Experimental research

Research Question:
"Morning Reading" or "Morning Radio", which better improve students' English level?

Subjects:
Form 1 students from 2 secondary schools, totally 10 classes. Classes randomly assigned into the following groups.

Groups:
A: "Morning Reading" group: having 30 mins to read English books at the start of every school day.
B: "Morning Radio" group: having 30 mins to listen English radio channel at the start of every school day.
C: Control group: having 30 mins to read Chinese books at the start of every school day.

(Note 1: It might be better to have a "control" group not having any treatment, but it is difficult to arrange in schools to let a class not having any activity for 30 mins long. So reading Chinese book could be regarded as a treatment not related to "English learing".)

Time span: 1 year

Data collected:
M1: Students' English subject scores in the entry examination (the one which school used for dividing classes)
M2: Students' English subject scores in F.1 final examination

M2-M1 = improvement in English level

By comparing the improvement in English level of students in different groups, we may determine if "Morning Reading" or "Morning Radio" did bring improvement to students' English level, and which brings better improvement.

Implication:
Schools can make better arrangement to English learning activities.

(Note 2: Some people may doubt if the differences between schools and classes bring bias to the experiment. Because the classes are distributed into different groups randomly, classes from both schools are mixed into groups, so that systematic differences about subjects' background between groups should not exist.)