Janet Enever

Primary Foreign Language Pathfinders: The Brighton and Hove Experience.

This article reports on a two-year project located within one local authority (LA), Brighton and Hove City Council, which was selected in 2003 to become a Primary Foreign Language Pathfinder. The main aim of this Pathfinder was to work with 18 other LAs across the country to pilot fresh approaches towards delivering foreign languages in the primary sector. A case study approach was adopted involving a sample of four local primary schools. Research tools included individual and group interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations with data collected from children, parents, teachers, headteachers and City Council co-ordinators. The conclusions indicate that the broader aims of the project were largely met, with eight emergent challenges identified which could usefully inform the design of subsequent models of good practice in early foreign language learning.

Yet Another Early-Start Languages Policy in Europe: Poland This Time!

The recent decision of Poland to introduce a mandatory starting age for early language learning from the very beginning of schooling can be viewed as part of both a global and a specifically European trend. Current statistics indicate that since 1990 approximately 60% of the nation-states of the European Union have reduced mandatory starting ages by at least two years and in some cases as much as five years. This study interrogates contemporary drivers of Polish language-in-education planning, proposing their essentially political nature as a vehicle for the acquisition of linguistic cultural capital and questioning the extent to which this ambitious project is founded on empirical evidence of the real advantages of an early start.

Early language learning : complexity and mixed methods

This chapter presents a mixed-methods study which explores the influence of verbal working memory (VWM) on young learners’ progression in foreign language (FL) literacy and general proficiency. The investigation was conducted over 30 teaching weeks (September to June) in two English primary schools (n=45) with children aged between 9-11 years. Both quantitative and qualitative data in the form of FL test results and weekly written vocabulary work are presented and analysed in order to construct a nuanced portrayal of VWM as an individual difference in FL learning. The study finds that VWM has considerable influence on learning outcomes in both FL oracy and literacy and therefore suggests that young FL classrooms are complex, heterogeneous contexts. Potential implications for young learner FL pedagogy also considered.This is the first collection of research studies to explore the potential for mixed methods to shed light on foreign or second language learning by young learners in instructed contexts. It brings ...

Early language learning in instructed contexts - Editorial introduction

This paper provides an introduction to the Thematic Issue of Education Inquiry, reporting on four studies conducted in the field of early language learning (ELL) in instructed contexts. The paper g ...