MultiCat · Multilingual Catalonia: factors influencing the multilingual development of societal and foreign languages in school-age children

Multilingual Catalonia: factors influencing the multilingual development of societal and foreign languages in school-age children

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.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз