The PaCT: Parents, Children and Teacher Partnership in Developing ESL Literacy

Abstract

Malaysia government has called for schools and parents to collaborate in nurturing the culture of reading among children, as there is no formalised programme for a more active involvement of parents in academic matters. Based on the positive results of school-home partnership of past studies, this study proposed a formalised partnership, i.e. the Smart Partnership in Reading in English (SPIRE) project. The six month project aimed to foster a partnership among the teacher, parents and children in an English storybook reading programme. It involved 25 multiracial five year old children, 25 parents and a class teacher. The parents, in partnership, with the teacher scaffold the children's reading development by reading storybooks to the children at home. Qualitative data gathered via interviews, teacher journals and home visits showed the children largely benefited from the teacher and parents collaboration. The outcome of the study was the formation of two levels of partnerships, firstly, the formation of a teacher-parent partnership, where the teacher scaffolds the parents, who in turn scaffold the children's development of reading skills at home. Secondly, the family partnership, where all family members, including extended family members were involved in scaffolding the children's reading development. This partnership also positively influenced the other children and teachers beyond the participating group. Another pertinent outcome was a clear link between the levels of partnership and the children's reading progress. The closer the parents worked with the teacher, the better was the children's reading progress. Similar partnership can also leave conventional splits in EFL context in the past and genuine sharing of responsibilities for EFL literacy development in the future.

Strategy to Improve English Vocabulary Achievement during Covid-19 Epidemic. Does Quizizz Help?

“…As explained earlier, e-learning for vocabulary is the encoding of vocabulary through the asynchronous or synchronous use of electronic tools. Whether asynchronous self-learning, or synchronous learning requiring knowledgeable others, a good homeschool relationship merits vocabulary learning (Harji et al, 2017).…”

“…The significance of this study is that it helps educators uncover the potential of Quizizz in enhancing the English language, specifically vocabulary, that many researchers had not explored. The resulting data could encourage parents to cooperate with teachers as enhancing literacy is a three-way partnership (Harji, Balakrishnan, & Letchumanan, 2017). Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between Quizizz and the enhancement of primary ESL pupils' vocabulary.…”

Exploring the partnership between language minority parents and professionals in early childhood education and care: a systematic review

“…While a linguistic mismatch is reported in 16 of the 26 reviewed studies, the LM parents and ECEC professionals shared a linguistic and cultural background in the remaining ten. The latter studies point to smooth and open communication between the parents and professionals, which inevitably improves the relationship (Adair, 2016;Baker and Páez, 2018;De Gioia, 2009;De Gioia, 2015;Fehrer and Tognozzi, 2017;Harji et al, 2017;Gilliard et al, 2007;Loveridge et al, 2012;Mancilla-Martinez and Lesaux, 2014;Mitchell et al, 2015).…”

Parental involvement: Is it worthwhile to invest in family-faculty coalition for primary level EFL learning?

“…Despite, more or less unequivocally recognizing the part played by parents in respect to their child's L2 learning, the educational institutions and educators alike are not taking any obvious measures to put this opportunity to good use (Kalayci & Ergül, 2020). As Harji et al (2017) found that when teachers and parents made mutual effort for collaboration and traded information among themselves to develop students' ESL reading literacy, the teachers ended up recognizing the partnership with parents as something valuable. When educational institutions venture on the mission to expand parent's involvement in a structured and strategic fashion, it can magnify the degree of their participation (George & Mensah, 2010).…”