Parental support strategies and motivation in aiding their children learn the English language

Abstract

Learning a language starts within the comfort of a home. Parent involvement in English language teaching serves as a brilliant step towards promoting literacy and communication among children. English has been regarded as a global language which urges parents to guide their children to be inclined toward English. With that, the purpose of this study was to determine the parental support strategies and motivation of parents in teaching the English language. Specifically, this study was qualitative research that focused on collecting narratives and experiences from parents. Eight bilingual Filipino parents, constituted 4 housewives and 4 professionals, were interviewed in the study. The findings suggested that parents see English as an important language that can direct their children towards their career path. Parents were motivated by how the English language can shape the aspirations and enthusiasm of their children. Competency, applicability, reputation, and positivity were the major predictor of the motivation of parents in teaching the English language to their children. Bilingual parents in this study were aware of their role in the language development of their children. Nevertheless, dialogic reading, correction, and educational contents were some of the characteristics of strategies. This study established a missing component of the literature specifying the role of parental support and motivation in education and language teaching.