We present findings on the efficacy of a multilingual teaching approach to early English as a foreign language (EFL) in German primary schools. We outline the model, we report on its implementation in 4 schools for 6 months, and we discuss its effects on FL achievement.
Recent research found that bilingual students, i.e. students who grow up speaking a heritage language other than the societal majority language, enjoy benefits over monolingual peers in early foreign language (FL) learning (e.g. Hopp et al., 2018; Maluch et al., 2015). In these studies, bilingualism positively impacted FL skills along with other linguistic, social and cognitive variables, with vocabulary size in the heritage language (HL) and phonological awareness boosting English performance in particular. We present findings on the efficacy of a multilingual teaching approach to early English as a foreign language (EFL) in German primary schools. Based on the two success factors identified in prior research, i.e. large (HL) vocabulary size and metalinguistic awareness, we developed a model of language (learning) awareness. This model specifies learning goals, tasks and teaching materials that explicitly target these dimensions and embed them organically in a FL context by adapting a widely used textbook (Playway, Gerngross, Puchta, & Becker 2013). We implemented these tasks and materials in a control-group design at four German primary schools over six months in fourth grade. The experimental group received English lessons including references to other languages and phonological awareness tasks; the control group received the same lessons without these elements in an English-only format. The fourth-grade students had had two English lessons per week since Grade 3. In a pre-post-test study, 128 students were tested on vocabulary and grammar skills as well as phonological awareness and background factors before and after the 6-month intervention. We also administered tests targeting specific grammatical phenomena (wh-questions, adverb placement) that were taught with (experimental group) or without reference to other languages (control group). We outline the model of multilingual FL teaching, and we discuss the findings on its efficacy in the context of the debate about bilingual advantages in foreign language acquisition.
