My paper presents two longitudinal studies investigating learners' beliefs, attitudes and out-of-school exposure to English in early language teaching. I will first discuss the context of the study and then focus more on the methodology of studying young learners, using our own methods as examples of attempts in developing more age-appropriate methods and tasks.
In my presentation I will draw attention to methodological considerations for studying young learners of English. The context of this presentation lies in two longitudinal studies investigating learners' language skills, attitudes and out-of-school exposure to English in early language teaching. The first study focuses mostly on quantitative data, the second on qualitative. The background of the studies is a recent educational reform in Finland by which the start of compulsory foreign language teaching was moved from 3rd grade to 1st grade.
The first stage of the project began in 2018 with a pilot study that included approximately 150 first-graders, 300 second-graders and 300 third-graders. All pupils had started studying English in fall 2017 and had received the same number of English lessons. In 2018, pupils completed a survey consisting of questions regarding their attitude towards English and studying English, their out-of-school exposure to English, as well as a self-assessment task. In the follow-up study conducted in late 2020, pupils retook the measures used in 2018 in addition to some new measures tapping into language learning skills and language awareness. Data was also gathered from new first-graders participating in the study for the first time.
In addition, an adjacent qualitative case study focusing specifically on the developing beliefs of young learners is discussed. One of the objectives of the study is to develop methods that provide more in-depth descriptions of learner beliefs regarding language learning and language use, as well as descriptions of instances where learners encounter English.
I will present challenges and benefits of the methods used in this study and use them as examples when discussing methodology. The data experiences gained could be made use of in developing early language teaching pedagogy and as a stepping stone for further development of the European Language Portfolio for young learners.
