Tag: anxiety

Don’t scrap it just yet! Primary English as a Foreign Language education is associated with motivation and anxiety

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education at the primary level does not only lead to progress in terms of language learning. A study has shown that learners from the south-west of Germany displayed higher levels of achievement motivation and lower levels of inhibiting exam anxiety the longer they were exposed to primary EFL classes.

Let’s get this out of the way: We can all agree that the German system of education is in trouble. More than 30 % of its ninth-formers do not develop sufficient reading skills. Likewise, more than 30 % of primary schoolers do not attain acceptable standards regarding their spelling skills. The situation is dire. But how can it be remedied?

One suggestion which has repeatedly been put forward is the enhancement of spelling practice at the primary level. Who could disagree? Another suggestion concerns primary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Opinions here are less unequivocal, ranging from “enhance it” to “scrap it altogether”.

The more primary EFL lessons, the more motivation and the less exam anxiety

Truthfully, primary EFL has often been reported to yield linguistically questionable results. However, children learn more in these lessons than a foreign language: A study (my own, incidentally) published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism shows that more than six years after leaving primary school, primary EFL lessons are associated with higher levels of motivation and lower levels of exam anxiety.

Data were collected in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the south-west of Germany. At the time of data collection, participants were attending Year 11, with only one further year of secondary education ahead of them. When these students were attending primary school, primary EFL had not been fully implemented across the state. As a result, the majority (228 students) had not taken part in primary EFL at all, while others had experienced either two years (116 students) or four years (71 students) of primary EFL education.

The data on motivation, anxiety and verbal intelligence used in this study came from a database compiled for a project investigating the development of writing skills in relation to diverse educational settings, learner biographies and individual differences such as motivation, anxiety and cognitive capacities.

FLM 7-13: A questionnaire covering motivation and anxiety in adolescents

Motivation and anxiety were measured with the achievement motivation questionnaire FLM 7-13 (Fragebogen zur Leistungsmotivation für Schüler der 7. bis 13. Klasse; achievement motivation questionnaire for students from Year 7 to 13). The questionnaire consists of the following five individual measures:

  • Orientation towards performance and success: This scale combines hope of success with the desire to expand one’s own scope of competence.
  • Perseverance and effort: This scale combines the notion of hope of success with information on self-control and self-discipline.
  • Activating exam anxiety: Activating exam anxiety describes a positive emotion related to eagerness and the willingness to take risks in exam situations.
  • Inhibiting exam anxiety: This scale describes the debilitating aspect of anxiety, i.e. a passive fear of failure.
  • Fear of success: Fear of success is a psychological barrier to achievement. It is based on the belief that success will cause negative consequences such as social rejection.

In the context of primary EFL, three of these scales proved to be of long-term relevance: Orientation towards performance and success, perseverance and effort, and inhibiting exam anxiety (cf. Figure 1).

The chart is a bar chart representing three groups of learners: No primary EFL, 2 years and 4 years of primary EFL. The bars show that learners display more orientation towards performance and success as well as perseverance and effort and less inhibiting exam anxiety the longer they took part in EFL classes at the primary level.
Figure 1: Primary EFL is associated with motivation and anxiety

The more primary EFL lessons, the more orientation towards performance and success

Out of the three groups of students, those who had attended four years of primary EFL displayed the highest levels of orientation towards performance and success more than six years later. Students with no primary EFL experience attained the lowest levels, with the two-year group being located in between.

This trend was found to be particularly visible as well as statistically significant with the following items which students responded to:

  • I aspire to be one of the best students at school.
  • I strive to perform better than most other students.

The more primary EFL lessons, the more perseverance and effort

The situation was similar for perseverance and effort: The longer students had taken part in primary EFL, the higher their scores. The tendency was particulary visible in response to the item “When I cannot perform a task immediately, I try everything to find a solution.”

The more primary EFL lessons, the less inhibiting exam anxiety

Regarding inhibiting exam anxiety, the reverse situation was observed: The longer students had experienced primary EFL, the lower their anxiety levels more than six years later.

The trend was particularly significant when students responded to the following statements:

  • When I have to perform a difficult task, I am afraid of failing.
  • I only take part in classroom discussions when I am certain that my answer is correct.

PSB-R 6-13: An intelligence test for adolescents

Cognitive capacities were measured with the intelligence test PSB-R 6-13 (Prüfsystem für Schul- und Bildungsberatung für 6. bis 13. Klassen). This test comprises scales on verbal intelligence, reasoning and concentration. Verbal intelligence, in turn, consists of subtests for word recognition, word fluency and verbal relations.

Early primary EFL is associated with weaker word recognition in German

Only one result regarding word recognition was found to be of relevance in the context of primary EFL (cf. Figure 2). This subtest consists of five individual tasks with a context-related heading and a list of twenty words, with a misspelling in each of the given words. Students have to recognize the word which fits the given heading and indicate where the misspelling occurs. The group which had taken part in four years of primary EFL education recognized significantly fewer words than the other groups. In other words, early onset of primary EFL education may impair learners’ ability to correctly identify words in German more than six years later.

The chart is a bar chart representing three groups of learners: No primary EFL, 2 years and 4 years of primary EFL. The bars show that learners' word recognition skills are worse the longer they took part in EFL classes at the primary level. Bars for word fluency and verbal relations are shaded in grey as findings were non-signficant.
Figure 2: Primary EFL is associated with word recognition skills (results for word fluency and verbal relations were non-significant)

Primary EFL: Don’t scrap it altogether!

So, is there a point in retaining primary EFL education? There certainly is. As participants in the study had no control of how much EFL education they would get, it is safe to assume that findings regarding motivation and anxiety are not based on any kind of selectivity within the system of education. In other words, we can assume that primary EFL influences students’ capacities for self-regulation. On the other hand, it may contribute to lower reading and spelling proficiency in German.

Decisions should certainly be taken on the basis of empirical rather than anecdotal evidence. Cutting down on the number of EFL lessons and years in primary schools seems fine, but ending primary EFL altogether would certainly be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Möller, V. (2018). Promoting bilingualism at the primary and secondary level: the role of intelligence, motivation and anxiety. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2018.1559795

“The perils of returning to school”: More suicide prevention required at schools after holidays

The following text summarizes a study on youth suicide.
If you or someone you know struggles with suicidal thoughts, reach out to a trained professional for help.
UK: National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK: 0800 689 5652
USA: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Other countries

A study on youth suicides in Germany reveals that there are fewer suicides during school holidays than during term time. Conversely, more school-age students take their own lives when school resumes, not only after the summer holidays, but after every school holiday throughout the year. Boys and young men are affected most.

Posting details of mental health emergency services before Christmas has become a common feature in social media. 2023 has been no exception. But while we talk about mental health more than we used to do, suicide prevention in particular does not usually receive a lot of attention: For most, it is an uncomfortable topic to talk about. This might be a reason why, as a society, we mostly overlook the fact that suicide rates actually drop during the Christmas holidays. But this comes at a cost, as there are more attempted and completed suicides during the New Year. Yet, mental health warnings about that day – or other holidays for that matter – seem to be rare. A Canadian-German team of health economists has investigated the distribution of suicides across the year in children and adolescents, with a clear result.

Fewer youth suicides during school holidays, more youth suicides after school holidays

Vincent Chandler (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada), Dörte Heger and Christiane Wuckel (both of Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen, Germany) have looked at the impact of school holidays on suicide rates in children and adolescents in Germany between 2001 and 2015. They found that fewer school-age children and teenagers died by suicide during school holidays. Conversely, more young people took their own lives as classes resumed after a holiday. Boys and young men are more at risk than girls and young women, as the researchers’ article in the Economics of Education Review shows. Rather appropriately, it is entitled “The perils of returning to school”.

Data from German federal states are particularly useful

When Chandler, Heger and Wuckel started their study, a rise in suicide rates after school holidays had already been found in other studies. However, these mostly covered summer holidays. For most countries, this means that we cannot reliably tell what exactly it is that triggers youth suicides at the end of a summer holiday. Is it really the end of the holiday and the start of a new school year? Or is it the end of summer, which means that there is less daylight and adolescents pursue fewer outdoor activities?

All German federal states have a summer holiday of about six weeks, but these weeks occur at different times in different places. In 2023, for instance, North-Rhine-Westphalia was the first German state to start its summer holiday on 22 June, returning to school on 7 August. Bavaria, on the other hand, started on 31 July, returning on 12 September. The individual states are therefore not subject to the same seasonal effects. Moreover, German schools have holidays of one to two weeks at multiple times throughout the school year: Apart from the summer holidays, most states have autumn, Christmas, winter, Easter, and Whitsun holidays. If returning to school triggers suicides, surely this effect should be visible after every holiday.

Data are derived from German official causes of death statistics

Chandler, Heger and Wuckel used data from the German official causes of death statistics, which list causes of death according to the international classification ICD-10. The age of the children and teenagers included in the study ranged from six to nineteen years. As a basic unit of measurement, the researchers opted for the probability of a youth suicide occurring on any day in any German federal state. If, for example, on 10 May 2007 one or more suicides occurred in Bavaria, that particular day was assigned the value “1” for Bavaria. If no suicide occurred, the day was coded “0”. To make sure that increases and decreases in the probability of youth suicides were indeed associated with school holidays or the return to school, the team collected data on the following aspects as well:

  • Gender
  • Type of school holiday (autumn, Christmas, winter, Easter, Whitsun, summer)
  • Transition periods (last days of holiday or school, first days of holiday or school)
  • Weather (sunshine and precipitation in the month and state in question)
  • Economic factors (unemployment rate in the month and state in question)
  • Year
  • Month
  • Day of the week.

Greatest decrease in youth suicides in Whitsun, autumn and summer holidays

Chandler, Heger and Wuckel calculate an overall probability of 3.77 % that a youth suicide will occur on any day in a given federal state. During school holidays, this probability is lower. The Whitsun holiday sees the most striking decrease, as probability goes down by 1.90 percentage points, meaning that, during the Whitsun holiday, it is no longer 3.77 %, but 1.87 %. During the autumn holiday, it drops to 2.82 %, during the summer holiday, 3.11 %. Results for the Christmas, winter and Easter holidays follow the same pattern. However, findings for those holidays are not significant. This means that, statistically, we cannot rule out that these results are due to chance.

The diagram shows that the youth suicide rate drops in all school holidays.
Figure 1: Decreases in youth suicide probability during the different types of school holidays (findings for autumn, Whitsun and summer holidays are statistically significant)

End of holidays and return to school pose the greatest danger

School holidays do not arrive unexpectedly. Children and teenagers know very well when they begin and their stress levels go down accordingly. Hence, the number of youth suicides already decreases in the last two days of school before a holiday. Conversely, in the last two days before classes resume, the probability of young people taking their lives increases by 0.46 percentage points. Instead of 3.77 % the probability on those days is therefore 4.23 %. And it gets worse: In the first two days of school, figures rise by 1.21 percentage points, to 4.98 %. Compared to the average probability of 3.77 %, this means that the probability of youth suicides rises by 32 %.

The diagram shows that youth suicide rates go down in the last days before and during the holidays and go up again in the last two days of the holidays and when school starts again.
Figure 2: Increases and decreases in youth suicide probability at the beginning and end of school holidays (findings for the first two school days are statistically significant)

Stress and anxiety take a toll

But what makes school stressful to the point that it enhances suicidal tendencies? As is the case with mental health issues in general, youth suicides can certainly not be traced back to a single factor causing them. However, the researchers suggest that stress and performance anxiety in schools can play a part. Expectations of parents and teachers may lead to significant levels of stress. Bullying could be another factor: In Germany, as many as 8.6 % of pupils report that they have been bullied.

Boys and young men are more at risk

According to the researchers’ data (personal communication), completed suicides occur more frequently in boys and young men than in girls and young women. As a result, the decrease in suicide probability during the holidays is about four times stronger in males than in females. The increase during the first two school days, however, is also stronger in boys and young men: Where figures rise by 24.6 % for girls and young women, they rise by 36.5 % in males. The researchers list several possible reasons for the fact that males seem more affected:

  • Schools might be failing young men more than they fail young women. In other words, the system of education seems to be less suited to boys and young men.
  • Girls and young women might have a better social network to help them cope with stress.
  • A good part of bullying amongst girls takes place online. The stress associated with this might therefore not stop during school holidays, such that suicide incidence will remain more or less the same.
  • Females might display other types of self-harming behaviour, like self-injury or eating disorders.

Suicide prevention needs to become a major concern in schools

The findings reported by Chandler, Heger and Wuckel show that we need to do more than post emergency numbers for Christmas. Schools and educational systems as a whole need to be aware of the mental health problems of young people – especially since some of those problems are bred within the schools themselves. The authors of the study suggest the introduction of hybrid schooling opportunities, which can reduce stress in certain students. Teacher training needs to include mental health education as well as specific information on suicide prevention.

We might not always know who is at risk – but sometimes we do. We therefore need to raise awareness that the first days of school after a holiday are the most dangerous time in terms of youth suicides. We must be aware of what is happening if want to be able to offer support to young people at risk of suicide.

Chandler, V., D. Heger & C. Wuckel (2022). The perils of returning to school – New insights into the impact of school holidays on youth suicides. Economics of Education Review 86, 102205.