Children's Foreign Language Research Articles

Language learning across borders and across time: A critical appraisal of a transnational, longitudinal model for research investigation

This study presents an analysis of a research model designed to capture evidence of young children's foreign language learning from a transnational, longitudinal perspective. The original research ...

A multiple case study on the effects of temperamental traits in Chinese preschoolers learning English

Aims: The current study tests Clarke’s (1999) findings on phases and variations of the English development of young second-language learners in a Chinese English as a Foreign Language setting and explores the cause of these variations under the following questions: 1) What verbal and non-verbal behavior can be observed in Chinese preschoolers in an English-learning classroom? 2) What variation can be observed among the children in such a class? 3) To what extent can the observed variation be interpreted on the basis of the children’s temperament? Methodology: Four Chinese children have been followed longitudinally in China and their developmental pattern and variation were compared with what has been found in Clarke’s study. The variation has been related to children’s different temperamental scores. Data and Analysis: The four three-year-old English learners in China were videoed and audio-recorded in class for five months. Their class data were transcribed with CLAN software and analyzed with SPSS software. Their temperamental information was provided by the parents by filling in the New York Longitudinal Study questionnaire. The temperamental traits were analyzed with the software MentalList 2. Findings: During the initial five months, the four Chinese preschoolers’ English-learning behavior developed from non-verbal reactions, such as non-verbal repetitions to verbal reactions, such as English responses, generally being in line with the first two phases outlined by Clarke. Children varied significantly in terms of time of entry into the verbal phase, in the extent of interaction with teachers and peers and in learning style. Temperamental traits such as adaptability and mood were found to be related to differences in development. A higher level of adaptation, a higher level of activity, more initial reactions and a positive mood were found to be related with more verbal and non-verbal repetitions and responses. A lower level of activity and fewer initial reactions were shown to be related to a smaller amount of verbal and non-verbal production. Finally, a negative mood and a higher threshold of responsiveness seem to have led to the teacher misreading a child’s needs and thus hampered that child’s motivation and incidental learning. Originality: Temperamental traits have been introduced into child foreign language development and successfully shown to capture the difference of children’s learning behaviors. Implications: Data on temperamental characteristics might enable the teachers to get to know the young learners more quickly and better and thus support their teaching and facilitate their teaching handover.

The influence of exposure, parents, and linguistic distance on young European learners' foreign language comprehension

The project Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) has studied the longitudinal effects of an early foreign language (FL) start in seven European contexts. This article presents a sub-study of ELLiE that investigates the impact of out-of-school factors on learners' listening and reading skills in year four of formal FL instruction. More specifically, we include parents' educational level, parents' use of the FL professionally, exposure, interaction and cognate linguistic distance. Data were collected by means of listening and reading tests and a parents' questionnaire. Results of the statistical analyses show that cognate linguistic distance was the strongest predictor of both listening and reading scores, followed closely by exposure, and parents' FL use at work and international interaction at some distance. Parents' educational levels only impacted on reading scores, and domestic interaction did not have any effect on listening or reading. Furthermore, the results confirm previous research on young learners' incidental FL acquisition through watching subtitled films, as watching films was the most powerful exposure type for both listening and reading. Parents' use of FL at work correlated significantly with exposure, indicating that the influence of parents would have an effect on the opportunities for their children's FL exposure.

Neural Correlates of Foreign-language Learning in Childhood: A 3-Year Longitudinal ERP Study

A foreign language (a language not spoken in one's community) is difficult to master completely. Early introduction of foreign-language (FL) education during childhood is becoming a standard in many countries. However, the neural process of child FL learning still remains largely unknown. We longitudinally followed 322 school-age children with diverse FL proficiency for three consecutive years, and acquired children's ERP responses to FL words that were semantically congruous or incongruous with the preceding picture context. As FL proficiency increased, various ERP components previously reported in mother-tongue (L1) acquisition (such as a broad negativity, an N400, and a late positive component) appeared sequentially, critically in an identical order to L1 acquisition. This finding was supported not only by cross-sectional analyses of children at different proficiency levels but also by longitudinal analyses of the same children over time. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that FL learning in childhood reproduces identical developmental stages in an identical order to L1 acquisition, suggesting that the nature of the child's brain itself may determine the normal course of FL learning. Future research should test the generalizability of the results in other aspects of language such as syntax.

The contribution of working memory capacity to foreign language comprehension in children

The present study examined the contribution of working memory processes in children's foreign language processing of sentences and short stories. A total of 95 children were given measures of working memory when 9–10 years old. One to two years later at ages 11–12, tasks tapping foreign language literal comprehension (English) and native language inferential comprehension (Swedish) were administered. Regression and correlation analyses demonstrated that both central executive and phonological loop processes predicted foreign language comprehension, whereas central executive processes but not phonological loop processes predicted native language reading comprehension. These findings show that children's foreign language processing is supported by their working memory capacity tested in their native language. Some of these working memory resources appear to be unique for foreign language. The strong association between native language and foreign language processing suggests that an important factor in becoming proficient in foreign language is the child's general language aptitude. Possible mechanisms for the contribution of working memory to children's foreign language comprehension are discussed.

Language learning

Language learning

Developing adaptive systems at early stages of children's foreign language development

This paper describes the integration of hypermedia adaptive systems for foreign language learners at an early age Our research project is concerned with exploring the relationship between language learning and information technology according to six different phases: a preliminary study of the plausible adaptive system; the development of lessons based on hypermedia and learners’ needs; the examination of language learners’ profiles; the definition of an adapted interface; the integration of the systems in schools; and the evaluation of the use of such systems. While the last three stages are still under way, we have already obtained some significant feedback from preliminary observation and approaches, which chiefly reveal the importance of accounting for interrelated factors at an early age, such as specific learning strategies, skills, and graphical design.

Challenges for ELT from the expansion in teaching children

This paper argues that the continuing expansion of teaching English to young learners (TEYL) brings challenges to the wider ELT field. It discusses why starting younger may not bring automatic improvement to language standards unless teacher education and secondary language teaching both rise to the challenges of the new situation. Young learners will need to be motivated to continue learning for ten or so years, and will bring very mixed levels of language to the secondary classroom. Responses from other sectors of ELT, as well as the development of effective TEYL, can benefit from deeper understanding of how children approach language learning. Two key features of child foreign language learning are summarized: children's search for meaning in language use, and the demands of initial literacy. Implications include rethinking the construct ‘language’, developing appropriate assessment, a change in approach at the switch to secondary level, and making realistic decisions about training teachers.

‘Why do you learn English?’ ‘Because the teacher is short.’ A study of Hungarian children’s foreign language learning motivation

This article looks at the attitudes and motivation of Hungarian children between the ages of 6 and 14: why they think they study a foreign language, how they relate to school subjects and what classroom activities they like and dislike. The long-term study was conducted in the ethnographic tradition where the teacher, syllabus designer and researcher was the author, and the inquiry was prompted by classroom needs. Three groups of children were involved for eight years each during the years of 1977-85, 1985-93 and 1987-95 in Pécs, Hungary. The first part of the article considers the literature on motivation from the perspective of child foreign language learning, whereas the second part looks into how the findings of the Pécs study may contribute towards a better understanding of the effects of specific pedagogic procedures on motivation.

Interviews with Japanese FLES Students: Descriptive Analysis

ABSTRACT Three different analyses were conducted on the data from oral interviews with six child learners of Japanese, using a newly developed interview procedure called Pro‐I. The first analysis to assess the effectiveness of different tasks suggested that tasks sensitive to the students' understanding of certain critical syntactic structures and tasks manageable for children appropriate to their level of cognitive development were effective in discriminating students' language development levels. Also, free‐form tasks were effective to elicit ability of students with higher proficiency to its fullest, and tasks with motivating topics could generate drastically better, more expressive performance. This suggests that Japanese FLES assessments should include different types of tasks. In the second analysis, in which each student's language behavior was closely examined, it was observed that high‐level students tried to produce a greater quantity of Japanese with more complexity rather than more appropriate sentences, while most other students used one‐word answers extensively. Also, a high‐level student's performance exhibited monitoring and control over his own Japanese production. The third analysis found that young learners' phrase particle use was characterized by scarcity of misuse, omission, and pauses, suggesting children's tendency to learn multiwords as formulaic chunks. Repeatedly revealed characteristics unique to child foreign language learning throughout three analyses imply that we should not simply apply the instruction and/or assessment designed for adults to young learners and should accumulate knowledge necessary to develop instruction and assessment appropriate for children.

Using Video to Introduce Children to a Foreign Culture

ABSTRACT In this study, we compared two methods for presenting cultural information to students in a French FLES program. Fifty‐six English‐speaking students enrolled in two fifth‐grade classes served as subjects. Eight cultural themes were identified and assigned to one of two teaching conditions for one class section; each theme was assigned to the opposite condition for the other section. In both teaching conditions, students read a passage in French and a subsequent cultural note in either English or French. Both the passage and the note centered upon the same targeted cultural theme. In the Experimental condition, students viewed a video, prior to the reading of the texts. This brief video module was related in cultural theme but scripted differently from the reading passage and cultural note. In both conditions, student learning, pertaining to the cultural theme, was assessed on the same day as the presentation. Performance was better in the Experimental condition. We interpret this finding as support for utilizing video to enhance the teaching of culture to the child foreign language learner.

The negotiation of meaning in children's foreign language acquisition

This article is a result of work which has been done over a number of years by the British Council in Hong Kong in curriculum development for English as a foreign language in Hong Kong’s primary schools. The problem under consideration is how recent theoretical insights into the acquisition of first and second languages by young children can be drawn on in a workable methodology for teaching young learners a foreign language in schools, and how syllabuses and teaching materials can be designed to maximize the benefit of activity-based teaching methods. The article is in four parts: the first two parts outline two complementary theoretical approaches to children’s foreign language acquisition; in the third part, I consider three different teaching methods in the light of theoretical insights; and lastly, I consider some issues in syllabus and materials design which are particularly relevant to the organization of the learning of foreign languages by young children in schools.

Use of a mnemonic technique to teach young children foreign language vocabulary

Children 3 to 6 years of age learned simple Spanish vocabulary items using an adaptation of the keyword method of foreign language vocabulary learning. Using this version of the keyword method, the learner remembered a picture of the translation referent of the vocabulary item interacting with the referent of a concrete English word which sounded like part of the foreign word (the keyword). Children who used the keyword method remembered more vocabulary translations than children who were not instructed in keyword method usage.

Who's to Teach My Child Foreign Language?

Who's to Teach My Child Foreign Language?

Who's to Teach my Child Foreign Language

The Modern Language JournalVolume 46, Issue 4 p. 171-172 Who's to Teach my Child Foreign Language Doris T. Paine, Doris T. Paine Scottsdale, ArizonaSearch for more papers by this author Doris T. Paine, Doris T. Paine Scottsdale, ArizonaSearch for more papers by this author First published: April 1962 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1962.tb00812.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue4April 1962Pages 171-172 RelatedInformation