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My main research method was the survey; I distributed a total of 81 separate surveys. 60 of these were given to Mount Holyoke students; the rest to department heads of foreign language at various school districts in Massachusetts. To further develop my thesis I also conducted secondary research. The 60 three-page student surveys were given to randomly selected Mt. Holyoke students (chosen by counting names in the telephone book) in their post office boxes. The survey was predominantly closed questions, with a few open responses. All but one of the questions were mandatory. 21 of the students given the survey returned it to me for a total response rate of 35%. Although this is a small amount of data to work with, the high response rate does suggest that the answers I go do represent my sample. To learn more about the students who responded to my survey, click here. I sent 21 sets of surveys to heads of foreign language departments throughout Massachusetts, based on a list given to me by Cherie Baggs. The packets contained one "General" and five "Specific Language" surveys; I asked each department head to fill out both the "name" and one of the specific language surveys for each language taught in that school district. I received 11 completed sets of surveys in the mail for a very high response rate of 52%. Again, this is not a huge number of replies, but it is an extremely good return rate. To find out more about the school districts that responded to my survey, click here. I was prepared for my secondary research by my year-long study of second language theory in the honors tutorial setting. The main works I used to prove my thesis (books by Stephen Pinker and Alice Omaggio Hadley) were both assigned reading for the class. In addition to these books, I explored the Web and the Mt. Holyoke College Library reference room to provide additional resources, especially as I examined the validity of the reasons why people pursue various languages. | ||||||