Investigation of the Causal Link Between the Quality/Regularity of Homework Completion and Academic Achievement in the "Speech Practice" Bachelor Course

This paper aims to determine the existence of the causal link between regular and thorough homework preparation and educational results of students of 2nd and 3rd year of study at the Department of Foreign Languages of Higher School of Economics in the context of the Speech Practice course. The research is especially relevant to today’s educational system, where the idea that students at universities should be encouraged to study more autonomously and thus do more homework is getting more and more accepted. Moreover, this work is of high importance for both students and professors to demonstrate the results of regular and thorough homework completion. The methods used in the research were observation, where the researcher watched the students’ participation in class and the level of homework completion for two months in a row; then the researcher distributed a survey, in which students were asked to answer several questions on the related topic of the impact of homework completion on their academic performance; and finally, the analysis of the results from these two sources was accomplished. The result of this research is a proven correlation between homework preparation and academic performance of the students. This study is restricted to the tertiary context and language classes within this context.