More homework please! Investigating the use of ICT as an effective, motivating and stimulating homework tool in Modern Foreign Languages
Karen Hanrahan
Abstract
Although the significant contribution that ICT can make to the development of all four language skills and the raising of pupil attainment has been well documented, in reality student progress is still all too often impeded by inadequate ICT provision. This paper reports on a practitioner research project which investigated whether ICT can be used as an effective, stimulating and motivational homework tool in modern foreign languages (MFL), thereby circumventing the problem of access to the IT suite during the school day. The background to the research is described followed by an account of the projects implementation. The study was carried out with two groups of Year 7 students (a French class and a German class) within a large 11-18 comprehensive school in Sussex during 2003. In the first phase of the project students were given a variety of homework tasks to complete online which they subsequently emailed to their teacher. The second phase involved the launching of a language forum to which students contributed and where they posted their homework. This paper details the execution of these phases and then proceeds to evaluate the findings from the three forms of data which were collected: questionnaires, pupil commentaries and the teachers field notes. The data suggests that students were highly motivated by the project and that it promoted learner autonomy as well as a more positive approach to foreign language learning. In particular, the response to the forum indicates that the use of ICT in MFL can stimulate pupils interest in one another and contribute to peer learning, while decreasing students reliance on the teacher.
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Editor-in-Chief: Prof Norbert Pachler
UCL Institute of Education, University College London
ISSN 1746-9082