Good Reasons to Use Psychological Questionnaires in Enhancing Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This article argues for using general psychological questionnaires as part of teaching English as a foreign language. It is claimed that questionnaires, particularly psychological ones, enjoy many of the characteristics of effective instructional material, raise foundational learning-related awarenesses, can function as the ground for meaningful and authentic tasks, and help learners develop academic autonomy. Teachers can easily prepare questionnaire-based material and be sure that it is both engaging and conducive to language learning as well as to other learnings which may be highly relevant to personal and academic development. A survey which was conducted to empirically explore the perception of a group of English learners about the appropriateness and effect of using questionnaires as language learning material is very briefly reported as part of the argument for this teaching strategy. Some limitations of the proposed idea are also mentioned.