Education and Leadership in Glocalization : What does “think globally, act locally” mean for education around the world?
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2014
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1.2 Out-of-class English Language Learning Activities OCELLAs
Researchers on OCELLAs described the activities differently depending on the objectives of
their studies. Yap 1998 defined OCELLAs as informal activities which students do outside the
classroom. On the other hand, Kuh 1994 and Hyland 2004 viewed that all kinds of activities which
students engage in during their study that are directly or indirectly related to their learning and performance
and occur beyond the formal classroom, studio, or laboratory setting. These kinds of activities include
studying in the library, interacting with friends and teachers, participating in school events and activities,
working on or off the campus, and using the other resources that school provide for learning and
personal development whether they are human teachers or physical library, laboratory, playfield,
and so on.
In the present study, out-of-class English language learning activities refer to English language
learning activities that students initiate to learn outside the classroom without control or assignment
from teachers Kuh, 1994; Yap, 1998; and Hyland, 2004. These activities can be direct and indirect
language learning activities, for example, watching TV programs, listening to the radio, watching movies,
reading books, reading newspapers, reading magazines, talking to someone, and writing email,
letters, and so on. Direct language learning activities refer to the activities that learners conduct with the
intention of learning English. In contrast, indirect language learning activities refer to those activities
that students do for pleasure but which can indirectly support students’ English language learning. In order
to investigate participants’ English language learning activities, a five-point rating scale questionnaire
developed by the researcher was used.
Several methods have been employed to investigate OCELLAs in the previous studies. Some
studies used only questionnaire to collect data; however, other studies examine OCELLAs with more
than one instrument.
Spratt et al.2002 and Lee 2005 used questionnaire to examine OCELLAs. The
questionnaire constructed by Spratt et al. 2002 was developed from concept of learner autonomy of Holec
1981 and Deci and Ryan 1985, and results from focus group interview. The questionnaire was used to
investigate OCELLAs and other variables of Hong Kong students. In study of Lee 2005, the researcher
modified Language Contact Profile from Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz 2004 to make it suitable from
Korean students. In his study, the questionnaire is used to study the OCELLAs which students reported
doing. Simply used questionnaire to examine
OCELLAs seemed not enough for some studies. Pickard 1996 and Yap 1998 utilized a
questionnaire and triangulate the survey data with interviews. Pickard’s study is about OCELLAs of
German students. However, Yap conducted the study with Hong Kong participants. Furthermore, Hyland
2004 utilized questionnaire, learner journals, and interviews in the study. Hyland developed the
questionnaire from the findings of previous studies conducted in Hong Kong Littlewood Lui, 1996;
Yap, 1998; Pill, 2001. In this study, the participants were asked to write journal as a report of their
exposure to English language and activities they had done in English during the day. Lamb 2004
employed questionnaire, semi-structure interviews and observations to study OCELLAs of secondary
school students in Indonesia. The questionnaire was used to investigate participants’ background, attitudes,
motivation, and their level and type of autonomous learning. The interviews and observations were
conducted to triangulate the data with the survey data and examine more in-depth information.
2. Methods
In the present study, the researcher attempted to study the relationship of out-of-class English
language learning activities, learning strategies, and speaking learning achievement
of students enrolled in the English Listening and Speaking for Careers
Course. A questionnaire was used to examine two variables, activities and learning strategies, and the
interviews were conducted in order to investigate reasons to do some activities and provide
supplementary data to triangulate with the questionnaire data.
2.1 Participants
