The relationship between Parental Involvement and Students’ AESL at secondary schools

Abstract

The above statement highlights the role of parents in whether a child’s learning is formal or informal. Parental involvement is a prominent variable affecting children’s learning outcomes at all stages of learning, be it the child’s early education (Hara and Burke, 1998; Hill and Craft, 2003) or youth academic success (Fan and Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2003/2007). Children and youth, both are perceived to be encouraged and motivated to perform better when their parents are involved in their homework or assignments given in their school. They start valuing their schooling and learning (Chowa et al, 2013). All these findings indicate the important role played by parental involvement in the educational achievements of their children. Parental factor is also one of the scales of “socio-educational model”. This reflects the important role of parents in their children’s performance. Involvement provides emotional support which may develop high motivation among learners. In one of the studies carried out by Wilder (2014), the findings indicated that there was a positive relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement, regardless of the definition of parental involvement or measure of achievement. In the same study, Wilder noticed that the impact of parental involvement on the student’s academic achievement was weakest if parental involvement was defined as homework assistance. The literature survey revealed that in developing countries, the overall impact of parental involvement on academic performance in the formative years is negligible (Chowa et al, 2013). Hence, in accordance with these findings, the present study will assess the relationship between parental involvement and students achievement in learning English as a Second Language (AESL) at the secondary school level in the Indian context.