Parent education and high school achievement in English as a foreign language

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between parent education as an indicator of social capital and achievement in English as a foreign language (ELT). To this end, a demographic and a schema-based close multiple choice item test (S-Test) developed on a course textbook were administered to one thousand three hundred and fifty two grade three state high school students in three educational districts in Mashhad, Iran. The performance of students on the S-Test showed that it is a highly reliable measure of ELT achievement which enjoys high internal validity and discriminates significantly among high, middle and low achievers. When the S-Test scores of students whose parents had primary, secondary and higher education were compared with each other, it was found that the students with parents having secondary and higher education scored significantly higher than those with primary education. However, no significant difference could be found between the S-Test scores of the students whose parents had secondary and higher education. The results are discussed and suggestions are made for future research. © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.