Abstract:

Recent estimates indicate that at least half the world’s population is bilingual. With this in mind, it is not surprising that over the past 40 years, bilingual education has increased dramatically. This has given rise to the provision of bilingual education programmes as part of mainstream school education in many countries at primary and secondary levels. However, evaluating the learning experience from the child’s perspective can be challenging. In determining the challenges it is important that any effort to understand bilingual education takes account of learners because their attitudes towards bilingual pedagogy may be relevant to its validity. The aim of this research was to develop a suite of questionnaires that will be completed in a child’s second language (English). The questionnaires are aimed at various age groups (from four to nineteen years), from different language backgrounds, with varied literate proficiency. The article explores the research, conceptual and technical challenges encountered in the design, construction and management of second languages questionnaires for children and young people. The challenges are explored from the perspective of the would-be researcher engaged in attempting to seek and analyse attitudinal data on the teaching and learning practices favoured by students in bilingual programmes of education.

Keywords:

Bilingual education, validity, questionnaire design, second language.