Analysis of Factors Affecting Students' Satisfaction and Grades on the University General English Classes With a View of Improving the English Program

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting the students' satisfaction and the grade of university's general English courses. All the English classes in the course were taught with the same syllabus, the same text books and the same tests. Twenty-eight questions with a five-point scale were created for the English course evaluation. Six hundred ninety-one students in 24 classes answered the questions at the end of the course. The students' final grades were evaluated with a six-point scale. The following three points were concluded from the results of the data analyses: (1) "The confidence of the improvement of English skills" affected strongly the degree of satisfaction, but not the grades. With a view of improvement of the English course, the revision of the grade criteria will be needed to be able to reflect "the improvement of English skills". (2) "The appropriateness of the class level and materials" also affected positively satisfaction. This result suggests that the appropriate placements in English classes might be very important on General English courses. (3) "The degree of diligence" was the most important factor in grades but it did not affect course satisfaction. "The degree of diligence" might be one of the most important factors to maintain the quality of the English course. Too easy course just for raising the degree of satisfaction of the course is not preferable for the English program. The balance between satisfaction and the grade should be considered.