Research design and procedures 97

In order to investigate my research questions, I designed a study which would address three specific stages during French immersion studies: enrollment in French immersion, completing the final credit requirement in grade 12, and post-graduation. In order to touch upon all three stages, I communicated with parents who had children enrolled in early French immersion or who were enrolling their child (children) as soon as possible by inviting them to participate in a web-based questionnaire; I had the opportunity to visit a grade 12 French immersion classroom where I spoke with students by administering a paper questionnaire and then furthermore by creating focus group interview questions based off of those responses; and I communicated with secondary school French immersion graduates, again through a web-based questionnaire.

To address my first question: What are parents’ goals in enrolling their children

in an early French immersion program? I designed a questionnaire using the online

both Facebook a three-month period (see Appendix A questionnaire). Before beginning the questionnaire participants were directed to the letter of information regarding the study (see Appendix B). Participants were unable to complete the questionnaire without first giving their consent. The questionnaire comprised 16 questions. All of the

questions were open-ended and asked for information regarding parents’ linguistic backgrounds, their thoughts and impressions of the French immersion program, and their hopes and goals for their child in the French immersion program. I posted the live link on various Facebook groups relating to parents of French immersion students in Ontario and also on my personal Facebook page. Participants were able to access the link at their own discretion and were also able to share the link with other parents. Since participants are able to identify and invite others to participate in the study, this type of sampling is often referred to as snowball sampling (Patton, 2002).

To answer my second question: What factors influence French immersion

secondary school students to remain in the program? I designed a questionnaire and

prepared focus group questions. In order to be a candidate to participate in the study, the schools had to offer French immersion studies, and the school had to have at minimum, one grade 12 French immersion class currently running. To begin, I emailed all

secondary schools in the board that offered French immersion studies. In the email I explained the purpose of my research and invited principals to contact the grade 12 French immersion teachers at their school. I also called all available schools and left voice mails for all of the principals. All schools that were currently running a grade 12

French immersion course, (FIF 4U) were invited to participate. Of the ten schools that fit my criteria, only one school consented to participate in the study.

At the time I was collecting data, two French immersion classes were being taught at the school. The principal forwarded my email to the teacher teaching both classes and she contacted me by email with interest in participating in the study. We communicated by email for over one month and decided on a day when I would come and administer the questionnaires to both of her classes. As a team, she and I decided to distribute letters of information for students under the age of 18 (see Appendix C), parental consent forms (see Appendix D), letters of information (see Appendix E), and consent forms (Appendix G) for those students over the age of 18, two weeks before I would administer the

questionnaire (see Appendix G), which would allow the students enough time to return the form and thus increase student participation. All students but one required parental consent. Of the 43 students eligible to participate, only 25 returned their consent forms by the designated date despite many reminders from the classroom teacher. Of the 25 students that consented to participate, 11 agreed to participate in the focus group interview portion of the study which would take place after the questionnaire at lunch time. The questionnaire and focus group interviews all took place in December 2013. The questionnaire took place one week before the focus group interviews to

accommodate a class trip and the classroom teacher’s planned absence.

I used a questionnaire to gain basic information about the students’ backgrounds and perspectives regarding their participation and experiences in the French immersion program, and from these questionnaires formed two focus groups to further discuss

emerging themes. Mackey and Gass (2005) state, “questionnaires allow researchers to gather information that learners are able to report about themselves, such as their beliefs and motivations about learning…” (p. 93). The questionnaire I administered has 37 questions. The questionnaire was piloted to ensure the wording of the questionnaire was age appropriate. One volunteer, with guardian permission, who was not part of the target research group but who was of similar age, read through and commented on the

questionnaire. Following the pilot study one question was changed and reworded for clarity.

Aside from biographical questions such as age and sex, the questionnaires used only closed-ended questions. Mackey and Gass (2005) describe, “A closed-item question in one for which the researcher determines the possible answers… ”. The questionnaire was written in a likert scale format and students were asked to circle the response that best matched their opinion which included the options: strongly agree, slightly agree, neutral, slightly disagree and strongly agree. From this data, I was able to get an idea of the students’ opinions and perspectives regarding their feelings towards learning French and the utility of the French immersion program from their point of view.

The focus group interviews took place in the school at lunch hour on two different dates within the same week, at the convenience of the principal, students, and teacher. Students were provided pizza, pop, and snacks as an incentive to participate in the focus group portion. Focus group 1 consisted of six participants focus group 2 consisted of five participants. I selected students for each group and in doing so tried to balance both the total number of participants and the amount of boys and girls in each group. Both focus

group interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by me. Questions were framed using lead-ins (see Appendix H for sample focus group questions), for example, can you tell me about a time you used French outside of school?

Finally, to answer my third question: What social or linguistic contribution do

secondary school graduates of French immersion programs make to their respective communities? graduates of the French immersion program in Ontario were invited to

complete a questionnaire using social media, specifically Facebook and email. As a French immersion graduate myself, I emailed several peers who had graduated with me, inviting them to participate in the study. Participants were requested to complete a questionnaire online through the internet survey provider, Survey Monkey, which addressed their experiences and thoughts regarding the French immersion program and the French language in Canada. Before completing the online questionnaire, participants were directed to the letter of information (see Appendix I). Participants were unable to complete the questionnaire unless they consented to the study. The questionnaire asked specific questions regarding the backgrounds of the graduates and asked open-ended questions discussing their use of the French language following graduation (see Appendix J). There were 32 questions asked in the questionnaire. Many questions allowed participants to comment freely on their experiences and thoughts without parameters of a scale or a multiple-choice selection.

The survey was piloted to ensure clarity and ease of completion. The pilot study was completed by three volunteers who were not part of the target research group.

Following the completion of the pilot study, the wording of three questions was changed to facilitate clearer understanding.

The survey link went live on February 5th, 2013 and was available for completion until September 5th, 2013. The survey was shared via email and social media and was posted to a number of group webpages including education and non-education related groups.