Ankstyvasis užsienio kalbos mokymas – neatsakyti klausimai

294 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 INETA DABAŠINSKIENĖ Vytautas the Great University RAMINTA GARUCKAITĖ Vytautas the Great University EARLY FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING – UNANSWERED QUESTIONS The development of the Lithuanian language and its quality is an important question for society, which is being addressed not only by linguists, educators, educational specialists, psychologists, but also by politicians. It is increasingly mentioned that the language of adults and especially children has become noticeably poorer over the past decade, its acquisition is slowing down, and it is more difficult to acquire not only linguistic but also communication skills. In order to answer the question why children’s language is deteriorating, the following reasons are most often cited: social and economic changes in society (due to the intense emigration flow in recent years, a large part of the children left in Lithuania fell into the risk group of socially neglected and this could lead to their linguistic and cognitive development deficiencies) and the strengthening influence of a foreign language (mostly English) (nowadays there is an active debate not only about the influence of English spread through television channels and the Internet, but also about the possible negative impact of early foreign language teaching on the development of the mother tongue1). In public and private discussions, scientific conferences or meetings of politicians and representatives of society, there is no dispute about whether it is worthwhile to teach children a foreign language from the second grade, whether this will not interfere with the formation of their native language system, etc. Using research conducted in Lithuania and other countries, we will try to review the most frequently raised questions: what age is suitable to start teaching a foreign language, whether early foreign language teaching does not hinder the development of the mother tongue, its learning results, what is needed for foreign language teaching to be successful. 1 http://www.smm.lt/svietimo_bukle/docs/pr_analize/Ankstyvas_Kalbu_Ugdymas.pdf I. DABAŠINSKIENĖ, R. GARUCKAITĖ. Early foreign language teaching – unanswered questions 295 1. sooner or later? CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS (KPH) Researchers are interested in what age is the most suitable to start teaching a foreign language. Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) studies are often mentioned. Language learning at this time gives the best results and allows you to reach the level of your mother tongue. At the end of this period, changes occur in the brain, which leads to poorer results. According to R. Johnstone (2002: 7), initially the term critical period hypothesis was used to describe speech, i.e. pronunciation, intonation, and only later it was extended to grammar (morphology and syntax). The hypothesis of the critical period applies to the acquisition of the mother tongue and the second, i.e. foreign, language, only the mother tongue research was carried out much less, being limited to cases of children with atypical development, i.e. who did not acquire language competence due to living in a linguistically isolated environment. KPH in relation to the first language (K1) means that if the language is not learned until a certain age, this ability is lost and can never be learned again (Moskovsky 2001: 2). Various studies on foreign language2 (K2) acquisition and age relationships are still underway (there is also disagreement among the authors about the real impact of KPH on language learning). The main idea of the research is that children achieve a higher level of K2 proficiency than adults, in other words, they make faster progress and they succeed better. The fact that children have a certain instinctive ability to learn at an early age is confirmed by special clinical studies, for example, magnetic resonance imaging shows differences in the brain of children, i.e. an increase in the activity of certain parts of the brain during learning, while in the study of adults this has not been observed (Johnstone 2002: 7). There is general agreement on the age-related effect, as the deterioration of procedural memory in adolescence encourages the use of explicit learning and rules, 2 Different studies use two terms: foreign language and second language. These terms are often understood differently. The first term indicates that the language being taught is not the mother tongue and that the learning process takes place in a mother tongue environment, for example, French learn English in France or Spanish learn French in Spain. Most often, the learning environment is formal, i.e. classroom, auditorium. Learning a second language usually means learning a foreign language in an environment where that language is spoken, for example, Germans learn Japanese in Japan. This learning process does not necessarily take place in a formal setting and, most importantly, the learner has the opportunity to communicate with people whose mother tongue is the language, which is usually not the case for foreign language learners (Gass, Selinker 2008: 7). This is mostly studied in cases where people emigrate to other countries and they and their children need to learn the language of that country. 296 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 thus not the cognitive system responsible for the acquisition of the native language is used (Paradis 2004: 59). The issue that is most debated concerns the pace of learning and the end result. It is stated that young children learn foreign languages slower than adolescents and adults, but achieve better results (Singleton 1989, 2001; Singleton, Ryan 2004; Moyer 2004; DeKeyser, Larson-Hall 2005; MacWhinney 2005). Many studies confirm the hypothesis that the success of foreign language learning decreases with age (Hakuta, Bialystok, Wiley 2003; Chiswick, Lee, Miller 2004 – studies of millions of immigrants living in the USA and Australia). According to these authors, age determines foreign language learning not necessarily due to linguistic factors, it can be related to personal abilities or social influence. Cognitive processes are also of great importance, because older people have more difficulty learning certain compounds, deciphering new information – memory capacity and attention decrease. Since these factors are age-related, the chances of learning a language also decrease (Hakuta, Bialystok, Wiley 2003: 31–32). 2. DOES FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING HAVE AN IMPACT? LETTER OF YOUR MOTHERS LANGUAGE? Early foreign language teaching is assessed in a mixed way, especially in Lithuania, where serious research in this field has not been carried out. Despite the positive results of studies carried out in other countries, in our country disputes about the effect of foreign language teaching on the development of children’s mother tongue and other learning subjects are still ongoing (see Stunžėnienė 2009). It is stated that the knowledge of the mother tongue, acquired at home, in preschool or elsewhere, has a great influence on the success of foreign language learning (Arnašienė 2007: 167). According to L. Vygotsky, those units of meaning, which the child has already mastered in the native language, can help to understand the new language system. Furthermore, the author argues that a foreign language can also help to acquire more complex forms of the mother tongue (1962; quoted from Vilke 2001: 17). In other words, learning two languages allows the child to constantly compare them, giving the opportunity to delve deeper into the entire language system. It is important that the differences between languages are properly explained to pupils, linking the teaching of a foreign language not only with the already existing knowledge of the mother tongue, but also with other subjects taught at school. Required I. DABAŠINSKIENĖ, R. GARUCKAITĖ. Early foreign language teaching – unanswered questions 297 I can say that comparing several language systems not only expands the student’s linguistic knowledge, but also develops understanding and a positive attitude towards different languages and cultures. The European Union (EU) documents promoting multilingualism and early language learning emphasise the benefits of knowing other languages. Languages develop not only general abilities (personal, social, communication, critical thinking, problem solving), but also specific ones – values, cultural attitudes, tolerance, moral and aesthetic attitudes are matured, will, attention, memory are developed, etc. Studies have shown that children who start learning a foreign language early have better oral language skills and are more confident when speaking a second language. Therefore, the opinion that early foreign language teaching can interfere with the learning of other subjects is not justified, because the abilities developed by pupils help them in later years at school. There is no unequivocal answer to some questions in the field of foreign language learning, and the research methodology varies depending on the researcher. Many researchers study how a foreign language affects the mother tongue and vice versa, how the mother tongue affects the foreign language. One such question is whether it is possible to learn a foreign language in the same way as native speakers. Interestingly, in this field of research it is accepted to associate the level of foreign language learning with the language competence of its speakers, but this approach is prone to criticism. Cook (2003: 5) argues that such a comparison is not correct because the native language knowledge of K1 and K2 users differ. In other words, a person who learns a foreign language has grown up in different circumstances and often perceives the world in a different way than a person whose mother tongue is that language, so their linguistic knowledge is usually not identical. In addition, not only the thinking of K2 users, but also their language functions differ. Cook also suggests that K2 research should not focus on the shortcomings, i.e. what language users cannot achieve, but on their achievements in using a foreign language. Learners of a foreign language should be judged by what they have learned, not by their ability to “look like” the speakers (Cook 2003: 3–4). The impact of K2 on mother tongue is also controversial. There is often a debate about the negative, positive and neutral effects of a foreign language. There is particular concern about early foreign language teaching, as it is believed that a foreign language can overshadow the still fragile native language skills (Stunžėnienė 2009). However, according to many sources, such 298 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 This belief is unfounded, as learning K2 only promotes positive results in other subjects, including mother tongue. Based on various studies, Cook argues that foreign language learners are often superior in their linguistic competence to monolingual speakers, for example Hungarian pupils learning English use more complex sentence constructions in their mother tongue (Kecskes, Papp 2000), and English-speaking children whose foreign language is Italian are better at reading in their mother tongue (Yelland et al. 1993; quoted in Cook 2003: 11–12). Thus, according to the data of these studies, it is clear that K2 learning does not impoverish the mother tongue, but, on the contrary, has a positive effect, helps to achieve better results. The processes often associated with the negative influence of a foreign language are language loss or language annihilation, but such cases already involve broader studies and most often they are language changes of immigrants. When such a social group settles in a foreign language environment, the possibilities of using K1 may decrease or disappear altogether. According to Cook, when a language is not used for basic everyday purposes and ceases to perform its function, it inevitably impoverishes or is eventually lost (2003: 12). The loss or deterioration of language can also be discussed from the individual's point of view. S. Jarvis (2003) suggests to look at the K2 effect not as a sociocultural phenomenon, encompassing several linguistic communities, but as an individual, psycholinguistic phenomenon, i.e. the loss of individual K1 skills of each individual. According to the author, a foreign language expands a person’s K1 capabilities, but does not replace the native language, but only supplements it. Although this phenomenon is also considered in the scientific literature as an example of language depletion, since the changed language indicates changes in the K1 competence of the individual, it implies a deviation from the usual norms of monolingual language use (Sharwood Smith 1983: 188–189; quoted from Jarvis 2003: 82). In other words, language can become unnatural because it is filled with foreign constructions or ways of expression. The effect of K2 can also be spoken of neutrally. Evaluation is always problematic, because what is good and what is bad are subjective things. It is suggested that the loss of certain native language skills should only be viewed negatively if it prevents the language user from successfully performing a task (Cook 2003: 12). This also implies some appreciation, although the differences between K1 and K2 consumers are generally difficult to compare or criticize. I. DABAŠINSKIENĖ, R. GARUCKAITĖ. Early foreign language teaching – unanswered questions 299 3. WHAT THE EARLY RETURN IS DEPENDENT ON SUCCESS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING? The results of early foreign language learning depend on the educational program, i.e. teaching methods and the teacher’s contribution, as well as on the number of hours devoted to and the intensity of learning. It is worth looking at early language learning programmes in other EU countries and the time allocated to them. According to Eurydice (2008) studies, in 2006, foreign languages were taught in primary education in almost all countries. In several of them it is compulsory from the first year of school or even at pre-school age (Belgium and Spain). Until 2008, compulsory foreign language education in Lithuania began at the age of 10, or in the fourth grade. However, at the request of the parents, it could be early and started from the second grade. In many countries, 50% or more of all primary school pupils learned at least one foreign language. In Lithuania, 60.8% of pupils studied their first foreign language, 0.2% of pupils studied their second language, and 39% of pupils did not study any foreign language at all in primary classes. It should be noted that the number of pupils in primary schools who do not learn any foreign language is quite high. Despite the increasing practice of teaching foreign languages at an early age, in many EU countries this is still under-dedicated, accounting for 10% of total teaching time. There are a few exceptions: Luxembourg devotes 39% of its time, Malta 15% and Belgium (German Community) 14%. Unfortunately, in even ten countries this percentage is less than 5%, including Lithuania – only 2.3%. At the secondary level of education in Lithuania, 15% of the total time is devoted to foreign language teaching. In terms of the most popular languages, English is the most commonly chosen language at the initial level of education in Europe (except in Belgium and Luxembourg, where French and German are the most popular languages, respectively). In 17 countries, English is taught by 50% or more of primary school pupils. Since 2002, the rates of learning this language have increased in almost all countries, for example, in Lithuania in that year 46% of pupils studied English, and in 2006 – 59%. German and French are the second most frequently chosen languages in Europe, and in Lithuania, especially in recent years, Russian is the second most frequently chosen language. After discussing the statistical data, it is necessary to look at the results of the studies and the measures proposed by their authors to ensure successful early detection. 300 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82th Foreign Language Education. Djigunovic and Vilke, the authors of the project in Croatia, say that the right time to start teaching children a foreign language is from the age of six, but the learning must be intensive. The authors propose five days a week of 45 minutes of language training per day. Students should be in small groups of 10 to 15 children, so that attention can be given to each child. The role of the teacher should not be forgotten – he must be a good knowledge of the language of instruction, his pronunciation and intonation must be clear (Djigunovic, Vilke 2000). According to M. Nikolov, if these prerequisites are not met, it is better not to start early language teaching at all, because inappropriate teaching can affect the student’s attitude to the foreign language and its learning (Nikolov 2000: 43; quoted from Johnstone 2002: 10). Johnstone argues that time is a particularly important factor in those countries where a foreign language is not used in public and school becomes perhaps the only place where that language is used (2002: 18). Studies show that there is a direct relationship between the time spent learning a language and the level of language proficiency, so it is important to pay attention to the factors of time and intensity, otherwise even early learning may be completely ineffective. It is not enough to devote many hours to training, it is important to make good use of that time (Curtain 2000; quoted from Johnstone 2002: 18). Data from a study carried out in Lithuania (Bulajeva 2005) allows to assess the attitude of teachers to early foreign language teaching. Unfortunately, only the results of the project carried out in 2005 are available, when it was still only talking about early foreign language teaching. At that time, the majority of teachers opposed early foreign language teaching. Also, a larger proportion of primary school teachers (79.6%) did not agree with the increase in the number of hours per week and stated that two hours per week is enough to teach a foreign language. 33.4% of respondents believed that compulsory early foreign language teaching would lead to poorer results in the learning of the mother tongue, while 56.3% disagreed. Half of all teachers also agreed that children would have more learning difficulties if compulsory education were introduced, but 41% of respondents disagreed with this (Bulajeva 2005: 49–50). Thus, the results of this study show that only four years ago the attitude of Lithuanian teachers to early foreign language teaching was negative. It would be interesting to compare these figures with the current ones, when foreign language teaching became compulsory from the second grade – whether this has not changed teachers’ opinions. I. DABAŠINSKIENĖ, R. GARUCKAITĖ. Early foreign language teaching – unanswered questions 301 4. WILL INDIVIDUAL VOLUMINES BE IMPORTANT LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE? When learning a foreign language, not only the cognitive, but also the individual characteristics of the student are important. Some learners are more successful in learning languages than others, so the language learning process is often linked to individual abilities, which becomes an important part of foreign language learning research. The researchers identified several factors that influence foreign language learning: motivation, talent, attitude, learning style and strategy, creativity, etc. Abilities, according to some authors, are the most important factor determining a person’s ability to learn another language (Gass, Selinker 2008: 417). However, language abilities do not indicate whether a person can learn a foreign language, so talents should be called a factor that helps predict the speed of learning progress. In other words, knowing the specific talents of a person, it is possible to predict the amount of effort and motivation required for a successful learning process. If a person has fewer abilities, he will have to put more effort into achieving good results (Dörnyei 2005: 43). Thus, the level of language acquisition directly depends on such innate abilities of a person for language as phonemic recognition (i.e. recognition of a foreign sound system and the ability to remember those sounds), grammatical sensitivity (i.e. recognition of the function of words that make up a sentence), inductive language learning ability (i.e. understanding or generalization of rules and general laws of language), memory and proficiency (i.e. the ability to recognize and describe associations between words and phrases in the foreign and native language) (Gass, Selinker 2008: 418). Motivation, learning styles and strategies play an important role for foreign language teaching professionals. All these factors determine the success of foreign language learning (Oxford 1994; Djigunovic 2006). As stated (Dörnyei 2005: 65), motivation provides the initial impetus and later becomes the main driving force, supporting the long and often tiring learning process. However, motivation, like learning style and strategy, is an individual matter, and each student is motivated by different things to learn what and how. The already mentioned role of the teacher, as well as the attitudes of the parents, are very important and can determine the attitude of children to many things. If parents encourage their children to be interested in the language and culture, and are interested in their achievements at school, this becomes an even greater incentive to learn a foreign language. The opinion of others, especially peers, about the language being learned or about the learning process itself, is also very important for children (McGroarty 2001: 73, 85). 302 LANGUAGE CULTURE | 82 5. RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN LITHUANIA It is difficult to determine and evaluate the possible quality of language, its developmental tendencies and effects. Based on long-term and experimental studies of the language of children aged 3-4 years in Lithuania (Savickienė 2003, 2005a, 2005b, 2006, 2007; Savickienė et al. 2007a, 2007b, 2009; Dabašinskienė 2009a, 2009b; Kamandulytė 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008; Balčiūnienė 2005, 2006, 2007a, 2007b), today we could try to describe the language development trends of this age group. However, it is difficult to assess the speech of older children because their language is more complex in terms of lexicon, grammar, discourse formation and language functions. A number of language correction methodological tools have been published in Lithuania, language standards are published, but these publications often present either only the most general requirements for the language of children of a certain age group3, or very detailed information related to specific standards for the acquisition of phonetics, lexis, certain grammatical features (see Garšvienė, Ivoškuvienė 1993). Thus, after analyzing the existing sources and theoretical literature, it becomes clear that the biggest problem is the lack of a comprehensive study covering the peculiarities of Lithuanian children’s language in different age groups. The main reason is that the development and quality of speech requires comparatively complex studies. Some features of the language, such as vocabulary and grammar, are slightly easier to investigate, but there are some that can be determined only by applying and combining various research methodologies. Speaking language research is a time-consuming, financially expensive, special skills-requiring and relatively long-lasting work. For these reasons, there is still no textbook of children’s language in Lithuania, the data of which would reveal the characteristics of language in different age groups and allow to draw conclusions about the interrelationships of certain social factors and language development. Vytautas Magnus University researchers, together with colleagues from Croatia and Italy, have started to prepare a methodology and collect material for a study4 to evaluate the language quality, possible effects and developmental tendencies of Lithuanian children. The proposed study would at least partially fill this gap and reveal the most common language characteristics of preschool and younger school-age children, allowing to see the possible role of linguistic factors (multilingualism, early foreign language learning) in the development of language skills. 3 For example, General Programme and Standards of Preschool Education: http:// www.smm.lt/ugdymas/docs/Priesmokyklinis.pdf 4 Research project supported by the Lithuanian Science Council Lithuanian children’s language: influences and trends.