The misunderstood variable: Age effects as a function of type of instruction
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Date
2014-10
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Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu
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Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the effects of age of onset and type of instruction on ultimate EFL attainment at the end of the period of normal schooling
in Switzerland, measured in terms of written fluency, complexity, morphosyntactic accuracy, vocabulary size, and listening skills. Data were gathered from four
groups of 18-year-old Swiss German learners of English: 50 were early starters
who had attended an immersion (CLIL) program in elementary school and who
continued CLIL in secondary school (EARLY CLIL), 50 had followed the same elementary school program but then received traditional EFL instruction after elementary school (EARLY MIX), 50 were late starters who began learning English immersively in secondary school, (LATE CLIL), while the other 50 attended a traditional EFL program in secondary school (LATE NON-CLIL). Results show that age of
onset alone does not seem to be the distinguishing variable since early introduction of English in elementary school did not result in a higher level of proficiency
when exposure to the language was limited to a few hours of class per week. The
performance of the EARLY MIX participants was equaled and in certain areas significantly surpassed by the other groups, despite the additional five years of English study they had had in elementary school. The best results were found when
early CLIL instruction was followed up by the use of English as an additional language of instruction in secondary school (EARLY CLIL group), which confirms the
link between young starting age, implicit learning and long and massive exposure
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Keywords
second language learning, age effects in L2, input effects on L2, immersion, CLIL
Citation
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2014, vol. 4, no. 3, pp.529-556