‘I worry about getting it wrong and looking like a silly billy’: does explicit classroom-based strategy intervention change pupils’ attitudes towards speaking in the modern foreign languages classroom?

Journal article

A number of factors among schoolchildren in England are currently contributing to poor attitudes towards speaking in the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) classroom. Although multiple explicit strategy-based instruction (SBI) intervention studies have appeared in recent years, very few studies have focused on its effect on oral skills and, in particular, pupils’ attitudes towards speaking in the target language (TL). From the small pool of SBI investigations into schoolchildren whose first language (L1) is English, there is some evidence of success among boys in particular. The present two-cycle action research and development study of beginner (Y7) and intermediate (Y10) learners of French (L2) (N=148) investigated the impact of 12 hours of strategy intervention training on TL speaking skills in an all-boys selective secondary school in England. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, the intervention cohort which underwent explicit SBI training was compared with a class from the same year group which did not receive training, in respect of their attitudes towards speaking in the MFL classroom. To assess the impact of the intervention, a mixed methods approach was adopted; data were captured via questionnaires, lesson observations and interviews. In Cycle 2, pupils navigated the ‘Strategy Island Map’, an innovative tool to track their strategy use when speaking in the TL. Results suggest that explicit SBI improved attitudes towards speaking among both age groups. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Authors: Thompson, N; Mutton, TA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Journal: Language Learning Journal
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 312-327
• Publication date: 2022-02-03
• Acceptance date: 2021-12-22
• DOI: 10.1080/09571736.2021.2023612
• EISSN: 1753-2167
• ISSN: 0957-1736
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR