I have designed a self-study action research that is unique by including the adult ESL

demographic of students learning English for purposes other than academic advancement, which

many research studies do not include. Most of the research involving bilingual teaching and

approaches have been conducted with children and teens learning English under academic

settings. My study includes adults who are learning English for personal growth and survival

English skills. I conducted a self-study action research on my use of students native language in

the adult beginner ESL classroom. My ultimate goal was to explore and examine the roles

students native language has in the second language classroom and the strengths and challenges

associated with its use.

Creswell, mentions that in planning a study, researchers need to think through the

philosophical worldview assumptions that they bring to the study, the strategy of inquiry that is

related to this worldview, and the specific methods or procedures of research that translate the

approach into practice (Creswell, 2009). I plan to use this framework in my self-study action

research and blend my philosophical worldview and research methods. My philosophical

worldview for this study is the advocacy and participatory approach, which deeply influences my

teaching practices. The advocacy and participatory worldview considers marginalized groups and

individuals from our society, in their research, and advocates for these groups giving them a

voice and raising awareness on issues that could improve their lives. I have connected this to my

self-study action research methodology by including: the statements and opinions of my students

on the use of their native language in the classroom, the observations of other ESL instructors

who have watched my bilingual teaching instruction, and my own personal reflections

throughout my study in hopes that the data could help improve my teaching practice and the lives

of my students through their ESL learning.

Research design

The study that I conducted incorporates a qualitative research design that embodies

advocacy and participatory philosophical worldviews. The strategy of inquiry that I use is a self-

study action research approach.

Data collection procedures

I collected data by incorporating collaborative approaches with the participants to better

understand and include their voices and attitudes on the use of their native language in the ESL

classroom. By collaborative approach, I mean that the students played a central role in the

decision-making process for course content. I began the ESL class with a needs assessment (see

Appendix B), which includes questions on the participants current employment, specific needs

for the English language, and circumstances (situations or places) where they need to use

English. The needs assessment was given in Spanish text so that students fully understood the

questions being asked.

During week eight I had students fill out a language questionnaire (see Appendix A),

which asked students to circle all the responses that applied to them. Some of the questions were

in regards to activities that are most helpful to their English learning, places where students

wanted to speak better English, tasks where they wanted to read and write better English, areas

of English where students felt they had problems in, if they preferred English only or bilingual

instruction, and when they preferred bilingual instruction. I decided to have students fill out the

language questionnaire during the middle of the semester because I wanted students to build their

opinion based off of experiences they had during our classes.

In addition, I conducted audio-recorded group discussions with the participants, in

Spanish, on my research questions. I wanted to include the participants voices in my self-study

action research as much as possible and believed that the group discussions conducted in the

native language would elicit better responses. In fact, I was glad that I included audio-recorded

discussions due to the fact that I did not get deep enough responses from the language

questionnaire that I originally hoped for.

Furthermore, I collected observational data and notes from other ESL instructors who sat

in my classroom during lessons that I taught using bilingual approaches. The ESL instructors

feedback and notes were given to me with much detail including their observations and thoughts

on how I could improve my teaching practice. These notes helped me to identify areas of

improvement as well as my strengths, which greatly impacted my self-study action research.

I also wrote reflective journals after my lessons as well as notes from separate lessons that I

observed on a co-teacher who used English only methods, with the same students. I used the

observation chart (see Appendix C) to record data to help describe classroom interactions,

student comprehension of the lesson, student participation during the lesson, and informal

assessments of student engagement during particular lessons. At the end of some lessons I gave a

formal assessment on the information presented to the students through the use of exit slip

prompts.

Table 1: Data collection tools

Tool: Rationale:

Asking questions regarding under what

Needs Assessment circumstance (eg. situations) does the student need
to use English, what areas of English would they
like to focus on, what their goals are, what areas of
English do they have problems with, where they
work, and anything else they would like to tell me
about themselves.
 Asking students questions on locations/places
where they would like to speak English, what
Language Questionnaire activities are most helpful to their language
learning, their specific needs for the English
language, if they prefer English-only or bilingual
instruction, questions regarding their personal
background such as educational history and age
group, and their English learning goals.

Audio-Recorded Group Discussions Asking students their opinions on the use of their
native language during ESL classes.

Observation Data/Notes from Other ESL Feedback, notes, and observations from ESL
Instructors instructors who observed my teaching during the
two hour sessions.

Recording by marking a chart that listed specific

tasks when students were: asked for Spanish
Observation Charts translations, understood English-only instruction
or directions, responded in Spanish (did not know
how to respond in English), were able to respond
in English.

Recordings of my overall personal thoughts,

Reflective Journals opinions, notes from classroom activities, and
discussions with students.

Questions on a handout written in English given to

students at the end of some sessions asking 3-5
Exit-Slips questions regarding the material that was covered
that day. Students were asked to respond using
English-only and without asking for help from the
teacher but could use their notes from the class.

Data analysis procedures

I triangulated the data collected by examining the data from my reflective journals and

observations, the observation notes from other ESL teachers, audio recordings, and student
discussions on bilingual teaching approaches used versus the English-only lessons they have also

received. I also compared and contrasted students performance, interactions, and participation

from both the English-only and bilingual lessons. While analyzing the data I looked for times in

the lesson where there were there more: interruptions asking for translations, confusion,

clarification questions being asked, student engagement, student participation, as well as student

performance on the activities that were given with English-only instruction versus bilingual

instruction.