Parents Peceptions English Class Work

ACUERDO 19 DE 1988 DEL CONSEJO SUPERIOR UNIVERSITARIO
Artículo 167:
“La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable por las
ideas expuestas en este trabajo”.

To:
Our effort for making this achievable,
Janeth Velasquez for her guidance and
to our mothers for the energy provided
PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CLASS WORK
DANIEL FELIPE FORERO
Code 20011165029
ORLANDO ARTURO OVIEDO
Code 20002165048
UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS
School of Science and Education

Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés
Bogotá, 2006
PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CLASS WORK
Daniel Felipe Forero
Orlando Arturo Oviedo
A Monography work presented as a requirment for the Degree of “Licenciado
en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera”
Director
Professor Janeth Velásquez M.A
UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS

School of Science and Education
Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés
Bogotá, 2006
Note of Acceptance
____________________________
____________________________
____________________________
Director: _______________________________
Janeth Velásquez M.A
Jury 1:_______________________________
Professor:
Jury 2:_______________________________
Professor:
Acknowledgements
It is difficult to mention all people who contributed to our professional
and personal development in this project, however we hope these words may
reach all of them.
First of all, we thank God who gave us the health, support and guidance
of our steps. We also want to thank especially our mothers, they are the source
of our energy, their constant effort and devotion were the main inspiration to
begin and conclude this stage of our lives.
Our gratefulness to our professors who shared their knowledge and
experience. Their advice allowed us to make our goal achievable. Moreover, we
would like to express our sincere thanks to Janeth Velasquez. Her disinterested
right, valuable and unconditional guide as well as her certain words and
devotion helped us to make this research possible.
To the Universidad Distrital for its acceptance and for bearing us along
these years in which we did the best thanks to the support of the professors that
accompanied us along this path.
Finally, we should show our gratitude to the participants of this research,
both parents and children, whose contribution made us understand the
importance of working together.

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evidence parents’ perceptions
towards English class-work when they work collaboratively with their children,
using written productions as a means for communication. To make it possible
we focused on theory about collaborative work referred by Rivers, Beckman and
Vigotsky; also it was necessary to bear in mind the concept of written
productions seen by Shuman, Kazemek & Rigg, Peyton & Staton and Street.
This case study research was implemented with the students of
seventh grade in the C.E.D. de Cultura Popular and their parents. The students
were asked to communicate their feelings, ideas, perceptions, thoughts, etc. in
English through the written way addressing those productions to their parents
who were encouraged to write in response, working in collaboration with their
sons or daughters to build up the writings in English.
After the data analysis, the results showed that written productions
developed a space for interaction among parents and children where they had
the opportunity to both learn from each other expressing high motivation level,
and, at the same time, written productions promoted EFL literacy.
Key words: Parents’ perceptions, collaborative work, written productions.

Table of Contents
Introduction
.................................................................................................................................
Justification
.................................................................................................................................
Literature Review
.................................................................................................................................
Instructional Design
.................................................................................................................................
26
Research Design
.................................................................................................................................
37
Research Questions
.................................................................................................................................
38
Objectives
.................................................................................................................................
39
Type of study
.................................................................................................................................
40
Instruments
.................................................................................................................................
41
Setting
.................................................................................................................................
44
Data Analysis
.................................................................................................................................
47
Analysis of Information
.................................................................................................................................
47
Category 1 Parents’ perceptions of the English class work

.................................................................................................................................
50
Sub category 1 Positive announcements

.................................................................................................................................
52
Sub category 2 Expectant comments

.................................................................................................................................
55
SubCategory 3 Further suggestions

.................................................................................................................................
57
Category 2 Parents’ perceptions of their children

.................................................................................................................................
59
Subcategory 4. Parents’ affection

.................................................................................................................................
61
Category 3: Parents’ perceptions of the English Language

.................................................................................................................................
64
Conclusions
68
Implications
.................................................................................................................................
70
References
.................................................................................................................................
72
Annexes
.................................................................................................................................
77
DATA ANALYSIS
.................................................................................................................................
55
Instruments’ Piloting
.................................................................................................................................
55
Analysis of information
.................................................................................................................................
57
Category 1: Collaborative work seen as learning from each other

.................................................................................................................................
60
Subcategory 1: Parents and children: One world, two lives

.................................................................................................................................
62
Subcategory 2: Parents’ and children’s lack of spaces to interact

.................................................................................................................................
65
Category 2: Collaborative work based on exchange of roles

.................................................................................................................................
70
Category 3: Developing an interaction space among parents and children

.................................................................................................................................
74
Subcategory 1: Making links between home and school

.................................................................................................................................
78
CONCLUSIONS
.................................................................................................................................
83
IMPLICATIONS
List of Figures
Figure No. 1 Topics developed in the English class

.................................................................................................................................
27
Figure No. 2 Curriculum

.................................................................................................................................
34
Figure No. 3 Research design

.................................................................................................................................
46
Figure No. 4 Categories and Subcategories

.................................................................................................................................
49
Parents’ Perceptions 1
List of annexes
Annexe No. 1 Parents consent form

.................................................................................................................................
77
Annexe No. 2 Survey No. 1

.................................................................................................................................
78

.................................................................................................................................
79

.................................................................................................................................
80

.................................................................................................................................
81
Annexe No. 6 Letters to parents No. 2

.................................................................................................................................
82
Annexe No. 7 Letter to students No. 1

...................................................................................................................................
83
Annexe No. 8 Letter to parents No. 3

...................................................................................................................................
84
Introduction
This project was born from our concerns about the difficulties presented
in students’ learning process from the Instituto Distrital de Cultura Popular in
seventh grade when they were asked to produce writings in English. We found
that parents showed great interest in the work to be developed with their sons
and daughters when we introduced ourselves to them, and, taking into account
that we had been wondering how to accomplish the purpose to make students
learn easily English language and doing this apprenticeship really significant we
came up with the idea to involve parents in the process due to the consideration
that in the learning process only important things are stored in the brain.
(Vigotsky,1979).
In order to make learning significant for the students this research
proposal invited parents to be involved, we supported children to write to their
parents expressing their feelings, emotions and thoughts on different situations
and parents read those writings, interpreted them and learnt how words and
structures meant to express many aspects and ideas. Then parents did write to
us about their perceptions about the activities done and sometimes incorporated
words in English encouraged by themselves to learn as an example for their
sons and daughters.
Children reported how good they did in English class through the
activities presented in class and parents through writings they sent to us every
week.
Moreover beyond the fact we took for granted that parents would be
interested in understanding what their children had written, it was remarkable to
find out in terms of English learning that they were carrying out a literacy
process.
In this paper we are concerned with showing what we did in our
pedagogical research and how we developed it. In that way the reader will find
the description of the project, the justification, the research method, the literature
review; discussing the constructs of the research questions, the instructional
design describing the approach, the objectives, methodology and evaluation,
then the research design exploring the activities done to gather data, data
analysis with the findings of the study and finally the conclusions with explicit
answer to the research questions.
Justification
The core of this study is perception as a means of knowing what parents
consider about the activities performed at English classes of their sons and
daughters using the written productions as the proof through which we are going
to answer the research question and to evidence the way parents make sense
of the world through their writings.
As other main construct of our research we have collaborative work
expecting parents to work with us because they can take advantage of that
process to acquire knowledge by means of their own children and their written
productions. Several parent/child interactions are important in preparing the
child to learn at school and Parents can even learn (Becher, 1984).
This study as an innovative way of teaching has arisen as a reaction in
opposition to the traditional teaching that we lived through our experience of
secondary school students in which parents did not work in tandem with
students.
In our project we have proposed to involve parents in the process carried
out with the students in the school as an innovative way to plan education.
When parents are involved in their children's education, both children and
parents are likely to benefit (Bowen, 1997).
To achieve an effective English learning and in this case English learning
to write, we require linking children’s written text to their familiar context aiming
those texts to the students’ personal expression towards their own parents.
Consequently, we have taken into account the principle established by the Ley
General de Educaciòn: Ley 115 de 1994 in Titulo VI de los Educadores where it
points out that:
“La comunidad educativa esta conformada por estudiantes o

educandos, educadores, padres de familia o acudientes de los
estudiantes, egresados, directivas, docentes y administradores
escolares” and “familia como núcleo fundamental de la sociedad y primer
responsable de la educación de los hijos”.
As mentioned by the “Ley General de Educación”, this study looked for
setting down a solid relationship among parents and school in order to work
together for the benefit of the children’s education, as Sandler (1995) confirms in
the following declaration:
Schools can take steps to increase parents’ beliefs that they have
an important role to play in their children’s school success. Schools can
take also steps to increase parents’ and teachers’ sense of mutual
(partnership) responsibility for student educational outcomes. (Sandler,
1995).
Furthermore, we wanted to know the socio-cultural background of
students, families and communities we observed and interacted with the
students as they read and write. There are many possible ways to develop
transformative pedagogy and moreover our question is highly related to this
thanks to the collaborative work according to Carr & Wilson:
Students do best when parents and teachers understand each

other’s expectations and stay in touch with one another regard-
ing the child’s learning habits, attitudes toward school, social
interactions and academic progress. (Carr & Wilson, 1997)
That is related to a current way of interaction between educators and
students that attempt to foster collaborative work among them and parents who
are concerned in the teaching-learning process. It uses collaborative and critical
inquiry to enable students to analyze and understand the social realities in their
own lives and their communities integrating them with the topics developed at
school.
We intend to provide to a small group of the society represented by the
students of seventh grade and their parents, the teachers and administrative
staff in the C.E.D. Cultura Popular with a pedagogical proposal able to permit
students to stand out and have a high self esteem level and a critical mind that
let them take an active critical role in the society, consequently with the (PEI)
“Programa Educativo Institucional” of this institution in which the chapter three
“gestión academica” mentions that:
“este enfoque se ha adoptado buscando la formación de mejores

seres humanos a traves de una propuesta pedagogica clara y de calidad
que permita que los estudiantes sobresalgan en las dimensiones
humanas esenciales: intelectuales, cognitivas, expresivas y afectivas,
haciendolos màs productivos social y culturalmente”,
and with its “manual de convivencia” in which the chapter 8 is dedicated to the
parents’ or accompaniers’ duties and it defines them as “…son los primeros y
principales educadores de sus hijos, artifices de la unidad familiar” in other
words, parents are their children’s main educators consequently they should
perform their role as educational agents.
In addition, this study reaffirms the philosophy of Universidad Distrital
Francisco José de Caldas that mentions

“la vision de la UD, en su condición de institución de educación

superior de carácter estatal, popular y democrática, ha de ser un centro
de producción de saberes, con reconocimiento local, nacional e
internacional, debido a su carácter dinámico, en búsqueda constante de
la excelencia, la pertenencia y la competitividad académica mediante el
fomento a la investigación, la innovación, la extensión, y la docencia”.
Outcomes of this academic activity must be useful for the society and
compromised with the national identity and with the searching of new relevant
knowledge in the context of Colombian cultural diversity and the specific
academic cultures.
Finally, this study recognizes the vision of El Proyecto Curricular de
Lenguas Modernas that points: “El proyecto Curricular permanentemente
involucrado en el proceso de mejoramiento de la calidad del servicio educativo
propicia innovaciones en el contexto investigativo, de extensión y de docencia
con impacto a nivel nacional e internacional, de acuerdo con la propia visión de
la Universidad”.
Literature Review
Based on the main question of this research that is to analyze how the
perceptions parents have towards English class-work are brought to light
through their written productions when they work collaboratively with their
children, this chapter introduces an overview of the main constructs that oriented
the analysis and interpretation of data. This chapter starts by introducing the
concept of perceptions then different perspectives on the collaborative work
theory and finally the conceptualization about how writing is conceived.

On purpose to give an appropriate conceptualization to our proposal, we
conceive the individuals participating in this study as parents and students;
where parent is any person who although not a biological parent has parental
responsibility for or care of a child or young person, and students those who are
enrolled in the school environment. This conceptualization is also supported by
the ALI [American Law Institute] definition; a de facto parent is a person who
shares (at least) equally in primary childcare responsibilities while residing with a
child for reasons other than money. The de facto parent’s assumption of
childcare responsibilities must be either with the agreement of the natural parent
or result from a parent’s inability to care for the child” (Mason & Zavac, 2002,
p.232). Furthermore, in this study the concepts of parents and students are both
conceived as learners since they worked collaboratively sharing concepts,
opinions, feelings and knowledge.
Along the study we have done during the current term we found how
expressive parents were when referring to the work done by us at school with
their sons and daughters, that is the main reason why we decided to work on the
perceptions they had in terms of the activities presented during the academic
year. Then we consider perception as what is apprehended through the act of
perceiving when something is presented by the bodily organs or by the mind;
discernment; apprehension; cognition or mental representation also the quality,
state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation;
sensibility. Every comment sent from the parents to us is the parents’

perspective; it is the perception that transmitted became part of our data
research. “Perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and
organizing sensory information”. (The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the
English Language). In large part, the extent of a discussion of perception is
determined by the definition one uses in their discussion. For the purposes of
this paper, we will use a definition proposed by Forgus and Melamed (1976):
"the process of information extraction." Forgus and Melamed based their
description of perception on cognitive structures. These are the processes that
determine how humans interpret their surroundings. Humans interpret their
surroundings on a "higher" level than those of animals, which perceive the world
in terms of stimulus-response or reflex-tropistic actions. Humans, on the other
hand, perceive their world through information processing. Because all humans
extract information from their environment through the same general process,
Forgus and Melamed proposed that scientists must pursue the concept of
perception by the avenue of information processing. This approach makes
perception the central step in the acquisition of knowledge and higher thought.
Perception is the "superset," composed of learning, memory and thinking as
"subsets" of perception. This understanding requires a more in-depth
understanding of the relationship between learning and perception.
Moreover, in our study we used parents’ declarations looking for
sentences or even words that showed up as perceptions of their approaching to
English language through the collaborative work with their children in which they
had to read and understand some letters or cards wrote by the children or by the
teachers and afterwards they were challenged to write back to those letters. Our
consideration for including collaborative work as part of our theoretical frame
work and as the structure of the application of this study started as a concern of
linking parents and students, in other words, to establish home-school relations
to make parents able to know and monitor the work performed in classes and to
take advantage of and even learn what children could show them as part of their
academic knowledge.
In order to reaffirm our own considerations on the benefits and
advantages of having collaborative work between the students and the persons
are accompanied them at home we base on Rivers (1983) declares:
Learners are able to build up the foreign language system when

they use it as a medium of communication. They have to make relations
between what they have already acquired and what they are learning
now while exchanging meanings with each other. That means skill-
getting practice and skill-using performance have to move on side by side
in the learning process.
Rivers (1983) goes on to say that this skill-using aspects of linguistic
performance can be developed only in interactions. Our project is a search of
better learning environment where the students could share their interest in the
academic content matter and experience direct participation in the learning
community through their active participation in the project.

Rivers also gave us the key to work on collaborative work. He claims that
students learn better when they are actively committed in the process. This is
evidenced through the work done at school in which we were the ones
responsible of encouraging students to work with their parents and moreover the
papers wrote by the two of them are proof to support this.
Another aspect that we have taken into account is that the collaborative
work looks forward to enrich learning environment by offering students an
opportunity to express their personal meaning in the target language while at the
same time acquiring the language specific skills (Rivers, 1983). It is important to
clarify that parents are also learners in this study; this learning environment is
also the same learning event to which we are going to refer below.
Eventually the last aspect to research on is the one that says that the
collaborative work is to encourage students to be more active and involved in
sharing their learning process with others (Rivers, 1983). We understand by
“others” the other students in the classroom and the parents at home.
Bennett (1991) reports that, regardless of the subject matter, students
working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer
than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students
who work in collaborative groups also appear to be more satisfied with their
classes.
We, in our experience, first as students and now as student teachers,
have realized that having a good interaction among students and parents is
possible to make them keep in their minds significant aspects that will contribute
to the learning process, in this case the English learning process.
We attempt to state that sometimes the relation school-home is not close
enough that is why we consider interaction through the Collaborative Work is
one of the main reasons to develop this project. The axiom that two heads are
better than one really is true when it comes to strengthening children and
families in a holistic way. By thinking, planning, and working together, the
individuals and groups that make a community can accomplish goals. Foyle
(1995) states that knowledge is created through interaction and not 'transferred'
from educator to student. (Foyle, 1995)
The purpose of this study is to evidence the perceptions when parents
are asked to be engaged in the process of learning or acquiring the English as a
foreign language, in this paper we detail how parents-students’ work is as
important as teachers’ role when looking for their motivation, our findings have
showed that the relation home-school is useful when reporting on how revealing
the students’ and parents’ work has been.

We consider it is important to take into account that children are not
isolated human beings; in fact, the child is a social being by nature and is always
looking somebody to interact with. (Vigotsky, 1964), teachers, through their
interactions with parents, play a major role in encouraging parents to support
learning at home. At the beginning of this project we were wondering on how to
sensitize parents to be committed in the activity that we proposed to them on a
school report’s day, parents expressed to us their interest at the very beginning
and as the time went by we realized how difficult it was for some of them to have
the time to fulfill their commitment and that was why we decided to make a
choice on the participants more responsive to us and also to the proposal.
Sometimes parents felt with not enough basis to develop the written productions
assigned and we had a challenge to handle this situation because of the time
due to the work developed at school and the time for training students to
perform or to transmit the knowledge to their parents.
We found through the surveys applied at the beginning of the term that
most of the students expressed that they did the homework on their own and
that sometimes they presented some difficulties with ideas and words not clear
enough for them and they tried to ask for collaboration to their parents with not
good response because of their activities or because they considered that those
doubts had to be answered at school, in fact the students were learning, they did
not.
We have that; language is both personal and social. It serves to think and
to communicate. According to Newman (1985), speaking, listening, reading, and
writing are all learned best in authentic speech and literacy events.
We are concerned with literacy since writing is our main means of
communication with the parents and it is the prime source of data analysis in this
research. Street (1993), views reading as a social process that takes into
account the relationship and interaction between author and reader. Meaning
flows from an understanding of the cultural, social, and political contexts in
which the reading takes place (Street, 1993).
Literacy is socially embedded in the daily lives of our learners regardless
of whether they are aware of it or not. The literacy event is an occurrence where
the individual interacts with written text. (Barton, 1998).
In the written productions we have collected we saw how the writer tried
to express ideas and perceptions, even when the grammar was not correct yet a
regular reader is able to give meaning to what the idea was about. In fact since
the commencement we were focused on making the students express
themselves, their ideas, their thoughts and perceptions in a written way rather
than learning the mere grammar.
Learners achieve expressive and communication purposes in a genuine
social context. Learning how to use language is accomplished as learners use

language to learn about the world (Newman, 1985). In addition, we can say that
the fundamental concern for someone who uses language is making sense.
We are concerned with the socio-cultural dimensions of written language
because it is deeply related with our perception of written texts as a way to know
student’s perceptions and to foster social interaction with their parents. This can
be evidenced when the idea of performing this project at that school was
received with great curiosity for the head English-Teacher who gave us all the
independence to develop the activities that we describe in the Instructional
Design.
From a socio-cultural perspective, reading and writing are communicative
acts in which readers and writers position one another in particular ways,
drawing in conventions and resources provided by culture. It can be seen in our
project when all the social patterns that surround the students’ environment
affect them. When we presented the activity to be done on mothers’ day
students took the social and cultural aspect of this celebration, they invited their
mothers into an unconscious process of literacy and socio-cultural event.
Mothers responded actively when motivated to be part of this new experience as
they have expressed themselves in the surveys. Writing becomes a way of
making sense of experience or discovering what one thinks rather than
performing functionally useful tasks (Peyton & Staton, 1996). According to Freire
(1987), literacy can be viewed as a relationship of learners to the world, as a

form of cultural politics, and not merely a process of producing knowledge, thus,
he emphasizes literacy role in social as well as personal transformation.
According to Vygotsky (1964), thought and speech have different roots in
humankind, thought being nonverbal and language being nonintellectual in an
early stage. But their development lines are not parallel - they cross again and
again. At a certain moment around the age of two, the curves of development of
thought and speech, until then separated, meet and join to initiate a new form of
behavior. That is when thought becomes verbal and speech becomes rational. A
child first seems to use language for superficial social interaction, but at some
point this language goes underground to become the structure of the child's
thinking. It is then how Vigostky’s point of view become into an important tool to
us, the child shows himself as a social being who needs interaction one another
with the purpose to communicate his ideas. We wanted to apply this concept
relating it to the written-production that each student developed.
A person since the early years is looking for the most appropriate words
to express ideas, in this process the adult is the one in charge of teaching new
words and the context to use them, the necessity to communicate is what
encourages the child.
Then is in this part in which we consider that the relation between parents
and students will be really significant even for the kids as for their parents and
our labor will be the means to encourage the kids to write, to acquire the first
language at the beginning is something that is done into a sequential process in
which the students use to ask for all kind of things that are new for them and
they learn easily those words that are able to remember them a feeling or a
sensation or an attitude.
According to Vygotsky, all fundamental cognitive activities take shape in a
matrix of social history and form the products of sociohistorical development
(Luria, 1976). That is, cognitive skills and patterns of thinking are not primarily
determined by innate factors, but are the products of the activities practiced in
the social institutions of the culture in which the individual grows up.
Many facts will be determinant in the learning process, culture, the
environment and all those aspects that are surrounding the learner can affect his
learning process, society plays a role totally different in terms of culture, it is
difficult to find a parent with his son living in the same culture and with the same
ideals, every one of them has different conceptions that have grown up with the
social conceptions from each time, with our research we are wondering how to
close these two worlds so they will communicate one another using writing as a
means to know about feelings that are focused on the social aspect. Two
different worlds can be gathered when sharing common interests, when we
designed the activities to be developed we tried hard to involve topics in which
they felt part of the same world without differences of age, learning is a social
event, we found the way to make the learning event worth enough for them and
it is stated in our research and our findings.
Vygotsky explains; the classroom is no longer teacher and students, it
becomes more an interdependent community with all the joys and tensions and
difficulties that attend all communities. This degree of participation often
questions and reshapes power relationships assumed between parents and
their sons or daughters (Vigostky, 1964).
Cooperative learning represents the most carefully structured end of the
collaborative learning. Defined as “the instructional use of small groups so that
students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning”
(Johnson et al. 1990).
In cooperative learning, the development of interpersonal skills is as
important as the learning itself. The development of social skills in group work-
learning to cooperate – is key to high quality group work. Many cooperative
learning tasks were assigned to students with both academic objectives and
social skills objectives. This cooperative work is between parents and students
but we cannot left aside that in class the students need also social interaction to
reach the objectives proposed for in the class and moreover, the team work at
school is conceived as a strategy for developing the activities to learn the
language in the academic context, at home they are not with the same patterns
they have when in class, so that, is what we call the learning event that takes
place in their homes, in their own environment when there is not any person
tutoring what they are doing and how they are doing, it gives them a sense of
responsibility to behave the best they can in front of the assignment they have to
transmit the information we have taught them at school and that their parents
learned. Built into cooperative learning work is regular “group processing,” a
“debriefing” time where students reflect on how they are doing in order to learn
how to become more effective in group learning settings (Johnson, Johnson and
Holubec, 1990).
Discussing about this cooperation process we regard the conception of the
relation parents-students because as we have stated before parents play an
important role in the apprenticeship of the students and of their selves and in
fact parents are part of our research.
As Street claims:
Tanto la investigación como parte de la práctica de la alfabetización ha

experimentado cierto desplazamiento hacia lo que podríamos llamar una
concepción más social de ella. Evitando caer en una ‘definición tipo
diccionario’ de la alfabetización, como concepto de trabajo consideramos
la alfabetización como “las prácticas sociales de lectura y/o escritura”
(Street, 1984).
In this sense, the collaborative work in this project searched that parents
and children shared knowledge, ideas, thoughts and life experiences by creating
an interaction where they both had something to contribute one another.

With our project we are looking for social practice from both parts of this
research; on the one hand students, and on the other hand the parents, as the
students are looking for a means to involve parents the topic should have an
aspect quite interesting to be worked on, as Street says: the literacy process
must be considered as the social practices of reading or/ and writing. (Street,
1984)
Shuman, A. (1983) coined the concept of literacy events, like an analogy of
the concept of speech event used in socio-linguistic literature. Literacy event is
that moment in which writing or reading has a role “The point is to build on what
people know, and to incorporate their local cultural knowledge into schooling”
(Moll, 1992), “writing is a vehicle of social and cultural affirmation” (Street, 1984).
When a researcher is attempting to investigate literacy, it is necessary to have
identifiable aspect to search for; the function of the concept of literacy event is to
facilitate this.
In this project is intended to organize and structure all the spaces in which
the teaching learning processes take place. We are aware that the place and
time in which parents and students are working together should be determined,
as in a literacy event in which parents-children work collaboratively (Shuman,
1983).
The writing process is more than a repetitive way of nonsense aspects
that are not longer in our minds, we claim that meaningful words are more
powerful than those that do not express the way we perceived and express our
conceptions about the world.
When children develop tasks and work in cooperation with their parents
all they have the opportunity to notice the view of the world that is laying down
beyond the signs and the written meaning. They learn and know about each
other’s thinking, conceptions and assumptions of what is their own world in
which they are living in and interacting. As it is evidenced in our data collection
students as parents are allowed to express themselves by other means while it
is provided and build a new space to exchange perceptions and to re-know one
another as Kazemek & Rigg claim (1995).
In the cognitive view, often called the "process" approach to writing, the
focus on meaningful communication for learner-defined purposes derives from
second language acquisition theory. Writing is a vehicle for reflection and
exploration of ideas because writing becomes a way of making sense of
experience or discovering what one thinks rather than performing functionally
useful tasks (Peyton & Staton, 1996).
The point is to build on what people know, and to incorporate their local
cultural knowledge into schooling, drawing on what Luis Moll (1992) calls their
funds of knowledge. Thus, pedagogical practices may encourage the use of
culture-specific genres, purposes, and content. The message in this approach is
that learners' cultural knowledge and ways of using literacy are valuable and can
become a bridge to new learning.
A focus on meaning rather than form (grammatical correctness)
encourages students’ and parents’ writing development; instruction should
stress writing for real reasons, to real audiences in order to promote authentic
communication; writing should be contextualized and that content should be
meaningful and relevant to learners; learners need some degree of overt
instruction, which includes talk about writing, substantive, specific feedback, and
multiple opportunities for revision; social and cultural variation in writing
practices and genres needs to be taken into account; and all writing pedagogy
reflects a stance about the learner in relation to the social order. The most
important point is that teachers need to be conscious of implications of their
practices and of the power of the messages that their pedagogical practices
convey. Atkinson (1987), Auerbach (1993).
Children who have more exposure to English are often placed in a
position of translating and solving other problems for parents, reversing
traditional roles and creating additional stresses for all involved. Children and
adults are resources for one another (Cummins, 1981; 1996).

There are many sources of inspiration for innovative work in family and
intergenerational literacy that can make a difference. With movement in the
directions outlined above, it becomes possible to imagine schools that
understand and respond to families and communities; families that cooperate
with schools towards agreed-upon goals; and generations who find in one
another the resources to remember their past, to manage the present, and to
take on the future with confidence and joy (Auerbach, 1992).
As a conclusion, we developed a project that sought to see thoroughly
the collaboration that existed among parents, children and school by means of
the implementation of written productions as a space where parents and
students could communicate freely their feelings, thoughts, perceptions, etc;
recognizing the importance that each one of the members of the educational
community has in teaching-learning process.

Instructional Design
Previously, it was indicated that we applied English written productions in
the classes to work on the topics we had to teach at school based on the
syllabus for seventh grade. These written productions were planned through
topic-based work much as it helped us to relate the exercises to the experiences
and interests of children.
A topic according to our project is best defined by Mc Lean (1994) as a
small piece of learning material that produces a cohesive, meaningful learning
outcome. Part of the aim of a topic is to provide a framework that can help
students and teachers deal with the complexity of a subject

What distinguishes the topic-based approach from the traditional theme-
based approach is the fact that it concentrates on more general and cross-
sectional topics which involve various cultural issues. It makes students realise
that what they are learning about is not only institutions and systems but real
people, their beliefs and problems (McLean, 1994).
According to Alan McLean (1994), whose article was a direct inspiration
for the diploma:
“A topic-based approach can provide an oblique yet original

encounter with life and culture. It deals with key elements of current
living, such as class, privatisation, education, health, not in isolation
but within a series of unifying contexts.”
Thus, the topics we planned in our pedagogical intervention were related
to children’s life and also took into account the participation of their parents. For
that reason, the activities were based on 9 topics that children had already
experienced, in an attempt to develop meaningful learning. The themes were
organized as follows:
Personality
My
Occupation
parent-
s
student
The
Likes and DAILY
Dislikes World I ACTIVITIES
live
My Neighbor-
house hood
My
Parents
Figure No. 1 Topics develop in the English Class
The themes searched to inquire the knowledge that children and parents
had about general information of each other. Likewise, the activities were
applied for children to acquire vocabulary and simple structures that allowed
them to describe people and real events they had lived formerly.
Keeping in mind the topics mentioned above, an activity was developed
for each one of them. Such tasks were developed by parents and children using
the Written productions, children at school; and parents at home, with the help of
their sons and daughters.
 Objective of Activities: To register daily important perceptions of parents’ and
children’s lives and at the same time, to work on different topics in English.
 Description: when the students began to take notes in English where they
wrote aspects of their parents’ life in a paper sheet; the idea was also that
students guided their parents in doing the same activity, but about the
English class work and trying to develop the same assignments the students
had. The following are the activities that were carried out with the students in
the classroom and their parents at home.

Activity No.1 Personality
In class, students did a conversation interacting themselves and using
vocabulary previously taught in class. We arranged groups of 5 people, and
each group was responsible of a group of adjectives. We gave them information
about the question to place in order to know about this; what are you like? And
they wrote it on a billboard, with this information they created a billboard using
different materials such as newspaper cuttings, silhouette paper, colors, etc.
Then, we fixed the billboards around the classroom and each group presented
them to their classmates, students realized some perceptions their classmates
had about them.
As a second activity, students made in their notebook the description of
their parents, writing what are they like and everything they thought was
important in their parents’ personality.
Activity No. 2 Occupations
Each student represented acting the occupation that their parents had.
Then, they wrote on the notebook what it was and why it was important. We
explained them how to work with the verb to be to write about their parents: “My
mother is … or My father is…”
Homework for parents:

Parents wrote about their sons and daughters´ occupation in the future,
mentioning why they wrote that and why it was important in our society.
Homework for students:
After students developed each task in classroom, they had to explain to
parents the homework. It was for their parents to do the same task but according
to their children information and if they wanted they could write a comment
about the activity.
Activity No. 3 Daily Activities
Teachers gave students some material where there were activities and
dialogues from people with different activities. They organized the dialogues for
these people according to the drawing and the daily activities.
Students drew in a written production comics of their parents’ daily routine and
in each drawing they wrote the activity and the time filling the gaps in the next
format:
My parent wakes up at_____________. Then he/she/they take/s a shower
at____________Later my parent/s go/es to work at____, he she they has/ve
breakfast at________, brush/es their teeth at__________. At night my parent/s
watch/es T.V. at_________and finally my parent/s go/es to sleep
at____________.
Activity No. 4 Neighborhood

In class, students drew different places in the city to work on places in
English. Teachers wrote a general description of the places, the location, the
importance, etc. Then, students wrote in their notebook about the neighborhood
they lived in, mentioning what they have there and the importance of this plan.
Activity No. 5 My parent
In the next class we studied different ways to feel in front to the activities
the parents do, for example: “I do not like the work of my mom because she
works a lot.”
In this class we worked the negative sentences of the verb like and the
positive ones and reviewed moods.
Individually, and with the use of their own drawings they wrote a letter to
their parents communicating them the way they felt about this, parents sent us
back their perceptions and comments about what they realized about their sons
and daughters´ thoughts.
Activity No. 6 My house
With some pictures that the teacher gave them in order to know different
ways of houses in terms of space, location, size, etc the students selected those
pictures with the respective vocabulary that fitted better to their own house on
the purpose to write about it and to let their parents know about the way they
see the place with characteristics of each one of them (cramped, dark, sad,
boring, happy)
Then, students made a drawing in a letter of what they would like to have
as a house and they gave it to their parents who simultaneously wrote to us
comments about the activity.
Activity No. 7 Likes and dislikes
As in the previous class we worked the negative form of the verb like we
decided to work on feelings connected to moods in which students would feel
the freedom of expressing the way they feel in front of some situations and
giving complementary information about what they want to mean.
like / dislike
I to feel happy when my parents (father/mother)_________.
I to feel sad when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel silly when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel angry when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel scared when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel good when my parents (father/mother)____________.
I to feel bad when my parents (father/mother)____________.
Activity No. 8 My parent –student

We gave the students the instructions to make, with the company of their
respective parent, a comic in which they would draw themselves in a sequence
of twelve boxes in which they would show us the moment when parent and
student decide to start working on the assignments, besides the invented
conversation the parents sent us a comment. This was important to us and our
research to figure out how and where is that moment when the students meet
their parents to accomplish the scholar assignments.
 Methodology
Along the different assignments carried out through this study, the teachers’
assistance consisted on:
• Guiding the development of class activities, and solving different questions
the students had.
• Monitoring children and parents’ activities development. In class, the
teachers were responsible of explaining the students’ role when working with
their parents and to communicate the information given to them about what
we expected.
 Students’ Role: The student conveyed information between parents and
teachers by explaining the topics and the activities to their parents according
to the activities they did in class. In that sense, we can see students worked
collaboratively with their parents.

 Parents’ Role: Parents were active participants who developed, with the help
of their children, different activities according to the topics providing us the
information to answer our research question.
 Teacher’s Role: Teachers were guides and facilitators who managed
activities development and simultaneously, they were researchers monitoring
the process, perceptions, and students’ comments in each one of the
activities. In that sense, they assumed the role of:
• Class-counsellor: solving doubts on how to express in a better way the
students´ideas explaining and guiding them how to talk to their parents in
order to make them understand.
• Organizers: be actively involved in the organization of the different
activities that students and parents did.
Figure No. 2 Curriculum

COMMUNICATIVE
UNIT TOPIC GRAMMAR ACTIVITY FUNCTION
Week 1 Reading
Jan.3- Simple
Pair works
Feb.4 present tense:
Writing
Faces Verb to be
descriptions of
and question
Who are partners, family, Identifying people
form
we? friends Describing people
Use of
Week 2 Conversations
Feb. 7 - Adjectives
Writing
11 Personality Question
descriptions of
word: who
themselves
Week 3 What are Occupations Present Analysis of Talking about
Feb. 14 we progressive pictures and actions happening
-18 doing? tense representations to now
Question describe ongoing Asking for and
actions
Week 3 Oral and written
Feb. 21 description of real giving
– 25 The World word: what facts information about
we’re living Exchanging someone is doing
points of view in
groups
Week 4 Describing
Feb.28– pictures and
Mar.4 Talking about
Use of finding
Appereances school, teachers
look like differences and
and friends
Demostrative similarities by
How are we Identifying
pronouns: pairs
changing? objects/ things
Week 5 These, those Writing a
March.7 Describing
Question composition
–11 How are things differences in
Word: How called “How is
different? people
my family
different?”
Week 6 Role plays
Mar.14 highlighting states
– 18 of mind Expressing needs
Simple
Feelings, present tense: Writing a card
moods expressing how Expressing
they feel while feelings and what
to need,
being in different they want to
to want,
places obtain
Week 7
Mar. 21
- 25
HOLY WEEK
How are
we
feeling?
Students ask
partners about
what they like and
don’t like then
Week 8 they fill in charts
Likes and
Mar.28– Writing a letter
Apr.1 dislikes to like+ telling about the Expressing likes
infinitive general likes and
or object dislikes of the and dislikes
children in the
school
Week 9 What are Grocery There is/are Reading texts and Asking for food
April 4 we Shopping Expressions fill in exercises Asking for and
–8 producin of quantity: giving prices
g? some/any Role plays Talking about
Quantitative: performing quantity and
shopping at a
many + common grocery quality
Week Card game to
10 introduce
Apr. 11 Environmental vocabulary
- 15 Studies: Written fill in
describing exercises related
places to pictures and
Prepositions
things in the
of Place: in,
Where school context Locating people
on, under,
Week are we To make a and places
11 over
doing…? drawing of their Describing places
Apr.18 Adverbs:
neighborhood
– 22 near, far
with some
My
characters ,write a
neighborhood
composition
describing that
context and things
happening there
Week Students locate
12 Adverbs: places in pictures
Apr.25 here, there Hiding game in a Asking for and
– 29 Prepositions: park in order to giving
Travelling
next to, use prepositions information about
behind, in as instructions to where places are
front of, in find people or
things
Week Where
13 are we Verb to want
Reading and
May 2 - going? + infinitive or Asking for and
comprehension
6 object giving
check exercises
Object information about:
What do we Students write
pronouns: me, Pupils objectives
wish? short
you, him, her, Parents objectives
compositions
it, us, them Teacher and
about the things
Prepositions: school objectives
they wish
for, at vs. in
Week Where Past tense Reading legends Describing people
14 Histories and
are we verb to be: and tales and and events in the
May 10 Stories
coming was, were (all comprehension past
– 13 from? forms) check exercises Talking about the
Week Community There was/ Students search past vs. the
15 histories there were for the family and present
May 16 Simple past neighborhood Talking about
– 20 tense: regular history your childhood,
and irregular Role plays parents and family
verbs performing their
findings
Students write a
composition with
Personal personal
insights reflections on
their family in the
past vs. in the
present
Week Students write
16 some letters to the Expressing needs,
May 23 teacher and to feelings, thoughts
– 27 Writing a letter
their parents with and asking for
free just something they
What are All the expressing what want to know
we grammar they want
Week learning? viewed Students’ self
17 evaluation self-evaluating
May 31 Whole Students’ teachers success or lack of
– Jun.3 Assesment evaluation success in
Teachers’ process communication
evaluation
Research Design
This study had as an initial research question “How is the collaborative
work revealed when the parents are involved with their sons or daughters’
English written productions based on whole language theory?” however, during
the implementation of the project in the school, we realized that it should be
changed since the whole language approach could not be carried out as the
basis of our pedagogical implementation like initially we expected. For this
reason, we looked for another concept that was coherent with our information
collected from parents’ writings and interviews. Consequently, we decided to
omit the “whole language theory” and to include “parents’ perceptions” since this
was more appropriate to what we had in our collection of data.
Furthermore, another part of our main question was "sons or daughters”
that was discussed during a presentation of our work in the seminar class at the
university. We realized that this was not related to what we intended to study,
because it has some concerning of genre that we did not concern. Finally, we
listened some suggestions from the audience possible changes and they
allowed us to reconsider this term and look for a word that was more in
agreement to our objectives in the study, and then we decided to include in our
research question the word "children" which was more appropriate to our
purposes avoiding genre consideration. Thus, we made the necessary changes
in order for the question to wrap up the objective proposed in our work, and
eventually the following question was posed:

Research Questions
Main Question:
What perceptions do parents have towards English school work when working
collaboratively with their children?
Sub-question:
What do written productions reveal about the manner parents make sense of the
world?
Objectives
Main Objective:
To analyze how the perceptions are revealed when parents work collaboratively
with their children’s English written productions.
Specific Objective:
To identify the role of English written productions when revealing the manner the
parents make sense of the world.

Type of study
In order to develop an adequate research, a case study methodology was
implemented because it is aimed to the collection and presentation of detailed
information about a small group of people, including the accounts of the subjects
themselves.
In this study we worked from a qualitative, descriptive and interpretative
standpoint, consequently with the type of data we collected throughout the
development of the research. In fact qualitative researchers build theory from
observations and intuitive understanding gained in the field. In contrast to
deductive researchers who “hope to find data to match a theory, inductive
researchers hope to find a theory that explains their data” (Goetz and Lecompte,
1984, p.4.)
Besides the fact we made and performed a pedagogical intervention in
the research process in which the role of teachers was played to carry out the
pedagogical intervention, which was used at the same time to collect data, we
wanted to integrate the children’s parents in our activities because we knew
they would provide us with first hand information. “Qualitative research is
interested in understanding the meaning people have constructed, implies a
direct concern with experience as it is lived or felt or undergone”. (Sherman and
Webb, 1988, p.7)

That is, the parents are the ones who know more about their own.
Furthermore, we think that it is time to encourage and allow parents to be
involved in the educational dimension of their sons or daughters and to make
them aware of the importance to do it.
We have designed the activities we implemented in the research to carry
out data collection. So, during these activities we collected data in which the
children and parents’ written productions were gathered to be analyzed and
support findings, the students wrote reflections; and observations were made by
us.
Instruments
• Written productions (from children and parents)
Parents and students did all the activities of the pedagogical intervention on
individual sheets. This instrument was a way to show the task developed in
class by students, and at home by parents and students, also it is important to
clarify that through the parents’ papers we collected a part of the perceptions
parents had about the English class-work with the purpose to answer our
research questions.
• Surveys
Nunan (1992) quotes that “survey data is collected through questionnaires or
interviews, or a combination of questionnaire and interview”. In this study we

used questionnaires and interviews to collect data since they both were
complementary; one of them could corroborate the information that the other
one had.
According to Cohen and Manion (1986):
Surveys are the most commonly used descriptive method in educational

research, and may vary in scope from large-scale governmental
investigations through to small-scale studies carried out by a single
researcher. The purpose of a survey is generally to obtain a snapshot of
conditions, attitudes, and/or events at a single point in time.
For that reason, we used three questionnaries along the project, the first
one came into use at the beginning of the research in order to get general
information about parents’ occupation, level of education, English level, and their
willingness and interest to participate in the education of their children.
The second one was applied to the parents in the middle of the research
process to identify what was happening with the interaction among parent and
their children during the development of the different written production
assignments; and to collect their impressions, suggestions, expectations and
comments about the project.
The third questionnaire was applied to children also in the middle of the
research process in order to know parents’ perception about their children.
Likewise, we made individual interviews to the students (in the middle of
the research) and to their parents (at the end) with the purpose of identifying and
reinforcing the obtained data through observations, artifacts, and surveys about
the interaction among the participants through out the study.
Surveys (for children and parents):
Apart from the previous instruments, we prepared a plan of surveys taking into
account what Nunan (1992) claims:
“Surveys items can be relatively closed or open ended. A closed item is

one in which the range of possible responses is determined by the
researcher. An open item is one in which the subject can decide what to
say and how to say it. Surveys can consist entirely of closed questions,
entirely of open questions, or mixture of closed and open questions.
Mixing close and open items to gather punctual information but at the
same time going deeper on what we sought to know”.
Interviews (children and parents):
To plan the interviews we considered Nunan (1992) states:
“Interviews can be characterized in terms of their degree of formality, and

most can be placed on a continuum ranging from unstructured through semi
structured to structured. An unstructured interview is guided by the
responses of the interviewee rather than the agenda of the researcher. The
researcher exercises little or no control, and the direction of the interview,
the interviewer has a general idea of where he or she wants the interview to
go, and what should come out of it, but does not enter the interview with a
list of predetermined questions. Topics and issues rather than questions
determine the course of the interview”.
So, it was decided that unstructured interviews were more appropriate for our
project; designing, in this way, more than questions, topics that guided us to get
the required information.

These interviews were focused on the following topics:
o Feelings during the implementation of the activities where they were
together.
o Learning through learning events.
o Difficulties they found while doing the exercises.
o Help from parents to their daughters or sons in tasks of other subjects
o Comments and suggestions
o Perceptions towards English school work
Furthermore, during the interviews it was important to consider what Nunan
(1992) calls “Briefing and explanation”. He states that “before the interview
begins, the researcher explains the nature of the research and the purpose of
the interview to the interviewee and answers any questions that he or she may
have”. So, it was necessary to make an introduction where the participants could
know general information about the project and the purposes we had when
making the interview.
Setting
This research and the pedagogical intervention were implemented with
students between 10 and 12 years of age from seventh grade in the Instituto
Educativo Distrital de Cultura Popular.

This Institution is a public school and emerged from the integration of three
different institutions in the Puente Aranda Locality. Those institutions were
Instituto Nacional de Cultura Popular, C.E.D. Santa Rita and C.E.D. Diego Luis
Cordoba and they were integrated in the year of 2002 by the Resolution 2361 of
August 14th, 2002 according to the establishment of the Colombian Political
Constitution, the law 115 of 94, the law 715 of 2001 and the Sectorial Plan of
Education 2001-2004, in order to respond to all the levels of pre-school, basic
and middle education with the direction of only one principal in the institution.
The institution is placed in the Barrio Ciudad Montes 3er Sector (sede A), Santa
Rita (sede B) and Alcalá (sede C), the students belong to the 1, 2 and 3 social
stratum.
To implement this project we integrated the whole class in the activities
but for the matter of data analysis we preferred to select only some of the
students with their respective parents. Consequently, this selection did not have
any specific parameters besides the mere intention and disposition to participate
in it because we did not intend to intervene in the research progress.

Figure No. 3 Research Design
QUESTIONS TYPE OF STUDY CONTEXT AND PARTICIPANTS INSTRUMENTS

Main Question Merriam (1998) Centro Educativo Distrital de  Written
What perceptions do “Qualitative research is Cultura Popular. productions
parents have towards an effort to understand  Interviews
English school work situations in their District public school in Bogotá.  Surveys
when working uniqueness as part of a
collaboratively with particular context and Students: 4 students from seventh
their sons and the interactions there”. grade between 10 and 12 years old
daughters?
Merriam (1998) “it is an Parents: (3) mothers and (1) sister
Sub-Question examination of a specific in law with secondary level studies
 What do written phenomenon such as a and a basic English level.
productions reveal program, event, a
about the manner person, a process, an
parents make sense institution, or a social
of the world? group”.
Data Analisis
Analisis of information
In this chapter we are concerned in the findings of our study; consequently
we have already specified the main constructs in a previous chapter in which we
explained detailed each one. We have eight participants among them four
students and four parents who were no selected at random but by the
commitment showed since the beginning of this study.
The research revealed that when parents felt comfortable with the school,
viewed their sons or daughters motivated, and believed they had influence on
their sons or daughters, their reported involvement with the students’ learning
was high. These perceptions and beliefs were found to be stronger when parents
understood and were knowledgeable about classroom learning and felt like a
partner in their son’s or daughter’s learning. It was also important that many of
the teachers’ communications with parents were positive instead of conveying
only negative information which often discourages parental involvement.
Parental-role construction for involvement in children’s education reflects
parents’ expectations and beliefs about what they should do in relation to
children’s schooling. Roles are generally constructed from personal experience
and expectations as well as the perceptions and expectations of pertinent others
(e.g.,Biddle,1986).
Parents also appear to involve themselves in homework because they
perceive invitations from their sons or daughters or from teachers suggesting that
their homework involvement is wanted and expected (Sandler & Hoover-
Dempsey, 1997).
To collect the data we applied three instruments, the first instrument is a
survey from which we collected important information about expectations,
affirmations that parents had about the activity we were in charge of developing
with their sons and daughters.
The second instrument was the written productions. This instrument is a
way to show the task developed in class by students, and at home by parents
and students, also it is important to clarify that through the parents’ written
productions we collected a part of the perceptions parents had about the English
class-work to answer our research questions.
Finally the third instrument are the interviews with the parents and the
interviews with the students and even it is important to make clear that the
parents interviews were highly remarkable for this study because of the
information collected through this instrument.
Parents' responses to this open-ended instrument's questions were
analyzed using analytic induction to determine any patterns or trends across
categories. Responses that referred to similar or related outcomes were grouped
together. These groups were analyzed, and tentative themes were developed to
convey the relationship of the responses in category. The themes served as
working hypotheses for later analyses of the data. Confirming and disconfirming
evidence was gathered, and the themes were revised as needed. Throughout
this process, responses obtained from the parents, anchored item responses,
and information provided by students in the course of the overall evaluation of
the program was reviewed to confirm the validity of the themes. This triangulation
of data across sources and methods served to enhance the validity of the study's
findings.
Figure No. 4 Categories and Subategories
QUESTIONS CATEGORY SUBCATEGORIES

Main Question Category 1: Subcategory 1: Positive
What perceptions do Evidencing Parents’ announcements.…………………..
parents have towards perceptions of the
English school work English class work Subcategory 2: Expectant
when working comments.
collaboratively with
their sons and Subcategory 3: Further
daughters? suggestions
Category 2: Parents' Subcategory 4: Parents’

Sub question perceptions of their affection
What do written children
productions reveal
about the manner Category 3: Parents’

parents make sense perceptions of the
of the world? English Language
Category 1 Parents’ perceptions of the English class work
In this study we are concerned about finding parents perceptions about
the English class work developed with their sons or daughters at school what is
made evident through their written productions and the interviews. From this we
collected data that when analyzed it was possible to divide it in three sub
categories converging to answer the first and main category. To give validity we
have decided to include bibliography of Dauber and Epstein who helped us in
analyzing some written productions parents did.
In their study of 2,317 inner-city elementary and middle school students,
Dauber and Epstein (1993) determined that parents' perceptions of their
children's school are interconnected with the school's attempts to involve parents:
"Parents' attitudes about the quality of their children's school are more
highly correlated with the school's practices to involve parents (.346) than
with the parents' practices of involvement (.157). Parents who become
involved at home and at school say that the school has a positive climate.
But even more so, parents who believe that the school is actively working
to involve them say that the school is a good one." (p. 67) (Dauber and
Epstein, 1993)
In the next excerpt it is possible to see how parent 3 has expressed what
she would like in terms of the English class according to the information taken
home by her son, in fact the student is a bridge between school and home in
which he is the one responsible of transmitting information about what is
happening at school in the English class work.
The adjectives used are not part of the parents’ perception in isolation, it is
due to the comments that the students did about the class in which the form to
express their perception about the class is through the adjectives used; amenas,
didacticas y dinamicas.
In the next sample of interview it is possible to perceive that when doing
the precedent interview the parent 1 used a series of adjectives to refer to the
work that was being developed at that moment at school in which she was
committed.
14 T2 Como le parece a usted que sea el colegio el que busque la ayuda

15 de ustedes para trabajar con sus hijos?
16 P1 Me parece muy bueno, de hecho es como más interesante ya que a
17 veces el compromiso que uno tiene con las cosas es el que lo hace hacerlas
18 T1 Se siente usted comprometida en este momento?
19 P1 Pues mas que comprometida me siento a gusto de poder estar
20 estudiando con la niña porque a ella le gusta y a mi también, además la veo
21 como alegre con las clases y toda como enérgica para cuando me dice que
22 vayamos a hacer las tareas me siento que como que soy una parte
23 importante de la tarea.
24 T2 Como le parece el trabajo que esta implementando el colegio con los
25 practicantes; bueno, malo, aceptable…?
26 P1 Pues la verdad es que los tiempos cambian, cuando yo estudiaba no se

27 daban estas cosas y yo soy de las que pienso que si se inventan nuevas
28 cosas es por el beneficio de la gente, y por ejemplo acá me parece que el
29 colegio es muy acertado al buscar nuevas formas de enseñar pa que no
30 todo siga monótono sino que al contrario los niños estén animados, buena
31 la labor del colegio.
Also the evidence of parents’ perceptions is presented in the form of
comparisons with the reference of previous English classes and in the form of
feedback about the results of the work developed in the class.
Sub category 1 Positive announcements.
There is a similitude when analyzing the data gathered, and it is related to
the way parents see the process developed in the school, the speech parents
used was divided in three sub categories, the first one is the positive
announcements. that parents have in front to what is happening with their sons
and daughters.
There is a way to express this type of study and also knowing the parents’
perceptions in which the verb me gusta takes an important role when expressing
some of the likes that emerge from what parents know about the classes through
the sons’ or daughters’ comments at home.
In the next excerpt we present a sample of the information above.

A number of parents indicated that their children had become more eager
or interested in learning. Some described their children as more focused or goal-
oriented. Parents indicated that their children displayed more positive attitudes
toward school and evidenced a greater understanding of the importance of
education. Parents indicated that they had developed a greater understanding of
the higher educational opportunities that were available to their children as a
result of participation in the study.
In the next sample we present an excerpt from an interview in which it is
possible to see how the parents perceive the work that is being conducted with
their sons and daughters at school.
65 T1: Como le parece lo que estamos desarrollando actualmente con los

66 muchachos?
67 P3: Pues la verdad esto es bastante diferente a lo que estábamos
68 acostumbrados,
69 incluso la niña me cuenta que le gusta la clase debido a los practicantes 70
que la hacen pues diferente, mas chévere.
It is then through the highlighted words that we as researchers are able to
figure out about the perception that parents are having about the English class at
school.
It is important to remember that a written production is a way of making
sense of experience the parents were trying to express themselves through
English even when it was not a mandatory activity but beyond that we were not
interested in perfect grammar structured texts but in meaning itself.
We understand the next excerpt as a clear way of expressing the
perception parent is having about the English class and we valued the disposition
in trying to do it even when we know that the time is a matter of fact for the
parents.
In the next example the parent is taking as a reference the English classes
that the students had in the previous year in order to establish a comparison with
the classes developed by the student-teachers of the District University.
The presence of the adjectives mejorado, dinamica make the content of
this survey be worth enough for supporting the purpose of this category,
understanding then the result of this category as the positive comments gathered
through the applied instruments along the pre-service in the institution.
Sub category 2 Expectant comments.
Moreover than assessing the work developed in the English classes some
parents expressed their expectations about future development of the activities
so far accomplished with the students, as it is seen in the next excerpts.

This type of comments were made by the parents in an open format that
was not mandatory for them and there was not any specific structure to be
followed, in response to this we received some expectations that parents had
about the English class work.

78 T1: Como ve usted el trabajo realizado con los muchachos?

79 P4: Pues yo espero que podamos seguir trabajando asi ya que estoy muy
80 concentrada en la actividad y además espero que los estudiantes de la
81 Distrital puedan seguir trabajando en el colegio.
It is then understood through expectations like “espero” that parents show
interest about the activities that are taking place in the school and also want to
continue working on that because they feel comfortable doing it, otherwise the
answer would be negative in our opinion.
SubCategory 3 Further suggestions
School as a formal institution of learning should be the promoter of the
union with the students´ family. Thus, it should open spaces where parents can
discover and participate in what it is making; having in mind that there are many
ways in which they can do it. For that reason, Epstein (1986) states that:
“Parental involvement in children’s learning activities at home is one of six

types of parental involvement in education: parenting, communicating,
volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with
the community”
This study used “learning at home” as a way to promote parents’
participation. What was perhaps most indicative of the parents' favorable
perceptions of the English class was that only a few suggestions were written in
the space on the surveys reserved for program recommendations. Indeed, most
of the comments offered in this space took the form of praise for the program
adding that some parents included suggestions in the written productions.
In the last excerpts we are suggested with giving more work to the
students, and more meaningful learning of vocabulary what is really motivating
for us due to the commitment showed by the parents, in our opinion when there
are suggestions it is because there is a real commitment on the other hand, in
fact the two parts; parents and teachers, who were looking for a benefit in
common, parents perceived study participation as having significant and positive
effects on their children's lives, and saw the project as being of a great value to
these youth as this can be seen in the next excerpt of an interview made after
meeting in which we explained what the project was about:
22 T2: ¿Le gustaría que desarrolláramos esta propuesta en el colegio?

23 P1: Si claro y además debería haber mas comunicación con los
24 profesores ya que a veces solo para la entrega de notas no es
25 suficiente, de hecho por ejemplo el director de curso ni sabe de quien es uno
26 el acudiente…
27 T1: Entonces usted desea mas comunicación colegio- padres?
28 P1: ¡Si así debería ser!
Category 2 Parents’ perceptions of their children
Along the study that we performed in the school we could see how
valuable was the process to have parents express about their sons and
daughters as responsible and independent beings as a result of the study
participation. It is then the reason of naming this category as the parents’
perceptions of their children due to the high average of related ideas in the data
we collected.
From a starting point we began applying a series of surveys that revealed
how communicative parents were going to be. We were instilling, since the very
beginning, parents to make free comments about what they considered important
and to add free commentaries about what they wanted to tell us, it was in this
way how we collected information to support this category that we are naming as
the perceptions that parents have of their children, who were able to use the
English class as a reason to talk about their own sons and daughters.
In the next excerpt we explain a written production made by a parent who
is expressing the level of responsibility her daughter has, we consider important
to clarify at this moment that a written production is a vehicle of social and
cultural affirmation (Street, 1984) due to the affirmation the parent did about the
behaviour of her daughter.
As it is seen the parent states the girl as a responsible student who is
involved in the activities of the school. Families whose children are doing well in
school exhibit the following characteristics: Monitor out-of-school activities and
express high but realistic expectations for achievement with standards that are
appropriate for children's age and maturity, recognizing and encouraging special
talents, informing friends and family about successes (Henderson, 1995).
76. T1: y entonces quien invita a quien a realizar las tareas de inglés?
77. P1: bueno por lo general es la niña la que me busca cuando yo estoy en la
78. casa haciendo oficio y entonces me dice que si hacemos la tarea que tiene
79. de la clase de inglés
80. T2: entonces ella es la que esta pendiente de los trabajos o tares que tiene
81. para el colegio
82. P1: si es que ella es muy juiciosa… salio a la mamá
That interview was made with the purpose of knowing parents perceptions
about their sons and daughters, so in this case we realized that P1 was highly
convinced about the good behavior of her daughter.
Parents’ beliefs and perceptions of their children is the basis to improve
self-confidence among sons and daughters, each time a person listens a
compliment from some one else it raises the sense of confidence and enables
the person to be more self-sufficient.
In our personal opinion and about what we listened to from the interviews
it is possible to say that parents use to refer from their sons and daughters in a
very good way, the use of positive adjectives is common, at least that
complaining about behavior or attitudes but never about the person him/herself.
Subcategory 4. Parents’ affection
The affective dimensions of learning are feelings, emotions, and self-
esteem. Caine and Caine (1991) note:
"We do not simply learn. What we learn is influenced and organized by

emotions and mind sets based on expectancy, personal biases and
prejudices, degree of self-esteem, and the need for social interaction. ...
[Emotions] operate on many levels, somewhat like the weather. They are
ongoing, and the emotional impact of any lesson or life experience may
continue to reverberate long after the specific event." (p. 82)
When students feel good about themselves as learners, they are willing to
take the risks and focus the attention necessary for further learning. Students are
more willing to tackle tasks if they believe they can be successful. When students
feel defeated or unable to learn in schools, the problems of teaching them
become very difficult. That is why many reading programs insist on early
intervention before students develop negative feelings about their own abilities
and about their willingness to participate and take risks in school learning (Caine
& Caine, 1991).
According to Rosenfield (1988), emotions have an important connection to
memory; emotions help to store information and also trigger its recall. Caine and
Caine (1991) add:
"The emotional depth and range that students have...affect their actual
capacity to grasp ideas and procedures. Similarly, content that is
emotionally sterile is made more difficult to understand. ... To teach
someone any subject adequately, the subject must be embedded in all the
elements that give it meaning. People must have a way to relate to the
subject in terms of what is personally important, and this means
acknowledging both the emotional impact and their deeply held needs and
drives. Our emotions are integral to learning. When we ignore the
emotional components of any subject we teach, we actually deprive
students of meaningfulness." (p. 58) (Caine and Caine, 1991).
The excerpt below shows the form in which the parent shows her affection
for her daughter through a written production, there is a mixture of Spanish and
English words but there is a way of expressing thoughts in which feelings are
expressed, moreover some sentences like: you are a special person for me it is a
way to show and to express the form the parent used her cultural knowledge and
incorporated it into schooling (Moll, 1992). There is a mixture of the parents’
knowledge of English working on in a written production adding the schooling
and the affection, the form the parent makes sense of the world.
Self-esteem also is related to the affective domain. How students feel
about themselves as learners and how schools help students develop self-
confidence are important components in achievement. Caine and Caine (1991)
note the importance of the school's "emotional climate" in affecting student
learning:
"Teachers need to understand that students' feelings and attitudes will be

involved and will determine future learning. Because it is impossible to
isolate the cognitive from the affective domain, the emotional climate in
the school and classroom must be monitored on a consistent basis, using
effective communication strategies and allowing for student and teacher
reflection and metacognitive processes. In general, the entire environment
needs to be supportive and marked by mutual respect and acceptance
both within and beyond the classroom." (p. 82) (Caine and Caine ,1991)
The excerpt above is another sample of the form in which the parent used
the written production for expressing affections for her daughter using the English
as the means of involving the student. We consider that this is a way of involving
in which the language is the link for fulfilling the purpose of using the written
production as a social vehicle able to transmit feelings.
Category 3: Parents’ perceptions of the English Language

In the fourth category we found that parents have a clear perception of
what the English represents for them in terms of the language itself, they
consider it as something important, in the next excerpt we found a sentence that
we decided to point out due to the point of view that the parent had in front of the
topic, for the parent English “es fundamental” what was an advantage for us
because since the beginning of the study we found good response from the
parents who showed interest in our proposal.
In the next excerpt we can see how through the written production this parent
used the previous knowledge she had for expressing her personal opinion about
English and something that was really important for us was that all of them made
us understand that in any way they understand the involvement with their sons or
daughters for fulfilling the goal that was stated for them, I think is language of
future is the way this parent expressed her perception of the language using her
way of making sense of the world even when the sense of the production is
understandable enough.
Joyce Epstein (1986), mentions that one of the main reasons why parents
do not participate actively with the school is the lack of knowledge about what it is
happening there then this is an important point to take into account because we
could deduce that most parents wanted closer communication with the school, in
fact in this form the academic activity is involved in the family environment and it
allows parents to know the topics that we were teaching to children; in this sense
parents also be involved in school contributing with ideas about how to improve
education and/or suggestions to the institution.
Additionally, this relationship school-house allowed us to see beyond
students, we could know the students environment, family and all those factors
that might influence their behavior and also their development at school in terms
of the compromise showed within the activity.

Although most parents do not know how to help their children with their
education, with guidance and support, they may become increasingly involved
in home learning activities and find themselves with opportunities to teach, to be
models for and to guide their children. (Roberts, 1992)

Conclusions
At the beginning of the project we were concerned with the idea of going
beyond the traditional school towards the transformative school in which we took
the English class as our excuse to do something innovative and modern,
knowing the parents perceptions about the work done by us at school and having
students and parents work collaboratively.
Along the process of fulfilling this study and the exploration of the obtained
results we realized that it is possible to develop projects like this even when
before this was considered as an unreliable project due to the difficulty of having
parents invited to join in it, but as the time went by we saw that according to the
parents’ perceptions these activities could be carried out in different subjects
thanks to the interest showed by the grateful parents.
Moreover the different comments and suggestions showed us that
participants used the written productions to express the way in which they make
sense of the world through writings that are not well written but have a meaning
themselves able to give the reader an understanding about what the writer wants
to express. Besides when working collaboratively it is revealed that it is
developed a mutual commitment among each other. This instrument showed
that the written way is an effective link to maintain a close relation with the
parents and also that they feel comfortable expressing the way they make sense
of the world through expressing all kind of perceptions, feelings, suggestions and
expectations. It is important to state that in our opinion this mission also includes
building an atmosphere that enhances self-esteem while fostering unity and
collaboration for learning parents and students together.
The development of this project has demonstrated that it is possible to
take the different points of possible views to understand the perceptions that a
parent can have when invited to participate collaboratively with his/her son or
daughter.
Moreover we consider that the benefits are for all of the members of the
student environment, student, parent, school, and teacher, in fact we wanted
parents to be a support for student’s learning process when we intended to instill
the collaborative work.

Implications
According to the comments collected by the participants of this project and
taking into account in the results obtained from the study carried out we could
state that this work could be performed in all the academic subjects. The
development of the activities that demand the help of parents are highly
rewarded by them, the teachers and the institution itself that is why it is
worthwhile to apply a similar project in which the link between parents and school
would be closer and as a result obtaining good benefits for parts involved.
Another aspect that can be explored in projects like this is about the
literacy process that parents have when trying to communicate themselves
through written productions because we could realize the process that parents
had in implementing a new language for communicating.
We are also sure about the importance of giving to this kind of projects a
more formal aspect without forgetting the social reality in which we live in and
from this starting point design specific activities in which the real context could be
the framework to plan and develop our English classes.
The study developed at the school was an important project for us as
researchers and we are convinced that it is important to go beyond the school,
and that is why schools should provide the resources for making teachers be
closer to parents’ and students’ lives because the reality that students have goes
deeper and takes form at home.
Another fundamental aspect is the one in which the head teacher of the
school could have the commitment to continue following the process that student
teachers developed at school with the purpose to keep building up, in the
students the mentality that working together is the only means to obtain the
results we want to.

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Annexes
Annexe No. 1 Parents consent form
Bogotá D.C., Febrero 17 de 2005
Señores:
Padres de Familia
Instituto Educativo Distrital de Cultura Popular
Curso 702
La Universidad Distrital con su programa de Licenciatura en Educación Basica con Énfasis en

Ingles presenta a los docentes en formación ORLANDO ARTURO OVIEDO y DANIEL FELIPE
FORERO quienes realizan un proyecto titulado “Evidence of collaborative work when parents
and students are involved through students written productions.” el cual se desarrollará en el
grado 702 en el presente año.
Para la ejecución de tal proyecto es de vital importancia contar con la aprobación y compromiso
por parte de los padres de familia ya que este busca complementar el trabajo de aula con su
colaboración extraclase.
Nosotros apreciaríamos su permiso para incluir el material y datos a recolectar en la edición y

publicación de este proyecto.
Atentamente,
Orlando Arturo Oviedo y

Daniel Felipe Forero,
estudiantes Universidad Distrital
Yo, _________________________________________ autorizo a Orlando Oviedo y Daniel

Forero para realizar la recolección de datos para el proyecto arriba nombrado y me comprometo a
colaborar en los trabajos y actividades programadas.
_________________________________ ________________________________________
Firma del Padre o Tutor Nombre del estudiante
Direccion:____________________________ Telefono:_________________________
e-mail______________________________
UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL
PROYECTO CURRICULAR DE LICENCIATURA EN EDUCACION BASICA CON ENFASIS EN

INGLES.
PROYECTO PEDAGOGICO INSTITUTO DISTRITAL DE CULTURA POPULAR
ENCUESTA
NOMBRE ESTUDIANTE _________________________________________________
NOMBRE ACUDIENTE__________________________________________________
OCUPACION ___________________________________________________________
NIVEL ACADEMICO ____________________________________________________
TIENE CONOCIMIENTOS ACADEMICOS DEL INGLES ______________________
DONDE LOS ADQUIRIO _________________________________________________
ESTA INTERESADO EN PARTICIPAR EN EL ACOMPAÑAMIENTO PREVIAMENTE

MENCIONADO CON EL FIN DE DESARROLLAR EL PROYECTO EVIDENCE OF
COLLABORATIVE WORK WHEN PARENTS AND STUDENTS ARE INVOLVED THROUGH WRITTEN
PRODUCTIONS.____________________________________________________

INGLES.
ENCUESTA
DONDE DESARROLLA USTED LAS ACTIVIDADES CON EL ESTUDIANTE
HABITACION_____ SALA_____ COCINA_____ COMEDOR_____OTRO______
COMO DESCRIBIRIA EL MOMENTO EN EL CUAL USTED DESARROLLA LAS ACTIVIDADES

CON EL ESTUDIANTE:
ABURRIDO______ INTERESANTE_____ NORMAL_____ ESTRESANTE______
OTRO______ CUAL ?_____________________________________
QUE RELEVANCIA LE DARIA USTED A ESTE MOMENTO DE 1 A 5.
1_______ 2________ 3________ 4________ 5________
LE GUSTARIA CONTINUAR DESARROLLANDO ACTIVIDADES SIMILARES
SI _______ NO_______
POR FAVOR ESCRIBA SUS COMENTARIOS AL RESPECTO.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

INGLES.
ENCUESTA
LAS ACTIVIDADES QUE REALIZO EN COMPAÑÍA DE MI ACUDIENTE ES PARA REALIZAR

LAS TAREAS DE:
INGLES_______ MATEMATICAS__________ ESPAÑOL__________CIENCIAS

NATURALES________ SOCIALES________ OTRA________CUAL_____________
ME GUSTA REALIZAR LAS ACTIVIDADES EN COMPAÑÍA DE ALGUIEN
SI_________ NO _________
COMO CALIFICARIA ESTE MOMENTO DE INTERACCION DE 1 A 5
1_________2_________3_________4_________5_________
ENCUENTRAS ALGUNA DIFICULTAD AL REALIZAR ESTAS ACTIVIDADES
SI_______ NO_______ CUAL __________________________________________
TU ACUDIENTE MUESTRA INTERES EN LAS ACTIVIDADES REALIZADAS
SI___________ NO___________ A VECES ___________ RARA VEZ ___________
TE GUSTARIA CONTINUAR REALIZANDO ESTAS ACTIVIDADES EN COMPAÑÍA DE TU

ACUDIENTE
SI___________ NO ____________
Nombre Alumno: _____________________________________________________

Nombre Padre de familia: _______________________________________________
Marcar con una X en frente de la opción que mejor defina su respuesta

1. Me siento motivado a participar en las actividades escolares y el proceso educativo que se
desarrolla con el alumno
Mucho________ Poco________ Nada________
2. Sin embargo debido a las actividades laborales u otras el tiempo disponible para intervenir
(revisar y ayudar en las tareas, hablar con los maestros, etc.) en este proceso es:
Mucho________ Poco________
Nada________
3. Reviso las tareas de mi hijo(a) Si______ No______
4. Le pregunto a mi hijo(a) acerca de las actividades realizadas en la jornada escolar
Si______ No______
5. Me doy cuenta del proceso que se desarrolla en las clases Mucho________
Poco________ Nada________
6. Me intereso en el proceso y las actividades que se desarrollan en la clase de inglés
Mucho________ Poco________ Nada________
7. Me interesa aprender algo del idioma inglés a través de las tareas, escritos y trabajos
realizados por mi hijo(a)
Mucho________
Poco________
Nada________
El siguiente espacio es para que usted escriba sus observaciones con respecto a esta encuesta
o las clases de inglés
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Annexe No. 6 Letters to parents No. 2
Bogotá D.C., 4 de Mayo de 2005
Queridos Padres de Familia:
Queremos comunicarles que estamos muy complacidos con el trabajo que se ha venido
realizando en las clases de Ingles por parte de los estudiantes y de ustedes que son nuestros
colaboradores en este proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje.
La presente también es con el motivo de pedirles el favor de que nos escriban sus comentarios
acerca de los escritos que los niños van a llevar a sus hogares, pues tenemos la certeza de que
ustedes puedan entender esos escritos con ayuda de los niños y entonces puedan comunicarnos
su reacción a estos.
Atentamente,
Daniel Felipe Forero y Orlando Arturo Oviedo
____________________________________________________________________________
Bogotá D.C., 4 de Mayo de 2005
Queridos Padres de Familia:
Queremos comunicarles que estamos muy complacidos con el trabajo que se ha venido
realizando en las clases de Ingles por parte de los estudiantes y de ustedes que son nuestros
colaboradores en este proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje.
La presente también es con el motivo de pedirles el favor de que nos escriban sus comentarios
acerca de los escritos que los niños van a llevar a sus hogares, pues tenemos la certeza de que
ustedes puedan entender esos escritos con ayuda de los niños y entonces puedan comunicarnos
su reacción a estos.
Atentamente,
Daniel Felipe Forero y Orlando Arturo Oviedo
____________________________________________________________________________
Annexe No. 7 Letter to students No. 1
Bogotá, D.C., March 16th of 2005
Dear Student:
We hope you are fine and doing well at school.

Sometimes we are sad because you are
misbehaved; please you need to work in class
and study at home.
We wish you to enjoy our English class. Please
write to us any suggestion and everything you
want to tell us.
Good luck.
Orlando and Daniel

_______________________________________________
Bogotá, D.C., March 16th of 2005
Dear Student:
We hope you are fine and doing well at school.

Sometimes we are sad because you are
misbehaved; please you need to work in class
and study at home.
We wish you to enjoy our English class. Please
write to us any suggestion and everything you
want to tell us.
Good luck.
Orlando and Daniel

_______________________________________________
Annexe No. 8 Letter to parents No. 3
Bogotá D.C., April 7th of 2005
Dear Parents:
We wish you are fine. We want to inform you that we are doing our best in order to
present classes really motivating for your children. Also we hope you could learn
something with your children through these letters. Please write to us any comment
and suggestion you have, we will answer it.
Good Luck
Orlando Oviedo and Daniel Forero
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bogotá D.C., April 7th of 2005
Dear Parents:
We wish you are fine. We want to inform you that we are doing our best in order to
present classes really motivating for your children. Also we hope you could learn
something with your children through these letters. Please write to us any comment
and suggestion you have, we will answer it.
Good Luck
Orlando Oviedo and Daniel Forero
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parents Peceptions English Class Work

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ACUERDO 19 DE 1988 DEL CONSEJO SUPERIOR UNIVERSITARIO

ideas expuestas en este trabajo”.

DANIEL FELIPE FORERO

ORLANDO ARTURO OVIEDO

UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS

School of Science and Education

PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ENGLISH CLASS WORK

Daniel Felipe Forero

Orlando Arturo Oviedo

A Monography work presented as a requirment for the Degree of “Licenciado

en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera”

Professor Janeth Velásquez M.A

UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS

Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés

It is difficult to mention all people who contributed to our professional

reach all of them.

begin and conclude this stage of our lives.

Our gratefulness to our professors who shared their knowledge and

experience. Their advice allowed us to make our goal achievable. Moreover, we

devotion helped us to make this research possible.

accompanied us along this path.

Finally, we should show our gratitude to the participants of this research,

both parents and children, whose contribution made us understand the

importance of working together.

The purpose of this study is to evidence parents’ perceptions

using written productions as a means for communication. To make it possible

we focused on theory about collaborative work referred by Rivers, Beckman and

Vigotsky; also it was necessary to bear in mind the concept of written

This case study research was implemented with the students of

were asked to communicate their feelings, ideas, perceptions, thoughts, etc. in

who were encouraged to write in response, working in collaboration with their

sons or daughters to build up the writings in English.

and, at the same time, written productions promoted EFL literacy.

Key words: Parents’ perceptions, collaborative work, written productions.

Category 1 Parents’ perceptions of the English class work

Sub category 1 Positive announcements

Sub category 2 Expectant comments

SubCategory 3 Further suggestions

Category 2 Parents’ perceptions of their children

Subcategory 4. Parents’ affection

Category 3: Parents’ perceptions of the English Language

Category 1: Collaborative work seen as learning from each other

Subcategory 1: Parents and children: One world, two lives

Subcategory 2: Parents’ and children’s lack of spaces to interact

Category 2: Collaborative work based on exchange of roles

Category 3: Developing an interaction space among parents and children

Subcategory 1: Making links between home and school

Figure No. 1 Topics developed in the English class

Figure No. 2 Curriculum

Figure No. 3 Research design

Figure No. 4 Categories and Subcategories

Annexe No. 1 Parents consent form

Annexe No. 2 Survey No. 1

Annexe No. 3 Survey No. 2

Annexe No. 4 Survey No. 3

Annexe No. 5 Survey No. 4

Annexe No. 6 Letters to parents No. 2

Annexe No. 7 Letter to students No. 1

Annexe No. 8 Letter to parents No. 3

in students’ learning process from the Instituto Distrital de Cultura Popular in

In order to make learning significant for the students this research

proposal invited parents to be involved, we supported children to write to their

parents expressing their feelings, emotions and thoughts on different situations