Abstract
The early introduction of foreign languages, mainly English, in pre-primary and primary education in different parts of the world is an undisputable fact in today’s world, as clearly illustrated in Enever (2018). One of the reasons for this educational change is the belief in “the earlier the better” notion, which has already been shown not to hold true when linguistic outcomes are assessed in foreign language settings (see García Mayo & García Lecumberri, 2003; Huang, 2015). Age is just one variable among many others that need to be taken into account when assessing child language learning in educational contexts (see Butler, 2019), and that is the reason why more research on identifying those other variables is necessary.
Highlights
Introduction to the special issue on English language learning in primary schools The early introduction of foreign languages, mainly English, in pre-primary and primary education in different parts of the world is an undisputable fact in today’s world, as clearly illustrated in Enever (2018)
It is worth mentioning that the first four papers examine the oral interaction and the written production of English as a foreign language (EFL) children participating in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programs, which attests to the importance of this methodological approach in primary school settings in Spain
“Language-related Episodes and Pair Dynamics in Primary School CLIL Learners: A Comparison Between Proficiency-matched and Student-selected Pairs,” Basterrechea and Gallardo-del-Puerto explore the effects of pair formation method, that is, whether children are paired based on their proficiency level in the foreign language or whether they self-select their partner, on both the production of language-related episodes (LREs; Swain & Lapkin, 1998) and their pair dynamics (Storch, 2002)
Summary
Introduction to the special issue on English language learning in primary schools The early introduction of foreign languages, mainly English, in pre-primary and primary education in different parts of the world is an undisputable fact in today’s world, as clearly illustrated in Enever (2018). The goal of this special issue is to advance the research agenda on child foreign language learning by sharing with the reader nine contributions that explore issues related to the impact of variables such as proficiency pairing, pair dynamics, task modality, task repetition and previously known languages on children’s oral interaction.
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