Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MultiCat (Multilingual Catalonia: factors influencing the multilingual development of societal and foreign languages in school-age children)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31
One of the longstanding European educational objectives is to foster proficiency in both local and foreign languages. Akin to many European nations, Spain's most prominent foreign language is English. Two key strategies to bolster the learning of English in Spanish schools are to: (A) Push the onset of English acquisition to increasingly earlier ages, and (B) Embrace the implementation of innovative educational approaches, such as Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). In contrast to the more traditional English as a Foreign Language (EFL) approach, CLIL integrates English as the medium of instruction for non-language subjects, like science. Since students who take CLIL subjects are also exposed to EFL classes in school, CLIL students often have more extensive and varied opportunities for using English. The complementary perspective is also important: more English exposure at school necessarily entails reducing exposure to the societal language(s).
Existing research on the differential effects of English exposure in CLIL and EFL contexts has mostly focused on English development during secondary school and has generally found advantages for students with more intensive English exposure overall. However, there are still three main gaps in knowledge. First, it is unclear whether an increase in the hours of English instruction at school, whether through EFL or CLIL approaches, should yield gains in different areas of the English development of children at the onset of primary school (age 5-7), as these students are younger and cognitively less mature than secondary school students. Second, we do not know if English exposure through a CLIL approach may be more beneficial to primary-school-age children than through an EFL approach. Finally, little is known about how the development of the societal language(s) may be impacted by the reduction of school input in these languages when English instruction is increased. This last gap is especially pressing in bilingual societies, where students are expected to develop adequate levels of proficiency in two social languages in order to succeed in school.
We addressed these three gaps through a longitudinal study spanning 1.5 years, from the beginning of Grade 1 until the end of Grade 2. Our focus was examining trilingual development in a cohort of children as they began primary education in Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain where Catalan, the regional minority language, shares official status with Spanish. The overarching goal of this action was to inform educational policy by investigating how the implementation of certain educational approaches aimed at fostering multilingualism in early childhood may impact not only the foreign language but multilingual development more broadly.
Existing research on the differential effects of English exposure in CLIL and EFL contexts has mostly focused on English development during secondary school and has generally found advantages for students with more intensive English exposure overall. However, there are still three main gaps in knowledge. First, it is unclear whether an increase in the hours of English instruction at school, whether through EFL or CLIL approaches, should yield gains in different areas of the English development of children at the onset of primary school (age 5-7), as these students are younger and cognitively less mature than secondary school students. Second, we do not know if English exposure through a CLIL approach may be more beneficial to primary-school-age children than through an EFL approach. Finally, little is known about how the development of the societal language(s) may be impacted by the reduction of school input in these languages when English instruction is increased. This last gap is especially pressing in bilingual societies, where students are expected to develop adequate levels of proficiency in two social languages in order to succeed in school.
We addressed these three gaps through a longitudinal study spanning 1.5 years, from the beginning of Grade 1 until the end of Grade 2. Our focus was examining trilingual development in a cohort of children as they began primary education in Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain where Catalan, the regional minority language, shares official status with Spanish. The overarching goal of this action was to inform educational policy by investigating how the implementation of certain educational approaches aimed at fostering multilingualism in early childhood may impact not only the foreign language but multilingual development more broadly.
To address our objectives, we carried out a 1.5-year longitudinal study. A total of 190 participants who were starting Grade 1 in Fall 2021 provided measures of oral language and literacy skills in Catalan, Spanish, and English. Specifically, we assessed participants’ receptive vocabulary and grammar, and their narrative and reading comprehension abilities at three time points: at the beginning of Grade 1, the end of Grade 1, and the end of Grade 2. In addition, parents and teachers were interviewed twice in order to obtain information on participants’ language environment in and outside of school. The participants came from 14 schools, some of which implemented CLIL in addition to EFL. These schools differed in the intensity of English instruction, some accounting for just under 10% of the total instruction time (3 hours per week) to up to 50% (around 13 hours per week).
Participants showed significant improvements in all the abilities for the three languages over the 1.5-year period. Three main findings relevant to language policy emerged from this study. First, increased English exposure at school, whether through EFL or CLIL classes, was associated with larger gains in English vocabulary over the 1.5-year span. That is, participants who had accumulated more hours of English classes between the beginning of Grade 1 and the end of Grade 2 could understand significantly more words in English than those with fewer hours of exposure. However, once other confounding variables were accounted for, participants with more English exposure at school overall did not have an advantage with regard to the development of grammar, narratives, or reading comprehension. Second, we did not find evidence that following a CLIL approach provided an extra advantage in English acquisition development separate from EFL. That is, whether students followed CLIL or not was not related to the growth of English skills over the 1.5-year period. Finally, we found no evidence that the development of Spanish and Catalan was affected negatively by the increase in English exposure at school.
As schools and parents frequently express concerns regarding the age of first exposure to the English language and whether the common belief that "the younger, the better" holds for learning foreign languages, we specifically investigated this question. Our findings indicate that children exposed to English earlier in life had a general advantage at the onset of Grade 1 over those who started learning English later. Specifically, children with earlier exposure to English had better English vocabulary and grammatical skills at the initial assessment. However, this difference was significantly smaller at the end of Grade 2, showing that the initial advantages of early exposure gradually diminish over time. This suggests a negligible effect of early English exposure in the long run for children who acquire English as a foreign language in Catalonia.
So far, the results from this study have been presented at several international conferences on education and linguistics and published in journals of applied linguistics. Other manuscripts are currently being considered for publication in educational journals. In addition, we have created a report aimed at Catalan policymakers. We are currently working on the most effective way of communicating the project results to school boards and families - our primary stakeholders.
Participants showed significant improvements in all the abilities for the three languages over the 1.5-year period. Three main findings relevant to language policy emerged from this study. First, increased English exposure at school, whether through EFL or CLIL classes, was associated with larger gains in English vocabulary over the 1.5-year span. That is, participants who had accumulated more hours of English classes between the beginning of Grade 1 and the end of Grade 2 could understand significantly more words in English than those with fewer hours of exposure. However, once other confounding variables were accounted for, participants with more English exposure at school overall did not have an advantage with regard to the development of grammar, narratives, or reading comprehension. Second, we did not find evidence that following a CLIL approach provided an extra advantage in English acquisition development separate from EFL. That is, whether students followed CLIL or not was not related to the growth of English skills over the 1.5-year period. Finally, we found no evidence that the development of Spanish and Catalan was affected negatively by the increase in English exposure at school.
As schools and parents frequently express concerns regarding the age of first exposure to the English language and whether the common belief that "the younger, the better" holds for learning foreign languages, we specifically investigated this question. Our findings indicate that children exposed to English earlier in life had a general advantage at the onset of Grade 1 over those who started learning English later. Specifically, children with earlier exposure to English had better English vocabulary and grammatical skills at the initial assessment. However, this difference was significantly smaller at the end of Grade 2, showing that the initial advantages of early exposure gradually diminish over time. This suggests a negligible effect of early English exposure in the long run for children who acquire English as a foreign language in Catalonia.
So far, the results from this study have been presented at several international conferences on education and linguistics and published in journals of applied linguistics. Other manuscripts are currently being considered for publication in educational journals. In addition, we have created a report aimed at Catalan policymakers. We are currently working on the most effective way of communicating the project results to school boards and families - our primary stakeholders.
How to best promote proficiency in regional and foreign languages, and the role of schooling in doing so, has been a matter of debate in the European Union and local governments for decades. This study investigated the effect of school language exposure, alongside other variables known to influence language acquisition, in the trilingual development of children entering primary school in Catalonia (Spain). Our results support the view that earlier English exposure is not advantageous for children educated in non-immersion settings in the long run. In addition, the findings of this study also provided evidence that more intensive English environments at school, whether through CLIL or EFL, do not seem to result in (A) quantifiable gains in the foreign language between Grade 1 and 2 other than in vocabulary or (B) a meaningful slowdown in the development of the social languages. Finally, the lack of evidence of a CLIL advantage in Grades 1 and 2 suggests that the implementation of this approach may be more beneficial at later stages of education. In light of these findings, the overall results of this study suggest that students in Grade 1 and 2 may be too young to benefit significantly from English-intensive approaches in Catalan schools.