What are the key motivating factors for taking an ESOL course at Derby College and how do they shape curriculum design?
Moran-Vergara, Cristina (2023)
2023
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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052915641
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052915641
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This thesis was commissioned by the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) De-partment at Derby College Group, a public funded Further Education college based in Derby and Derbyshire. The purpose of this research was to find out the motivating and challenging factors that adult ESOL students experienced and how they shaped the curriculum. For this purpose, the researcher used an Inductive Approach with a mixture of both qualitative and quantitative methods, such as an online survey, 5 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with students and various data reports facilitated by the administration teams at Derby College Group.
The results of this research highlighted the diverse factors that the adult ESOL students found motivating and challenging whilst on their course, as well as how they shaped the curriculum. Firstly, motivations were mostly around improving their English, making friends and feeling more connected to other people in Derby. Secondly, the challenges they experienced were about finding the course took too long to get a certificate or struggling to manage their family life alongside the course. And finally, the research around the curriculum confirmed that teachers do take those factors into account when delivering their classes.
This study concluded that the social aspects linked to the ESOL courses were very important for most of the students and that they helped them become more resilient to overcome their current barriers to living in the UK, but that was only possible through regular communication with their teachers. The research findings also brought up further possible development pro-posals in regard to adding more flexibility to the timings and frequency of the classes, and whether the curriculum catered more to female students and whether changes could be imple-mented to attract more male students in the future.
The results of this research highlighted the diverse factors that the adult ESOL students found motivating and challenging whilst on their course, as well as how they shaped the curriculum. Firstly, motivations were mostly around improving their English, making friends and feeling more connected to other people in Derby. Secondly, the challenges they experienced were about finding the course took too long to get a certificate or struggling to manage their family life alongside the course. And finally, the research around the curriculum confirmed that teachers do take those factors into account when delivering their classes.
This study concluded that the social aspects linked to the ESOL courses were very important for most of the students and that they helped them become more resilient to overcome their current barriers to living in the UK, but that was only possible through regular communication with their teachers. The research findings also brought up further possible development pro-posals in regard to adding more flexibility to the timings and frequency of the classes, and whether the curriculum catered more to female students and whether changes could be imple-mented to attract more male students in the future.