MEG-Skore II
Multilingualism as a linguistic and cognitive resource in English language acquisition in primary school
Background and aims
This follow-up project conducted an intervention study to investigate a) how teachers can use positive factors associated with multilingualism (for example a high degree of language awareness) in English lessons and b) whether employing multilingual teaching materials and methods leads to gains in English skills among both multilingual and German monolingual pupils.
Using the popular Playway textbook (Gerngross et al., 2013), learning materials and methods targeting language (learning) awareness were developed – for example, language comparison exercises that included pupils’ heritage language (including German) and English. The learning materials and methods were administered in an intervention study and tested for their effectiveness.
Methods
Over a 6-month period, 4th-grade pupils were taught in intervention and comparison groups. In the intervention groups, tasks involving pupils’ heritage languages and phonological awareness were systematically integrated into English lessons. Approximately 20% of the total lesson time was devoted to comparing English with other languages. In the comparison groups, regular English lessons went ahead without any such multilingual elements.
General English skills (passive and active vocabulary, passive grammar) and metalinguistic awareness were measured at three points – prior to, immediately following and three months after the intervention. Additional data were collected for L1 and L2 proficiency, cognitive abilities and social background. Small interventions on specific grammatical phenomena were conducted over two weeks in order to investigate direct effects of the intervention on the phenomena that were subject to instruction.
The intervention study took place in two consecutive school years at four primary schools. Cohort 1 (2018/2019) included 128 pupils, cohort 2 (2019/2020) consisted of 141 pupils. Across both cohorts, 127 pupils were monolingual German speakers, while 142 multilingual pupils had acquired languages in addition to German in their home environments. The latter group was very heterogeneous with students speaking 16 different heritage languages, the most common being Turkish, Albanian, Arabic, Polish and Russian.
Findings
A central goal of the project was to measure possible effects of the teaching intervention on the development of EFL skills. Initial analyses of the general language tests show that there are no differences between the intervention and comparison groups in the development of such skills. This means that the inclusion of multilingualism and a focus on language awareness do not come at the expense of learning outcomes in English. For some specific grammatical phenomena, learning gains were greater for the intervention group, suggesting that multilingual language comparisons can aid students in overcoming transfer effects where English differs from participants’ heritage languages.
Asked for their impressions of the teaching intervention, pupils appreciated the opportunity to learn about the languages of their classmates. Others recognised that opening ELT to other languages benefits foreign language learning. At the same time, some participants were critical of the approach, stating that they became confused by so many languages. As not all learners see the benefits of multilingualism for language learning, it is important to make clear the rationale of such an approach and to adapt teaching to the needs of individual groups and learners.
What does this mean for educational practice?
It is possible to integrate students’ heritage languages via simple tasks and activities. The teacher does not need to be proficient in the respective heritage languages to design multilingual activities, since students often provide multilingual examples voluntarily, thereby also furthering their multilingual identities. Other students learn about their peers’ languages, and all learners experience the appreciation of language diversity. However, it is key not to designate multi- lingual students as ‘experts’ but to invite all learners to experiment with language. Throughout the project it became evident that most students liked to experiment with language and enjoyed the cross-linguistic comparisons. Since some learners found frequent references to other languages confusing, teachers need to prepare and introduce multilingual activities carefully. Like the students, teachers must also open up to multilingual teaching and display enthusiasm for language diversity themselves.
To support teachers, the project is developing methods and materials for multilingual foreign language learning. The materials (in German) will be made freely available on the website www.playway.de.
Project Publications
Hopp, H., Jakisch, J., Sturm, S. , Becker, C. & Thoma, D. (2019). Integrating multilingualism into the early foreign language classroom: Empirical and teaching perspectives. In International Multilingual Research Journal, 31(1), S. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2019.1669519
Jakisch, J. & Sturm, S. (2019). Do you know this word in another language?: Mehrsprachigkeit im Englischunterricht der Grundschule nutzen. In Grundschule Englisch, 69(4), S. 30–33.
Hopp, H. & Jakisch, J. (2020). Mehrsprachigkeit im Fremdsprachenunterricht. In I. Gogolin, A. Hansen, S. McMonagle & D. Rauch (Hrsg.) Handbuch Mehrsprachigkeit und Bildung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.