Questionnaires
Questionnaires have been extensively used to obtain learners’ verbal reports in the L2 field. In a questionnaire, a series of written questions or prompts probe the subjects for answers on specific topics or areas of concern. Questionnaires are quite flexible in structure, ranging from the strict closed-question format with nswers marked on aLikert scale to the less controlled design based on open-ended questions. In most cases, questionnaires elicit generalized responses about habitual behavior or nonrecent events, thus generating self-reports based on delayed retrospection. It is possible,
however, to administer a questionnaire promptly after a task to obtain some early or task-specific retrospection (see Cohen, 1984).
The questionnaire has been the most widely applied method of verbal data collection in the study of inner speech. Smith (1983) used a short open-ended questionnaire in an informal survey he performed on the self-talking habits of college students. Researchers working within an intrapersonal communication perspective have resorted to the questionnaire to explore people’s “imagined interactions” (Allen, David, & Kung, 1997; Honeycutt et al., 1989). Researchers have also developed questionnaires to pursue aspects of intrapersonal communication, such as people’s inner voice experiences and their role in creating an alter ego (Hamilton, 1997) and the correlations of inner speech with self-deception, depression, and self-consciousness (Siegrist, 1995). In the field of L2 learning, Bedford (1985) designed a questionnaire to gather data on the din phenomenon, an instrument that served as the basis for Guerrero’s (1987) study of mental rehearsal in the L2 and Lantolf s (1997) research on L2 language play. Guerrero (1990/1991,1994,1999) again used questionnaires in her wide survey on inner speech during mental rehearsal of the L2 among learners of various ESL proficiency levels (see Chapter 5 for full details of this research), a methodology that was replicated in Gutierrez’s (2000) inner speech study among FL learners. Finally, researchers have utilized questionnaires to explore L2 speakers’ preferences for a language of thought (Cohen, 1998; Larsen et al., 2002) and for internal purposes (Cook, 1998).
Taken From:Inner Speech – L2 hinking words in a second langunge
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