Raising learner motivation through a cultural pen-pal scheme: a collaborative study

Abstract

Collaboration amongst colleagues at partnering schools was established in order to decide a shared goal and implement culture into lessons across schools. The aim of this study is to raise motivation for language learning by providing KS4 students the opportunity to interact with the second language community through a pen-pal scheme. Dornyei’s language-related integrative values were applied to develop activities that can raise cross-cultural awareness. Byram’s savoirs informed the assessing of cultural understanding, reflecting on one’s own culture, analysing cultural phenomena and carrying out comparisons. Evidence of these criteria were identified in two sets of email exchanges that KS4 students sent to their pen-pal. To measure the impact of the intervention, pupil work was compared from the first and second email exchange to detect development in cultural understanding. Pre and post intervention questionnaires were employed before and after the two email exchanges, to gauge levels of motivation at School A, surrounding students’ interest to learn about foreign cultures and their attitudes towards direct contact with the target language community. The study found that the initial idea of the pen-pal sparked students’ motivation however, further email exchanges were needed for impact to be made. The study also confirmed that culture and language are inter-related.