Collaboration of Parents and EFL Teachers to Enhance Children’s Motivation towards Reading Skills: Focus to 1st Cycle of Primary Schools in Jimma Zone

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate to what extent parents and an EFL teachers work collaboratively to boost children’s motivation to reading skills. To achieve this aim, the First Cycle of Primary Schools (1-4) of Jimma zone, two woredas ( Kersa and Mana) and one special town (Jimma) were taken as an example. Clear and measurable attempts were made to investigate the extent to which parents work with EFL teachers to increase their children’s motivation to the direction of reading skills. In order to achieve the targeted objective mixquestionnaire and semi-structured interview for teachers, an FGD with parents, and classroom observation were made on the current views of parents involvement to maximize students’ motivation of reading and teachers’ role as well. Results of the study show that the parents and EFL teachers hardly work cooperatively to enhance students’ motivation towards reading skill. They do not have an effective communication way in which they exchange constructive information about the students’ reading motivation. There are clearly seen mismatches between the intended curriculum that vehemently sets parents and teachers should work together so as to make students are motivated toward reading skill of English.