Individual differences in very young children's English acquisition in China: Internal and external factors

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of internal and external factors on very young EFL learners in an instructional setting. 71 child English learners in China (onset age: 2;0 -5;6) were involved: their receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary and receptive grammar were taken as outcome variables, and age of onset, short-term memory, nonverbal intelligence, English input quantity and quality, English use, and maternal English level were taken as predictive variables. Multiple regression analyses, verified by Bayes factor comparisons, revealed that the total amount of school input and home English media environment were significant predictors for all of three aspects of English proficiency, with each aspect having different additional significant predictors. Both internal factors (e.g., age of onset) and external factors (e.g., English input quantity) played an important role, but in contrast to similar studies (e.g., Paradis, 2011) focusing on a L2 naturalistic setting, external factors explained more variance of English proficiency measures.

Urban vs. rural CLIL: an analysis of input-related variables, motivation and language attainment

“…By contrast, in Extremaduran rural schools, parents have a lower sociocultural status, with fewer university degrees, higher unemployment rates and a greater percentage of mothers staying at home. This confirms some of the findings by Sun et al (2015) who found that the situation at home is of critical importance in the attainment of students.…”

“…In close connection to child studies, it is the mother's level of English in Chinese EFL children (cf. Sun et al, 2015), which also seems to be the case with Spanish EFL learners. Rica Goiricelaya and González de San Román (2012), in an analysis of EFL students in their last years of Spanish Secondary Education (age 13-16), found a positive effect on the proficiency level of the students related to the educational level of the mother and the job status of the father, the oral skill being the one most affected by this variable (Rica Goiricelaya & González de San Román, 2012, p. 26).…”

“…Sylvén, 2004;Sylvén & Sundqvist, 2012), other input variables, such as 'cumulative length of exposure' (Unsworth, 2013;Unsworth et al, 2014) or 'input intensity' have been found to be more relevant. As shown by Sun et al (2015), the family environment, and more precisely, the educational level of the mother, are key factors in the creation of opportunities for children to be in contact with the target language (cf. also in English as a foreign language (EFL) studies Chondrogianni & Marinis, 2011;Jia & Aaronson, 2003;and Jia & Fuse, 2007).…”

“…Pérez-Cañado, 2012, p. 331), which would complement the predominant focus on linguistic outcomes and cognitive variables, more appropriate when the focus is just on language learning. Thus, a more complex picture of both external and internal factors at play in CLIL would emerge following on the footsteps of what has been done on bilingual acquisition in children (Paradis, 2011) or in foreign language (FL) contexts (Sun, Steinkrauss, Tendeiro, & De Bot, 2015).…”

Different Starting Points for English Language Learning: A Comparative Study of Danish and Spanish Young Learners

“…Research on young learners has shown clear differences in their use of a second language (L2) and in their attainment in L2 learning in foreign language contexts. These differences may be due to many factors, both internal and external to the language learner (e.g., Sun, Steinkrauss, Tendeiro, & de Bot, ; Unsworth, Hulk, & Marinis, ). An important factor that has not received sufficient attention in L2 research is the linguistic distance between the learners’ first language (L1) and their L2, despite the common acknowledgment that the number of hours of instruction required will differ depending on the relatedness of the languages.…”