From Early Starters to Late Finishers? A Longitudinal Study of Early Foreign Language Learning in School

Foreign language education has now been implemented at the elementary school level across Europe, and early foreign language education has gained traction following language policies set by the European Commission. The long‐term effects of an early start, however, have not received ample scientific...

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Published in:Language learning Vol. 67; no. 3; pp. 631 - 664
Main Authors: Jaekel, Nils, Schurig, Michael, Florian, Merle, Ritter, Markus
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken Wiley-Blackwell 01.09.2017
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Age Differences
Cognitive Ability
early foreign language learning
Early second language learning
Education policy
Elementary education
Elementary schools
Elementary Secondary Education
English as a second language learning
English language
English language learners
English Learners
Experience
Foreign Countries
Foreign language learning
Foreign languages
Grade 5
Grade 7
Individual Differences
Language acquisition
Language policy
Language Proficiency
Language Skills
learner characteristics
Learning
Listening Comprehension
longitudinal
Longitudinal Studies
Peers
Program Effectiveness
Reading Comprehension
Receptive language
receptive language skills
Russian language
Scrutiny
Second Language Instruction
Second language learning
Secondary education
Secondary school students
Statistical Analysis
Structural equation modeling
Structural Equation Models
Student Characteristics
Tests
Germany
ISSN:0023-8333, 1467-9922
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Foreign language education has now been implemented at the elementary school level across Europe, and early foreign language education has gained traction following language policies set by the European Commission. The long‐term effects of an early start, however, have not received ample scientific scrutiny. The present study assessed early receptive skills of two cohorts of English language learners in Year 5 (beginning of secondary education in Germany) and two years later in Year 7. The factors distinguishing between these two cohorts were onset of foreign language education and the amount of language exposure. The effects of the earlier start were found in the results for Year 5, when the early cohort outperformed peers with less and later exposure to English. However, in Year 7, the late starters surpassed their early starting peers.
Bibliography:Ganz In—All‐Day Schools for a Brighter Future
Ganz In
We would like to thank the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on our manuscript. Furthermore, we would like to thank Dr. Dominik Rumlich for his insightful and helpful feedback. The research reported in this article was collected as part of the
project funded by the Mercator Stiftung.
is a joint research project of the TU Dortmund University, Ruhr‐University Bochum, and the University of Duisburg‐Essen.
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ISSN:0023-8333
1467-9922
DOI:10.1111/lang.12242