UN ESTUDIO COMPARATIVO DEL COMPORTAMIENTO MIGRATORIO Y LA MASA CORPORAL COMO DETERMINANTES DE LA DURACIÓN DE LA

In order to explore learners’ perception of guidance they had received regarding their German subject choices, the questionnaire included the following question (section E): “Did anyone give you advice regarding continuing or dropping German? If so, please write who (e.g. parents, teacher, etc.)”. Responses were coded as ‘yes’ for advice received, and as ‘no’ if learners expressly stated ‘nobody’, and also if this item was left blank.

Altogether, over half of participants (52.8%) indicated that they had received no advice at all, from anyone, regarding continuing or dropping German. Only two out of 506 learners mentioned an official school event (option assembly, options evening). When the data were split by key stage, the percentage of learners who said they had received no advice increased for KS3 (56%), and decreased for KS4 (38.9 %).

Questionnaire responses on who had given advice, were coded into three

categories: school, others, and school and others. Of the learners who indicated they had received advice, roughly half (49.4%) indicated they had received no advice from their school. When the data were analysed by key stage, there was a slight shift towards a higher percentage of KS3 learners indicating they received no advice at school level, whereas a slightly lower proportion of KS4 learners perceived they had not been given language subject choice guidance (KS3: 50.6%, KS4: 45.5%).

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Explored across the whole sample rather than just the learners who indicated that they received advice, the figures look even more stark: only 23.5% of the 506 learners who completed the questionnaire indicated they had received advice on dropping or continuing German from their school (KS3: 21.7%, KS4: 31.5%).

The ‘advice’ item of the questionnaire also gave some indication how students felt about the notion of advice. Thirty-nine learners (7.7 % of the sample) gave responses that indicated that learners equated advice with being told what to do. Of those who felt like this, most (84.6%) were KS3 learners. Such responses expressed some depth of feeling through the use of capital letters and exclamation marks, and included statements such as

“NO I am an independant person” (S02_106_KS3_m_d) “I have made an independent choice” (S02_139_KS3_m_c) “I gave myself advice to continue” (S04_39_KS3_f_c) “No i can decide for myself!” (S05_39_KS3_f_d) “no because it was my decision and I didn't want to get pushed into

something I didn't enjoy and found hard” (S05_53_KS3_f_d)

“no one; I didn't need anyone to tell me anything” (S05_66_KS3_f_d) “no im my own person I don't need advice (continuing)”

(S05_89_KS3_f_c)

“I think for myself” (S05_99_KS3_99_c)

“no one except me!” (S06_25_KS3_f_d)

“no I make my decisions for myself. My parents don't influence my life

like that!” (S06_18_KS3_f_d)

Data for this ‘advice’ questionnaire item seem to show that roughly half of the sampled learners, who are all at the stage of making, or just having made a decision

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regarding whether to continue or drop German, perceive that they received no advice on this matter. Of the learners who did state that they receive advice, again only roughly half stated that they received advice from school, with a higher proportion of KS4 learners than KS3 learners indicating that they received school advice on German learning choices. A little more than three quarters of all learners (76.5%) surveyed indicated that they received no advice from their school. Only around 20% of KS3 learners, and 30% of KS4 learners, stated that they had received advice from their school. Not only do KS3 learners seem to receive, or perceive to receive, less official advice than KS4 learners, but for the younger age group the notion of advice emerged as potentially problematic: some learners

emphatically rejected the idea of advice and equated it with being told what to do. For example, S06_18_KS3_f_d’s response above suggested that for her, ‘to be given advice’ equalled ‘being controlled’ by her parents, and S05_53_KS3_f_d’s response shows that she equates advice with being forced to make a choice she did not agree with. Whilst some learners reacted almost angrily at the suggestion that they received advice, and appeared to strongly reject the suggestion that they ‘needed’ advice, others felt that they missed out on advice, and that their school or their teacher let them down by not giving them any

guidance. For example, S02_98_KS3_f_d answered the question “who, if anyone, gave you advice” with “everyone except the teacher”, and S02_100_KS3_f_d narrowed down ‘everyone’ to her classmates in her response “everyone in the class except the teacher”.

When KS3 data were split by compulsory/non-compulsory KS4 language policy (Table 5.12. above), eyeballing the data shows the same patterns as for KS3 data when not split by setting: droppers list mainly self-efficacy related reasons for their decision,

whereas continuers name mainly reasons related to the learning situation. Of course, maybes were all from School S02, the compulsory group, so the KS3 maybe group could not be compared across KS4 language policy settings. A difference, however, can be seen in terms of value-related reasons: based on descriptive statistics, a higher percentage of

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KS3 continuers from non-compulsory settings list value-related reasons for their decision to continue with German (28.9%), than do learners from compulsory settings (13.3%). This, together with the high percentage of ‘compulsory continuers’ who name the learning situation as a deciding influencer (compulsory setting: 46.7%, non-compulsory setting: 31.6%) suggests, possibly, that learners for whom a language at GCSE is compulsory choose more on which of the languages on offer they enjoy most, whereas the concept of value becomes more important for learners whose school does not require them to study any language at KS4. Interestingly, the highest proportion of learners who name school language policy-related reasons for their uptake choices were droppers from compulsory settings. Here, learners named mainly the fact that they were taking another language (most commonly French or Spanish).