Parents Involvement In Foreign Language

Since parents and their involvement and attitude have a crucial role in children’s achievement in English learning, the present study is to explore and evaluate the impact of Iranian parents’ involvement in and attitude toward their children’s foreign language programs for learning English. In other words, the effectiveness of their high level of involvement and strength of attitude will be evaluated. Besides, this study is to explore whether some factors as parents’ gender, knowledge of English, income, and educational background are related in the parents’ involvement and attitude or not. To this end, first a reliable questionnaire, checked through a pilot study, was distributed among 140 parents to get the level of their involvement in

They can form their students’ self-concepts and through this efficient cognitive functioning, foster their language learning. This feature is culture-bound and differs in different societies (as cited in Williams and Burden, 1997). Buttery and Anderson (2000) documented that parents play an active role by monitoring their children’s activities. Parents might play a more indirect role by modeling attitudes that leads to language learning achievement. Keith and Keith (1993) confirmed that involvement by parents is particularly significant in work with young children. Parents can help their children in experiencing and making sense of the world. Parents also provide an important source of emotional.

Thus, owing to the fact that a growing body of research has confirmed the role of parents’ involvement in and attitude toward their children’ language learning, it is of utmost importance to see how effective it is in students’ achievement and development in practice.

Based on the purpose of the research, the present study seeks to answer the following questions. The first question is the main research question and the last four ones are considered as the minor ones:

1. Do the students whose parents have high level of involvement in and positive attitude toward their children’s English language programs learn and achieve more in the

Involvement:

Different definitions, models and traditions underpin practice (Share, Kerrins and Greene, 2011). Adding to the confusion is that fact that the term ‘involvement’ can be used synonymously with ‘participation’, ‘partnership’, ‘collaboration’ or ‘cooperation’. Furthermore, there is no common understanding of its meaning among educators (Whitmarsh, 2009).

Forms of parental involvement, identified by Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) in a review of the English language research literature on parental involvement (relating mostly in primary and secondary schools), include the following:

• Good parenting at home, including: the provision of a secure and stable environment; intellectual stimulation; parent-child discussion; good models of constructive social and educational values; high aspirations relating to personal fulfillment and good citizenship; contact with schools to share information;

• Participation in school events;

• Participation in the work of the school;

• Participation in school