1999TL, 2000TL-2999TL, 3000TL-3999 TL, 4000TL and more) and type of school attended (public or private). At the beginning of the study the independent variable, parental level of education, included five categories. However, since none of the parents were reported as illiterate, only four levels of this variable were entered into the analyses. Students scores on the examination were obtained from respective school principles. Analysis of variance and t-test were used for data analysis. FINDINGS Prior to the analyses data were screened for accuracy of entry, outliers, normality and homogeneity of variances. Two cases with missing data were excluded from the analyses. Six cases were identified as outliers and were deleted. Thus, data from 369 participants were included in the analyses. The distributions of scores in each cell were examined by obtaining histograms, boxplots and numerical values for skewness and kurtosis of the dependent variable. These results showed satisfactory evidence to support the distributions for each cell on the dependent variable was normal. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether the students achievement levels on the English subtest differed according to gender. The test yielded that gender differences were not statistical significant on the English subtest scores [t(367)=-.856, p=.392, η 2 =.002]. In order to test if seventh grade students scores on the English subset of LDE differed significantly according to mother s level of education, one-way ANOVA was conducted. Firstly, the assumption, homogeneity of variances was tested with Levene s test within ANOVA. The Levene s test was not significant [F(3,365) =.980, p=.402] and inticated that homogeneity of variances was fulfilled. The ANOVA results showed that mothers level of education differed significantly [F(3,365)= , p=.000, η 2 =.218] on the LDE English sub-test scores. However, the strength of relationship between English sub-test scores and the mother s level of education was not strong, with the mother s level of education factor accounting for 21.8% of the variance of the dependent variable. The Scheffe post hoc test was conducted to determine which mother s level of education categories were significantly different. Result revealed that university graduate category and high school graduate category of mother s level of education significantly differed in LDE English subtest scores from all other mother s levels of education. On the other hand, scores of children of elementary school graduate mothers were not significantly different on LDE English sub-test from scores of children with middle school graduate mothers. As shown in Table 1, students whose mothers had higher levels of education had higher scores on the English subtest than those whose mothers had lower levels of education. Table 1. LDE English subtest scores according to mother s level of education. Mother s level of education Mean SD N Elementary school graduate Middle school graduate High school graduate University graduate Total

4 4 Devrim Erdem-Keklik One-way analysis of variance was conducted to investigate LDE English subtest scores in father s level of education. The Levene s test was not significant [F(3,365)=2.003, p=.113] and inticated that homogeneity of variances was met. The ANOVA was significant [F(3,365)=49.792, p=.000, η 2 =.29]. However, the strength of relationship between English subtest scores and the father s level of education was not large, with the father s level of education factor accounting for 29% of the variance of the dependent variable. The Scheffe post hoc test was conducted to determine which father s level of education categories were significantly different. Result revealed that university graduate category of father s level of education significantly differed in LDE English sub-test scores from all other father s categories of level of education categories. Similar to this, high school graduate category also significantly differed in LDE English scores from all other father s level of education categories. On the other hand, scores of children of elementary school graduate fathers were not significantly different on LDE English subtest from scores of children with middle school graduate fathers. As shown intable 2, students whose fathers had higher levels of education had higher scores on the English subtest than those whose fathers had lower levels of education. Table 2. LDE English subtest scores according to father s level of education. Father s level of education Mean SD N Elementary school graduate Middle school graduate High school graduate University graduate Total One-way ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the relationship between English sub-test scores and the family income. The Levene s test was not significant [F(4,364)=2.245, p=.064] and inticated that homogeneity of variances was fulfilled. The ANOVA was significant [F(4,364)=28.586, p=.000, η 2 =.239]. However, the strength of relationship between English subtest scores and the family income was not strong, with the family income factor accounting for nearly 24% of the variance of the dependent variable. The Scheffe post hoc tests showed no significant differences between and and between i and 4000+TL income levels. On the other hand, there were significant differences between scores of students coming from families with less than 1000 TL income and scores of students from all the other income groups. Likewise, there was a significant difference between scores of students coming from families with TL TL income and scores of students from all the other income groups. As shown in Table 3, children from families with higher income had higher scores on the English subtest. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether the students achievement levels on the English subtest differed according to type of school. The test was significant t(367)=5.475, p=.000. However, effect size was very small η 2 =.076. The eta square index indicated that 7.6% of the variance of the English subtest scores was accounted for by whether a student was in private or in public school. Students in public school (M=10.75, SD=3.44) on the average English subtest scores less than those in private school (M=14.46, SD=.95).

5 Investigating Differences in 7 th Grade Turkish Students Achievement in English... 5 Table 3. LDE English subtest scores according to family monthly income. Monthly income Mean SD N Less than 1000 TL TL TL TL TL and more Total CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Results of this study showed that: (i) Students scores on the English subtest did not differ according to gender. (ii) On the other hand, significant differences were found according to parent s level of education, monthly income and the type of school attended. (iii) Children whose parents had higher education obtained higher scores than those whose parents had lower levels of education. (iv) Students attending to private schools scored overall higher on the English subtest of the LDE than those who attended to public schools. (v) Students coming from higher income levels also had higher scores than those from lower income families. Results show that families with higher levels of education and income might provide better opportunities and circumstances for children for higher achievement levels in foreign languages. Parental level of education and family income could also affect the type of high schools attended. Thus, differences in educational outcomes by school type could also be related to socioeconomic status of the family. For instance, families with higher income tend to send their children to private schools which provide better quality education in all areas as in foreign languages. The significant inequalities in educational outcomes of different kinds of high schools can be taken seriously by policy makers and should foster greater efforts toward equal opportunities for every child. REFERENCES 1. Al Rifai, N. (2010). Attitude, motivation, and difficulties involved in learning the English language and factors that affect motivation in learning it. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), Birdsong, D. & Molis, M. (2001). On the Evidence for Maturational Constraints in Second-Language Acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language. 44(2), Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language teaching and learning (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman. 4. MEB. SBS Handbook (2008). Ankara: Eğitim Teknolojileri Genel Müdürlüğü (EĞITEK) Yayınları. 5. Mohammadi, M., Moenikia, M. & Zahed-Babelan, A. (2010). The relationship between motivational systems and second language learning. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), Nacera, A. (2010). Language learning strategies and the vocabulary size. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2 (2),

6 6 Devrim Erdem-Keklik 7. Ta Tseng, W. & Schmiitt, N, (2008). Toward a Model of Motivated Vocabulary Learning: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Language Learning, 58(2), Yang, C. (2009). A Study of Metacognitve Strategies Employed by English Listeners in an EFL setting. International Education Studies. 2(4), Zuengler, J. & Miller E. R. (2006). Cognitive and sociocultural perspectives: Two parallel SLA worlds. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1),