Wachtel

Does pupil use of ICT increase Wachtel

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Pedagogy - The Teacher, Educational Leadership, grade: none, - (University of East Anglia - Education), course: Advanced Educational Practice, language: English, abstract: ... The English government, despite no longer making languages compulsory, still rates language learning as an important part of education by including it in the seven domains of subjects required for the EBacc certificate (Parliament records, NA). Despite common belief only 6% of the world's population speak English as a first language and 75% of the world's population do not speak any English at all. This is also reflected on the languages used on the internet where only 51% are in English. "Chinese has almost caught up with English and Russian and Spanish are increasingly prominent" (Languages work, NA)... Despite all these arguments the majority of pupils still rate other subjects, including maths and science as more important for their future even though they do not find them necessarily easy (Stables, 1999). The promotion of language learning forms part of my position as an MFL teacher and I have previously tried to engage pupils in activities like a lunchtime handball club where they had to use German expressions to communicate with each other. I have spent time pointing out to my students why I personally think it is important to learn languages and listing reasons given by Languages Work and other organisations. I often find that their parents have great influence on their opinion and attitude to learning. Governmental guidelines, EU policies and my own biography clearly outline the importance of language skills. I cannot change the pupils' view immediately and maybe never will and have therefore decided to combine the seemingly popular subject ICT with MFL to research if this can increase pupils' motivation towards MFL. On the other hand pupils regard ICT as a necessity and so do their parents which increase their willingness to attend a