A survey about HOURS (English cafe)
Introduction
HOURS, the only English cafe run by Chongshin University, aims at giving opportunities for learning English to students. However, HOURS is considered as a non-English cafe by most of Chongshin students. In this situation, there has been lots of calls from them for the improvement of HOURS. To make HOURS a better place for the students, the researcher carried out a survey. The two biggest questions of the survey are as follows: (1) “how often do the students visit HOURS?” and (2) “what do they do when they come to HOURS?”
Method
The researcher distributed a questionnaire, which consisted of 20 items and was largely composed of open-ended or closed-ended questions. The survey asked 6 questions about how often the students visit HOURS. Also, the survey asked what they usually do in HOURS. It included 4 questions about buying food, 6 questions about studying, 4 questions about English programs. The researcher predicted that English Education students would mostly visit HOURS to buy food. The survey was conducted for two days from 25th to 26th, and 21 students from four different departments, such as English/History/Early Childhood Education and Theology, fully responded.
Frequency of visiting HOURS
According to the result, 15 students out of 21 were willing to visit HOURS. Most of them usually came to the cafe about one or two times a week, and 8 students came one or three times a day. Also, nearly all the students majoring in Education wanted to visit the cafe, while a half of Theology department students were uninterested in coming because of English problems. It indicates that an effective efforts to maximize their use of the language will be needed.
Food
The most strongest reason that students came to HOURS for was to buy the cafe foods. 14 students answered that the foods were quite satisfying, so it was unnecessary to change or improve the menu. 43% of the respondents chose snacks as their favorite refreshments, 26% for bread, and 22% for drinks; however, 7 students gave a different opinion. They did not buy any food because of personal preference, environmental reasons such as a location or sanitary conditions, and linguistic problems. Here, some people suggested that English cafe develop lots of set menus or different kinds of sandwiches. Although most of the students thought the foods was okay, it seems more varied food menus will be helpful for improving HOURS management.
Study
9 students liked to study in the cafe with their friends or on their own. However, surprisingly, a number of students had trouble in studying there regardless of learning types like pairs or groups. First of all, they felt desks and chairs were not appropriate for studying because they were too low. In addition, they were not able to study since some people made much noise and consequently made them uncomfortable. This shows that a strict rule which can make the students less noisy will have to be implemented any time soon.
English programs
The students’ opinions about the English programs were divided into almost half-and-half. 11 students responded positively to the programs; they believed that most of the programs would improve their English skills. The results ranked professor John’s Movies Nights the number one place among five other programs. Meanwhile, 10 students said they did not participate in the programs because they were not aware of the program itself or felt uninterested. Because a few of them did not even know what programs were run, public relations exercises should be done in the near future.
Conclusion
On the whole, the survey results showed that several systematic matters with which HOURS had had problems should be dealt with right away. Since two-thirds of the participants visited HOURS regularly to buy some food, the cafe needs to maintain the status quo of itself as well as to enhance the sanitary conditions in order not to lose its popularity. Also, by accepting minority opinions from theology students, an effective way to encourage them to use HOURS should be considered. Furthermore, not only should excessive noise be controlled for whom to study but also some movements for promoting the English programs will have to be conducted.
