Pupils' perceptions of foreign language learning in the primary school – findings from the Key Stage 2 Language Learning Pathfinder evaluation

This article presents findings on pupil attitudes towards learning foreign languages in Key Stage 2 (ages 7–11) in primary schools in England. As a consequence of the National Languages Strategy, the University of Warwick was commissioned by the then Department for Education and Skills to undertake an evaluation between 2003 and 2005 of 19 Pathfinder local authorities which were piloting language learning at Key Stage 2. As part of this investigation of developing primary language practice, a total of 319 pupils in 41 case study schools were interviewed. Findings indicate that, despite the majority of children interviewed being positive about their initial language learning experience, as time went on the need for differentiation and challenge emerged. Furthermore, a number of pupils would have welcomed feedback about their own progress. These are all aspects of early language learning which continue to merit attention, as shown by more recent studies such as by C. Cable and colleagues.     

Modern foreign language learning and European citizenship in the Irish context

This paper presents some of the findings of a study investigating young people's attitudes towards Europe and the European Union and their self-reported learning about European citizenship in Ireland. The paper considers adolescents’ attitudes and motivations for language learning in light of recent literature arguing for the role of modern foreign language instruction in the teaching of European citizenship. Findings based on the results of a knowledge test regarding the rights and opportunities offered through European citizenship are also included. Data provide evidence that Irish students possess more knowledge than their counterparts in England, Spain and France on the subject, while showing more positive attitudes than other students. The paper considers the contribution of modern foreign language teaching to this knowledge and their positive attitudes, drawing some possible inferences for other European member states.     

Language learning at Key Stage 2: findings from a longitudinal study

This paper discusses some of the findings from a 3-year longitudinal study of language learning in the upper stage of English primary schools, i.e. at Key Stage 2. This largely qualitative study (commissioned by the then Department for Children, Schools and Families) was designed to explore and document developing provision and practice in a sample of primary schools that had chosen to introduce language teaching ahead of the proposal that it should become part of statutory requirements. The research team examined the approaches and mechanisms these schools were using to develop and maintain language learning and teaching, teachers’ and children's attitudes towards language learning and children's achievement in oracy and literacy, as well as considering the possible broader cross-curricular impact of language learning. This paper goes on to consider some of the implications for embedding language learning and teaching in English primary schools.     

后殖民时代英国外语教育的多元文化认同研究——《全民的外语:生活的外语——外语教育发展战略》评析

英国作为最大的语言输出国在很长的一段时期并不重视外语的教育。但在后殖民时代,英国的政府和民众越来越认识到外语学习的重要性。英国必须以更加开放的心态和更加有效的外语教育政策来推动英国民众的外语学习。因此近年来,英国教育技能部推出了《语言学习》和《全民的外语:生活的外语——外语教育发展战略》等重要文件。本文从解读文本入手,分析和论述了当前英国外语教育存在的问题、近期及长远的发展目标和发展战略的特点等。本文认为,在后殖民时代英国外语教育的政策呈现多元文化认同的趋势。多元文化认同是全球化时代不可避免的教育发展趋势,对我国目前制定新时期的外语教育政策有很大的借鉴意义。     

Technologically enhanced language learning in primary schools in England,France and Spain: developing linguistic competence in a technologically enhanced classroom environment

This paper reports on an EU-funded project (Ref: 134244-2007-UK-COMENIUS-CMP) that explored the impact of technology, notably video-conferencing, on primary school children's language learning in England, France and Spain. Data were gathered from the children in the project, their teachers and also from trainee teachers placed in the schools. The findings suggest that this technology offers real benefits in the development of intercultural understanding, increases motivation and has interesting implications for language learning processes.     

我国低龄儿童学习外语的理论探讨

本文从研究低龄儿童学习外语的语言学、心理学、生理学理论依据和外语学习环境问题入手,对目前我国外语学习者日趋低龄化和小学普遍开设外语课程提出一些异议,认为母语习得的关键期不是外语学习的关键期,小学普遍开设外语需要适当的语言环境和条件。     

高职学生感知型学习风格与外语成绩的相关性研究

本文采用Lynn O’Brien的学习风格调查表对高职学生的感知型学习风格及其与外语成绩的相关性进行了调查研究。调查结果显示,感知型学习风格对外语学习成绩有影响,触觉型风格偏向与外语成绩之间呈显著负相关。该结论对高职外语教师的启发是：教师应了解学生的学习风格,同时结合培养目标和学习任务采用相应的教学方式,如在该研究中应适当增加满足触觉型学习风格偏向的教学方法与考试形式,这不仅有助于提高学生的外语成绩,更有利于全面拓展学生的学习能力。     

浅谈外语学习中重视汉语修养的意义

以语言是思维的基本形式立论,讨论了语言学习中外语与汉语的辩证关系,认为汉语作为外语学习的基础语言,其水平的高下不仅直接影响着外语学习,也会影响外语的应用。强调在学习外语的同时,不应忽视提高母语修养。     

The attitudes of the pupils towards modern languages in the primary school (MLPS) in Scotland

This article considers the attitudes of pupils aged 9–11 years in Scotland towards their learning of a foreign language in primary school. It also considers their perception of difficulty, what they tell us causes them difficulty, their language preferences and the reasons for these. The article identifies any significant differences between boys and girls in these areas.     

Marks,get set,go: an evaluation of entry levels and progress rates on a university foreign language programme

This paper highlights the problem of falling recruitment to foreign language (FL) degrees in higher education, outlining some of the recent changes in secondary FL education which have contributed in part to this situation. It draws attention to the lack of research into the impact that the fall in numbers of students taking a foreign language A level is having on the quality of the intake onto HE foreign languages courses. It reviews the findings and conclusions of the only major study in this area and then presents the results of a new longitudinal study of FL learning at a major UK university. The findings challenge the prevalent view that A level foreign languages are becoming the preserve of the academically elite and raise questions about the type of skills rewarded at foreign language A level. The study confirms previous research findings relating to poor progression rates in university FL learning, but questions the assumption that poor tuition is the root cause of this malaise.     

试论高职生外语自主学习能力的培养

随着中国经济的快速发展和对外开放程度的进一步提高，外语作为与国际沟通的桥梁，必然在中国的经济、社会和化中发挥重要作用。对高职生外语学习能力的培养主要体现在呈现、实践、运用三个阶段，以培养高职生外语知识的理解、记忆和思考能力、延伸和扩展能力及交际和创新能力。     

英语学习风格调查报告

本就英语学习风格差异的有关问题对本200名学生进行了问卷调查，观察分析了学生英语学习风格倾向的频繁程度，探讨了学习风格差异与语言学习的关系，并就如何改进英语教学提出了相关建议。     

Autistic Spectrum Disorders and learning foreign languages

The number of young people with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) coming into mainstream foreign languages classes is increasing, and this is causing some concern to teachers. Based on her extensive professional experience, Vivienne Wire here considers the implications for teaching and learning of the‘triad of impairments' found in pupils with autism and discusses strategies for intervention. In addition, positive aspects of an autistic person's style of learning are suggested, which may help classroom relationships, pupil motivation and behavioural issues. It is hoped that the issues raised in this article will promote the importance to young people with autism of learning a foreign language and explain how issues of structure and organisation, which lie beyond the triad of impairments, are of equal significance in meeting the educational needs of children and young people with autism.     

The influence of teachers’ interests,personalities and life experiences in intercultural languages teaching

This paper reports on a study that investigated teachers’ perceptions about the significance of intercultural understanding (IU) in the modern foreign languages (MFL) curriculum. The research was conducted in the wake of a National Curriculum revision in 2007 in England that for the first time listed ‘IU’ as one of the four key concepts underpinning the study of languages in the Programme of Study. In contrast to other writers who frequently explain MFL teachers’ attention to intercultural learning as a consequence of their (lack of) knowledge about intercultural languages theory or pedagogy, or as the result of contextual factors, our findings suggest that the significance attached to IU seems to be profoundly affected by the interests, personalities and life experiences of individuals. This finding emerged from a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 teachers in 13 secondary schools in the North-West of England between May 2008 and June 2009. We illustrate our point by mapping the narratives of four teachers, conveyed through pen-portraits, with an adapted version of Kelchtermans’s personal interpretive framework, and thus draw on narrative inquiry as our research approach. We claim that our hitherto relatively unnoticed finding, i.e. the central influence of the teacher as an individual on intercultural language teaching, has important implications for MFL teacher education. We suggest that the stories of the four teachers could be used as a professional development tool to identify motivators and inhibitors in developing IU that may resonate with practitioners’ own beliefs and practice, and that parallel to this, our adapted Kelchtermans’s framework may be used as a blank template to scaffold self analysis. Whilst this article considers teacher development in intercultural languages education, it also seeks to make a contribution to the literature on the usefulness of teacher narrative as a professional development tool.     

外语学习策略运用中的元认知因素

在外语学习策略运用过程中元认知因素起着重要的作用。元认知是外语学习策略迁移问题的关键。在外语教学学习中应当首先培养外语学习者的元认知能力。     

Families’ social backgrounds matter: Socio‐economic factors,home learning and young children's language,literacy and social outcomes

Parental support with children's learning is considered to be one pathway through which socio‐economic factors influence child competencies. Utilising a national longitudinal sample from the Millennium Cohort Study, this study examined the relationship between home learning and parents’ socio‐economic status and their impact on young children's language/literacy and socio‐emotional competence. The findings consistently showed that, irrespective of socio‐economic status, parents engaged with various learning activities (except reading) roughly equally. The socio‐economic factors examined in this study, i.e., family income and maternal educational qualifications, were found to have a stronger effect on children's language/literacy than on social‐emotional competence. Socio‐economic disadvantage, lack of maternal educational qualifications in particular, remained powerful in influencing competencies in children aged three and at the start of primary school. For children in the first decade of this century in England, these findings have equity implications, especially as the socio‐economic gap in our society widens.     

Using stimulated recall to investigate pupils' thinking about online bilingual communication: Code‐switching and pronominal address in L2 French

This article demonstrates how evidence related to performance in computer mediated communication (CMC) can be used as a vehicle for researching pupils' thinking about using and learning a foreign language. The analysis is based on a qualitative study of pupils from two contrasting schools who had taken part in a multinational CMC project involving learners of French and English as a foreign language. The analysis focuses on the pupils' explanations and intuitions about their decisions with regard to two areas of their interaction in particular: code‐switching and pronominal address. The findings suggest that the English learners of French had an implicit set of communicative priorities in which interpersonal objectives tended to dominate over ideational objectives. Evidence from the study indicates the need for further research‐informed educational development in two areas: a reappraisal of the framework for foreign language teaching in England on the basis of greater emphasis on second language (L2) use within the framework; and more developed theoretical understanding of pupil cognition in relation to foreign language learning.     

Bickerton的语言哲学观与外语教学

从Bickerton的语言哲学观点出发,引发外语教师对语言教学的思考,从而达到对语言教学信念的反思、改进教学行为的目的。     

外语职业教育对宁波城市品牌提升的效用研究

外语职业教育是展示城市文化品位和国际影响的有效平台,能增强一个城市核心竞争力,塑造优质的城市品牌形象。基于宁波市外语职业教育发展现状,提出外语职业教育的四层次目标和具体实施路径,并将其应用于宁波城市品牌形象的营销实践,从而不断增强宁波＂国际强港、智慧城市＂的知名度和美誉度。     

The developmental progression of comprehension‐related skills in children learning EAL

Many children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) underachieve in areas of English literacy, especially in the primary years. These difficulties are often attributed to low levels of English language fluency as they enter the education system. In an effort to provide a greater understanding of this underachievement, the cognitive‐linguistic factors underlying literacy development in monolingual children and children learning EAL were examined in a three‐year longitudinal project. The project, conducted in schools in the north of England, followed the developmental progression of forty‐three children learning EAL and forty‐three monolingual children from school years Two to Four. Children were assessed on measures of reading accuracy, reading and listening comprehension, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and reception of grammar. Analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of children on reading accuracy, but children learning EAL had lower levels of vocabulary and comprehension at each point in time. Data are discussed in terms of the development of underlying language skills and the impact of these skills on both reading and listening comprehension. The implications of the findings for classroom practice are considered.