Action Research on Parent-Child Co-Learning in Penghu through English Picture Storybooks

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Action Research on Parent-Child Co-Learning in
Penghu through English Picture Storybooks

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I. Purpose of the Study

• The first purpose of this study is to model the
• process for parents who would like to guide
• children in reading. Moreover, the investigator
• would like to examine parents and childrens
• attitudes toward the co-learning after the given
• co-learning project. Last, from their attitudes,
• advisable teaching methods and activities are
• expected to be discovered from this study.

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II. Research Questions

• A. What is the process of EFL parent-child
  co-learning in childrens books?
• B. What are the EFL parents and childrens
  attitudes toward the co-learning process after
  the project?
• C. What are the advisable teaching methods and
  activities that help EFL parent-child
  interactions through co-learning childrens
  books?

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III. Literature Review

• Whole Language Approach
• The concept of whole language has
  been adopted long in New Zealand later, some of
  the American experts in reading instruction like
  Goodman, Harste, and Burke theorized it in the
  1980s in the United States. A great number of
  researchers put efforts in this language theory
  and applied it in activities in literacy
  instruction. Goodman (1986) and Niblack (1995)
  voiced the condition that language learning is
  effective only when it is in a whole language
  context.

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• B. Cooperative Learning
• Cooperative Learning is a learning
  strategy that centers working together not only
  by teacher and students, but also by students
  themselves. The idea of Cooperative Learning can
  be traced back to Dewey, who proposed the
  engagement of students cooperation in the
  classroom (1916). Later, in the mid 1960s, D. W.
  Johnson and R. T.
• Johnson established Cooperative Learning
  Center and set up the language teaching approach
  for Americans.

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• C. Parent-Child Co-Learning
• With meaningful interactions in the
  co-learning, many researchers and experts have
  attested optimistic effect in parents and their
  children. Leonora (1981) mentioned that through
  discussion in reading childrens literature, a
  child can learn how to adapt himself to a new
  environment physically and mentally. Bruno (1989)
  believed that even though the child is an
  independent reader, the parents should still tell
  stories to him often because the need for
  parent-child relationship goes beyond the childs
  age.

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IV. Research Methodology

• Action Research
• The steps of action research used in
  this study are summarized as follows
• (1) Identification Choose a topic for action
  research and determine its purpose and
  methodology.
• (2) Collection Gather sources of information as
  well as organization and analysis.
• (3) Evaluation Evaluate the data analyzed and
  make improvement for next action research.

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• B. Setting
• The classroom is in an elementary school
  in Magong City in Penghu, with a blackboard, a
  TV, a CD player, book shelves, a bulletin board,
  six sets of students desks and one set for
  teaching aids like storybooks and pictures.
  Hardware equipment, such as a projector and a
  laptop computer, is in store in the iron saves.
  Childrens books were displayed on book shelves
  in the back of the classroom for students
  outside reading. A bulletin board is placed
  behind for class notice and students work
  presentation. All the students desks are
  arranged in groups, so that the investigator can
  easily conduct classroom activities in groups.
  Also, such desk arrangement saves much space as
  the investigator may walk around the groups.

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• C. Participants
• The participants are parents and children
  in eight pairs. Among the participants, there are
  eight parents and twelve children. All of the
  parents are female. The parents are aged
  thirty-nine in average, with two of them masters
  degree, five with bachelors degree, and one with
  senior high school educational background. One of
  the parents had an English major. Four of the
  parents are housekeepers, one in education, one
  in business, one in service, and one in free
  lance. As for children, four of them are in the
  first grade, four in the second grade, two in the
  third grade, and two in the fourth grade. They
  are aged eight in average.

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• D. Course Design
• The program was designed for thirteen
  weeks, from March 17, 2010 to June 9, 2010. Six
  picture storybooks (No, David! Bear Hunt,
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Handas
  Surprise,
• Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? The Little
  Red Hen) were used throughout warm-up,
  presentation, practice, and activities. Each week
  lasted for two periods.

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• E. Instruments
• (1) Field notes
• Field notes were recorded for each class,
  where the investigator kept track of what he
  observes from the co-learning process. The field
  notes included parents and childrens responses,
  feedback, difficulties, interactions with each
  other, and things worth notice. Field notes
  served as a short diary of feelings from the
  investigator.

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• (2) Questionnaires
• Two sets of questionnaires were employed
  in this study. The first one was the survey, and
  the other was the oral interview. Some of the
  questions above were developed by the
  investigator himself, and some others are adapted
  from other studies (Lin, 2001 Tsai, 2004 Wei,
  2005). All of the questions were first examined
  and revised by two pairs of parents and their
  children, who were not the participants, to
  modify the unsuitable question expressions.

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V. Findings and Discussions

• Process of Parent-Child Co-Learning
• (1) Children
• Over half of the children expressed
  positive response to the survey items. All the
  children said they strongly agreed or agreed on
  interactions like guessing stories with the
  class, (N12) answering my teachers
  questions, (N12) trying to speak in simple
  English, (N12) and asking my teacher word
  meanings in stories, (N12). Only three of the
  children chose disagree on items asking my
  teacher questions about stories and actively
  participating in front of the class.

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• (2) Parents
• According to the investigators
  observation, the three things that parents would
  do to interact with their children are listed
  below
• (a) Guiding children in shared reading
• (b) Providing assistance for childrens
• participation
• (c) Giving positive reinforcement on the
• worksheets

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• B. Parents and Childrens Attitudes toward the
• Co-Learning Interactions
• (1) Children
• Nine out of the twelve children supported
  the idea that the program made them enjoy
  learning English with their parents. Likewise,
  most of them (N9) felt attending the class with
  their parents did not make them nervous. Indeed,
  studies have proved the positive effect of
  parents involvement on childrens learning,
  which lessens the frequency of their behavioral
  problems (McNeal, 2001 Wu, 2002). In this study,
  children interacted with their parents naturally
  in the program.

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• (2) Parents
• At least six out of the eight parents
  agreed that the program made them enjoy (N7) and
  realize (N6) the ways to learn with their
  children. Most of the parents disagreed that
  learning English with children is tiresome (N6).

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• C. Parents and Childrens Suggestions for Co-
• Learning Program
• (1) Children
• A majority of children stated that they
  hoped for more stories from the teacher (N9),
  more time for story discussions (N11), more
  activities in class (N11), more English
  vocabulary or sentences (N12), more
  opportunities to speak English (N9) and to write
  English (N10). Eight out of the twelve chose
  strongly agree or agree to have more teaching
  hours.

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• (2) Parents
• Over half of the parents agreed with the
  suggestions of telling more stories (N7), having
  more time for story discussions (N7), having
  more activities in class (N5), teaching more
  English vocabulary or sentences (N8), having
  more opportunities for children to speak English
  (N8) and to write English (N5). Different from
  their children, the only exception is having more
  teaching hours, which over half of the parents
  disagreed on (N5).

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VI. Conclusions and Recommendations

• Conclusions
• 1. Parents shifted their roles while
  learning
• with children
• 2. Co-learning program made parents and
• children love stories
• 3. Co-learning program becomes more
  feasible
• through sharing childrens books

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• B. Recommendations
• 1. For teachers
• (1) Variety of activities should be
  adapted
• for a multi-leveled class
• (2) Communication with parents should
  be
• made on language performance
• 2. For parents
• (1) Co-learning environment should be
• provided for children
• (2) Parents should be aware of childs
  own
• learning pace

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Appendix A P-C Project (Mom Said, I Said)
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Appendix B P-C Project (Animal Planet)
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Appendix C P-C Project (The Small Book Box)
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Appendix D P-C Project (Family Picture)
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• Thank you for your listening and comments!!! 0