The Effects of Age, Dosage, and Poverty on Second Language Learning through SparkLingTM in Infant Education Centers in Madrid, Spain

Abstract

The first 1000 days represent a unique window of opportunity for second language learning. In two recent studies we demonstrated that Spanish infants’ use of second-language (L2) English productive vocabulary and early utterances rapidly increased through the play-based, interactive and highly social SparkLingTM Intervention, which consists of an evidence-based method and curriculum stemming from decades of research on infant language development. Analyzing an expanded and more diverse sample of Spanish infants (n = 414; age 9–33 months) who received the SparkLingTM Intervention, this study examines the variability in L2 production, which was assessed via first-person LENA audio recordings. Infants’ age significantly and positively correlated with L2 production, demonstrating an advantage for older infants in the sample. While overall socioeconomic status (SES) was not related to L2 production, very young infants (under two years) who lived in high poverty homes showed faster increases in English production compared to peers who lived in moderate poverty homes. Infants’ attendance in the program (“dosage”) was also predictive of their L2 production outcomes. Infants across SES have the capacity to begin acquiring two languages in early education classrooms with SparkLingTM through one-hour/day sessions in social environments that engages them through frequent high-quality language input.

Studies on pre-primary learners of foreign languages, their teachers, and parents: A critical overview of publications between 2000 and 2022

“…After reading all complete texts again, we included 74 empirical studies (see Supplementary Appendix Table S1). We found one replication study (Ferjan Ramírez et al, 2021), no evaluation study of a complete program (e.g., Dobson et al, 2010), but one baseline study (British Council/Nile, 2017) that explored the feasibility of introducing English at the pre-primary level in Peru.…”

“…Very young Spanish children (nine to 33 months), the youngest ones in the database, participated in a replication of an experimental project (Ferjan Ramírez et al, 2021) to measure how rapidly they developed in English, over 18 weeks, in one-hour weekly interactions with multiple native speakers in small groups. Teachers were trained in an online program called SparkLing™ to implement six principles: (1) they used a lot of input (2) in parentese (higher pitch, slower tempo, exaggerated intonation) (3) in playful interactions, ( 4) encouraging children to talk and interact by using prompts.…”

“…Findings on family socio-economic status (SES) indicate that SES is both a mediating cognitive factor (securing access to FL learning resources) and a mediating affective factor (through parental involvement and encouragement) (Rokita-Jaśkow, 2013). SES emerged as a good predictor of productive vocabulary development (Sun et al, 2016); however, SES did not play a key role in studies on the youngest age group (Ferjan Ramírez et al, 2021).…”