Exploring young learners’ foreign language learning awareness

Abstract

The present study explores young learners’ awareness of foreign language learning and of their learning conditions. The participants were 76 Catalan-Spanish children who were learning English at primary school. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected by means of two different interviews that contained questions related to pupils’ views about themselves as learners, their learning of English, the difficulty of English language learning, the classroom layout and the learning activities with which they learnt most. Pupils’ answers showed an early awareness of foreign language learning and learning conditions as well as the influence of the learning environment and experience on the changes that reshaped their views as they pass through primary education.

Keywords:

• language awareness
• EFL
• learner perceptions
• language learning awareness
• young learners
• awareness

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was supported by grants FFI2010-21478, SGR137-36820, and ICREA Academia. The ELLiE project was supported by a European Commission grant (135632-LLP-2007-UK-KA1SCR) and a British Council grant. My thanks go especially to Elsa Tragant for her insightful collaboration on the project. My deep appreciations are also for the ELLiE team and Colleen Hamilton, as well as the pupils and the teachers in the schools. Two anonymous reviewers and the editors provided helpful and detailed comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. The LLLA interview can be found in the address: www.carmenmunoz.weebly.com/available_instruments.html. The whole ELLiE interview from which two of the questions were analyzed here can be found at www.ellieresearch.eu

2. An example of a code (Q.2a.: What does learning English mean to you?)

Code: Fun

Pupil: una cosa guai (FUN)

Something cool

3. Learners’ utterances are presented in the original language, Catalan (Cat) or Spanish (Sp), and their English translation. The code reads: language/grade.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carmen Muñoz

Carmen Muñoz is professor of English Applied Linguistics at the University of Barcelona where she coordinates the GRAL research group. Her research interests include the age factor, individual differences, and instructed foreign language learning. Her work has appeared in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Language Awareness, Language Learning, and Language Teaching.