Information and communication technology as a motivator for disaffected pupils

Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale action research project undertaken by a teacher in a Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) department in a high school. As a department, we wanted to introduce the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a way that would successfully enhance the teaching and learning process. MFL is not a particularly popular subject in high schools, so as part of the research programme undertaken by schools in the Norwich Area Schools Consortium (NASC) into identifying the nature of pupil disaffection, the author decided to examine how ICT in the MFL classroom could best be used as a motivator for pupils she had identified as being disaffected with language learning, most of whom were boys. The three stages of research are reported and are followed by reflections on the author's and the department's learning, both directly after the research, and then one year later.