Conditions for improving the quality of school students’ research work in a foreign language

Abstract

The relevance of the chosen research topic is determined by the insufficient study of the features of the organization of school students’ research work in a foreign language (FL). An analysis of literature on the issue has shown that researchers do not pay enough attention to finding ways of improving the quality of implementation of research activity in a FL. Careful involvement in research and consultation on the issue, a wide coverage of school students of different age groups, a variety of areas and topics of research of schoolchildren in foreign languages provide the authors of the article with significant material for analysis and formulation of recommendations within the framework of the research. Based on the analysis of theoretical literature, the authors generalized and clarified the concept of “research activity” of schoolchildren in foreign languages, the stages and forms of its implementation. The extensive empirical material accumulated by the authors in the course of many years of work as members of the jury of research conferences for schoolchildren allowed the authors to reveal the most typical mistakes in the research work of schoolchildren in FL that is the research topic relevance, research methodology, contents and presentation. The authors also determined the conditions for increasing the effectiveness of research work of students. The materials of the article, as well as methodological recommendations for improving the quality of school students’ research works in a foreign language may be of interest both within the framework of organizing a research at school, and for building the students’ skills of conducting а research in a foreign language, in general.