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 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.
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
