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The "long-long" term effects of an early start on the learning of English as a Foreign Language

The "long-long" term effects of an early start on the learning of English as a Foreign Language Teresa Navés www.ub.edu/GRAL/Naves www.ub.edu/GRAL/Naves/Docs/Naves2009AAAL.ppt tnaves@ub.edu AAAL Denver 2009. ABSTRACT

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The "long-long" term effects of an early start on the learning of English as a Foreign Language

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  1. The "long-long" term effects of an early start on the learning of English as a Foreign Language Teresa Navés www.ub.edu/GRAL/Naves www.ub.edu/GRAL/Naves/Docs/Naves2009AAAL.ppt tnaves@ub.edu AAAL Denver 2009

  2. ABSTRACT In the interest of improving second language learners’ proficiency, language policies all over the world advocate an early start in second language learning. English as a foreign language has begun to be introduced in schools earlier and earlier. Contrary to what has consistently been found in second language environments, most studies have shown, that “the sooner, the better” does not necessarily hold true in foreign language contexts. In spite of the wealth of studies on foreign language contexts reporting that starting earlier does not result, in the long run, in better language acquisition, the mainstream literature on the age factor is still reluctant to incorporate these findings into the theoretical framework and continues to ask for further studies to examine the effects of an earlier start in a much longer term. In study I the author investigated the long-term effects of an early start on EFL learning in a school context (N= 406) and found that in the long run, after approximately 9 years of EFL learning, it was the late starters (OA 11) who significantly outperformed the early starters (OA 8) in EFL proficiency and in writing performance.

  3. ABSTRACT In the II study, the very long term effects of an early start are analyzed using university EFL students with various onset ages (N=95) after more than 12 years of EFL learning. Multivariate analyses were used in both studies to compare overall English proficiency and holistically and analytically assessed writing performance. Similarly to what has been found in previous studies, when the total amount of exposure was kept constant, starting English at an earlier age did not result in either better writing performance, except in fluency, or higher overall English proficiency. The results are discussed in the light of the quality and amount of input in EFL contexts and of the cognition hypotheses. Contrary to findings on the effects of an early start in naturalistic contexts in the long run,starting English at an earlier age in a foreign language context does not result, long term, in better English proficiency or writing performance.

  4. STUDY I The "consensus view" on the effects of age on L2 learning (Long 1990) argues that in the long run, when time and exposure are kept constant, learners who receive natural exposure to an L2 during childhood attain higher levels of L2 proficiency than those beginning as adults--something which has not been found in foreign language (FL) contexts (Muñoz, 2006). Measures of L2 proficiency in the SLA literature, however, have only recently examined proficiency in the context of writing (Hamp-Lyons, 2002). Also, little research has investigated interlanguage writing ability in terms of accuracy, fluency, lexical and syntactic by means of both holistic and analytic measures proposed by Wolfe-Quintero et al. (1998). I will report the results of a study designed (1) to use both holistical and analytic measures of FL writing ability to investigate the long-term effects of an early start in a FL context in L2 writing, and (2), to examine how the analytic measures cluster by means of a exploratory factor analysis. The analyses showed that late starters significantly outperformed their younger peers although the effect size was small (p<.001) (See Norris and Ortega, 2006 in this respect). The EFLs revealed that the analytical measures cluster into four rather than five components. The fifth factor was composed of mean clause-,sentence- and t-unit- length, which overlapped with more traditional measures of syntactic complexity. This poster discusses the implications for SLA of assigning analytical metrics to one construct or another (See also Ortega, 2003).

  5. Study I. Results for RQ 1-6 (T6-52 p.339) (T8-1 p.380)

  6. Study I. Results for RQ 7 (p. 374) (Table 8.2. p.382)

  7. Study I. Summary of Results (P.382) LS > ES

  8. Study I. Summary of Results (P.382) LS > ES

  9. Study II. Results in the long-long run: NS but* OA 8-9 > (OA 3-7=OA 10-11)

  10. Study I. Discussion and Conclusions (I) Unlike in SL contexts, in FL settings, less than 1,000 h of instruction are NOT sufficient for ES (OA 8) to catch up to LS (OA 11) (where exposure are kept constant) as far as • EFL proficiency • EFL writing ability • Sophisticated indices of EFL writing components (accuracy, fluency, lexical and syntactic complexity) Why?

  11. Study I. Discussion and Conclusions (II ) The writing components do not seem to develop in parallel (III) EFL Proficiency and Writing quality seem to behave differently.

  12. Study I. Discussion and Conclusions (IV) ES (OA 8) with approx. 125 more h of instruction manage to catch up LS (OA 11) -with fewer h of instruction- only in writing quality, fluency (essay length) and lexical complexity. Older learners (LS) (OA 11) with 125 less h of instruction than ES (OA 8) still are significantly better in EFL proficiency and writing accuracy and syntactic complexity.

  13. Study II. Discussion and Conclusions • In the long-long run, in an EFL context, OA does not seem to be the best predictor for either • overall EFL proficiency, • writing quality • or writing components of • accuracy, • fluency, • lexical diversity • and syntactic complexity. since no significant differences were found between the groups with different onset ages.

  14. Study II. Discussion and Conclusions • In the long-long run in an EFL context a very early start (OA 3-7) is not beneficial at all since there were no significant differences or differences were in favour of LS (OA 8-9) • overall EFL proficiency, • writing quality • or writing components of • accuracy, • fluency, • lexical diversity • and syntactic complexity.

  15. Study II. Discussion and Conclusions • In the long-long run in an EFL context, learners with OA 8-9 significantly outperformed earlier starters (OA 3-7) and later starters (OA 9-10) ONLY in the area of writing fluency as measured by total number of Sentences and in the area of lexical variety in writing as measured by Chaudron’s (1990) lexical variation. NO differences were found between the groups for • overall EFL proficiency, • writing quality • or the writing components of • accuracy, • and syntactic complexity.

  16. Study II. Discussion and Conclusions • In the long-long run in an EFL context, learners with OA 8-9 caught up with OA 10-11 In study I, after seven to nine years of instruction, OA 11 learners systematically outperformed OA 8 learners in all the areas studied. In study II, however, NO significant differences are found between OA 10-11 & OA 8-9 in most areas.

  17. Main references • García Mayo, M. d. P., & García Lecumberri, M. L. (Eds.). (2003). Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language: Theoretical Issues and Fieldwork. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Muñoz, C. (Ed.). (2006). Age and the Rate of Foreign Language Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Muñoz, C. (2008). Symmetries and Asymmetries of Age Effects in Naturalistic and Instructed L2 Learning. Applied Linguistics, 29(4), 578-596. Munoz, C. (2008). Age-related differences in foreign language learning. Revisiting the empirical evidence • Munoz, C. (2008). Age-related differences in foreign language learning. Revisiting the empirical evidence IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 46(3), 197-220.

  18. Main references • Navés, T., Torras, M. R., & Celaya, M. L. (2003). Long-term Effects of an Earlier Start. An Analysis of EFL Written Production. In S. Foster-Cohen & S. Pekarek (Eds.), EUROSLA-Yearbook. (Vol. 3, pp. 103-130). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. • Torras, M. R., Navés, T., Celaya, M. L., & Pére-Vidal, C. (2006). Age and IL Development in Writing. (156-182) In C. Munoz (Ed.), Age  Factor: Multilingual Matters. • Celaya & Navés, T. (In Press) Age-related differences and associated factors in foreign language writing. Implications for L2 writing theory and school curricula in multilingual contexts. Manchón, R. Writing theory and practice in foreign language contexts. Clevedon. Multilingual Matters.

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