Factors influencing english as-a-second-language education
description
Transcript of Factors influencing english as-a-second-language education
EUN KYOUNG LEEGYEONGGI ACADEMY OF FOREIGN LAN -
GUAGES, SOUTH KOREA
Factors Influencing the Acqui-sition of English as a Second
Language
Table of Contents
Introduction Research Question Motivation for Research Research Purposes
Theoretical Background Age in Second Language Acquisition English-only Kindergartens in South Korea Other Factors that Affect a Second-language-learner’s English
Proficiency Research Methods
Research Design Subjects & Materials Procedure Results
Discussion & Conclusion References & Acknowledgement
Introduction
Research Question
What factors affect the acquisition of English grammar of children learning English as a sec-ond language?
Does the starting age have an influence? How about the hours children spend
each day on learning English? What is the relationship between such
factors and a child’s English proficiency, specifically, related to grammatical knowledge?
Motivation for Research
South Korea: high enthusiasm towards learning English as a second language
Students, parents, teachers lots of effort into English education
Is all that effort into early childhood English edu-cation necessary? How about English academies?
What are some effective ways people can learn English as their second language?
HOWEVER!
Research Purposes
Determine factors that could possibly influence a child’s ac-quisition of English as a second language
Guide teachers, parents, students in finding the most effec-tive ways to acquire English as a second language
Factors to be ExaminedInitial age of learning English
Past attendance of English-only kindergarten
Years of attending English-only kindergarten
Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)
Attitude towards English education at school
Current attendance of English academies
Experience of living in an English-speaking country
Overall attitude towards learning English
Hypothesis
Factors to be Examined Hypothesized to have an Effect
Initial age of learning English V
Past attendance of English-only kindergarten
Years of attending English-only kindergarten V
Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)
Attitude towards English education at school
Current attendance of English academies V
Experience of living in an English-speaking country V
Overall attitude towards learning English V
Theoretical Background
Age in Second Language Acquisition
Lenneberg (1967) The critical period: “a biologically determined period
of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire”
Johnson and Newport (1989) “success in learning is almost entirely predicted by
the age at which it begins.”
Increased passion for early English educa-tion in many nations.
English-only Kindergartens in South Korea
Yang (2004) Students who had received early English education
performed better on the English listening test taken compared to those who had not
The difference was minor
Questions the effectiveness of early child-hood English education (e.g. the attendance of English-only kindergartens)
HOWEVER!
Other Factors that Affect aSecond-language-learner’s English Proficiency
Johnson and Newport (1989) “no significant effect of the number of years of ex-
posure on language performance for learners be-yond the first few years of exposure”
“the correlations show a strong relationship be-tween these attitudinal variables and both test score and age of arrival”
initial age does not matter motivation was a factor that caused better
English performance.
Research Methods
Research Design
Experimental research Testing of grammatical
knowledge of the sub-jects
Survey that asks for the background information of each participant
Subjects
60 5th grade elementary school students randomly recruited from a local elementary school
Materials
Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) – listen-ing version Popular data collection method used by many re-
searchers Tests subjects’ implicit grammatical knowledge
In this research: Tests 3 grammatical features (30 questions each)
Word order (I ate an apple / I an apple ate*) Question (Do you know? / You do know?*) Negation (I do not see it / I no see it*)
Materials
Language Background Questionnaire (LBQ) A set of questions that asks for the subjects’ back-
ground information (especially related to English edu-cation)
Used to examine factors that might have influenced the subjects’ English grammatical knowledgeFactors to be Examined
Initial age of learning English
Past attendance of English-only kindergarten
Years of attending English-only kindergarten
Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)
Attitude towards English education at school
Current attendance of English academies
Experience of living in an English-speaking country
Overall attitude towards learning English
Procedure
1. Construct questions for the GJT and LBQ2. Record GJT questions and make a listening
file3. Recruit subjects4. Subjects listen to the recorded file and write
their answers on the provided answer sheet5. Have all subjects complete the LBQ6. Analyze data and make connections to the
LBQ to see any common factors that might have influenced the scores of the GJT
Data Analysis
Statistical analysis1) Analyze data by examining subjects’ performances on the
GJT & LBQ
2) Grade answer sheets and mark scores of each subject for each grammatical feature (word order, question, negation)
3) Calculate average accuracy for each grammatical feature
4) Record all data on a spreadsheet
5) Conduct correlational analysis: find the correlation between two sets of data (e.g. compare scores between students who enjoy learning English and students who do not)
6) Determine whether the two sets of data showed a correla-tion (refer to the critical values of the Spearman’s ranked correlation coefficient)
Results
Factors that affected subjects’ performances on the GJT
Initial age of receiving English education Past attendance of an English-only kindergarten Attitude towards learning English
Results
Table 1. Correlational Values
FactorsCorrelational
Values (p)
Significant
(│p│≥ 0.255)
Initial age of learning English -0.3888 *
Past attendance of English-only kindergarten -0.3633 *
Years of attending English-only kindergarten 0.14098
Frequency of attending English-only
kindergarten
-0.0968
Attitude towards English education at school 0.02369
Current attendance of English academies -0.0268
Experience of living in an English-speaking
country
-0.0991
Attitude towards learning English -0.6351 *
The correlational value (p) of two sets of data should be at least 0.255 (in absolute value) in order to say that the two sets of data have a correlation
Results
Figure 1. Correlational Values
* values are graphed as absolute values* EOK = English-only kindergarten* red line: minimum correlational value (0.255)
Discussion & Conclusion
Results of this research show that the following factors have an influence on the acquisition of the English gram-matical knowledge by young learners in Korea: Initial age of learning English as a second language
students who started learning English at an earlier age have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who started at a later age.
Experience of attending an English-only kindergarten students who had attended an English-only kindergarten for at
least a year have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who never attended one.
Attitude towards learning English as a second language students who have a positive attitude towards learning English
have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who do not enjoy learning English.
Discussion & Conclusion
Other factors (listed in table below) do not have a significant impact on the acquisition of English grammar:
However, due to the lack of examination of the relation-ships among factors, it cannot be determined whether they affect the English grammatical knowledge alone or along other factors affecting it.
Factors Correlational Values
Years of attending English-only kindergarten 0.14098
Frequency of attending English-only
kindergarten
-0.0968
Attitude towards English education at school 0.02369
Current attendance of English academies -0.0268
Experience of living in an English-speaking
country
-0.0991
Discussion & Conclusion
Limitations Subjects limited to 5th grade elementary school students in Korea
Results may differ for other age groups Only focuses on subjects’ grammatical knowledge
Results may differ for testing other English abilities (e.g. read-ing, speaking abilities)
Further studies Similar to this research with different subjects and English abilities Work as a guide for English learners when deciding how to proceed
with their English education Help learners of English find better and more effective ways to ac-
quire what is now called the global language
References
Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 4th ed. New York: Pearson.
Gass, S., and Selinker, L. (Eds.) (1992). Language Transfer in Lan-guage Learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Johnson, J., and Newport, E. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: the influence of maturational state on the acqui-sition of ESL. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.
Snow, Catherine E., and Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle (1978). "The Criti-cal Period for Language Acquisition: Evidence from Second Lan-guage Learning." Child Development 4th ser. 49: 1114-128.
Yang, So Yeong (2004). The Effectiveness of Early English Education Seen by the Performance of Elementary School English. Thesis. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 2004. N.p.: n.p. Hankuk Uni-versity of Foreign Studies.
Acknowledgement
Special thanks to… My mother who has been a great guidance throughout
the entire research The local school that willingly participated in this re-
search
THE END