| Summary: | The aim of this action research project was to build upon the success of a pilot study using star of the week letters sent out on a weekly basis to students. The intention was also to gain a greater understanding of the impact parental/carer1 interventions and increased engagement can have in education, and to potentially decrease disillusion with language learning in the British MFL (modern foreign languages). Whilst some may find the thought of collaborating with and pushing to further engage parents somewhat daunting, it is nonetheless an often underused, ignored or underestimated strategy in fostering and nurturing student motivation on a Secondary school level in language teaching. A language feedback diary was issued in class to two different groups, a control group and an experimental group. The diary contained sections to allow the teacher to give students feedback on a specific task, spoken or written, and for the student to make a note of the verbal feedback and to write their reflections. The experimental group had an extra section where parents would write a message to their child based on their performance, and would write related comment or question to the subject teacher such as “I see my son/daughter is struggling with present tense verbs, what websites do you recommend for further practice?.” At the end of the study, students were asked via a questionnaire if the element of parental engagement had increased their motivation as a young linguist or not to measure the impact of the intervention.
|
|---|