Reviewhybrid2020

The Long‐Term Proficiency of Early, Middle, and Late Starters Learning English as a Foreign Language at School: A Narrative Review and Empirical Study

Jürgen Baumert · Johanna Fleckenstein · Michael Leucht · Olaf Köller · Jens Møller

49 citations0/0 files storedLanguage Learning

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EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Acquisition and Learning Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

Abstract Throughout Europe, there is a growing trend for students to start learning foreign languages at elementary school. Although policymakers expect early‐start programs to boost second language skills, empirical findings are mixed; recent studies have raised many questions. In this large‐scale study, we aimed to close some of these gaps. We examined the effects of early‐start English on receptive language proficiency in a random sample of 19,858 students from 1,431 Year 9 classes in Germany, comparing the reading and listening comprehension of early starters (English from Year 1), a middle group (Year 3), and late starters (Year 5), and analyzing to what extent foreign language instruction at secondary level builds on students’ existing knowledge. By Year 9, the proficiency levels of the three groups differed only slightly. We provide evidence that this lack of long‐term impact may be attributable to English teaching at secondary level being insufficiently adaptive to students’ prior knowledge.

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References

2009Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment 1979Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children 1992A standard international socio-economic index of occupational status 2003International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED 1997 2011Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning 2020Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, Companion Volume with New Descriptors 1991A dynamic systems model of cognitive and language growth.2006Age and the Rate of Foreign Language Learning

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