Learn more about foreign language instruction in the British International School of Boston primary school.

1. “Those who know
nothing of foreign
languages know nothing
of their own.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Maxims and Reflections

2. Primary Languages
Forum
Monday 9th March
2015

3. • Immersion
• Competency
• Sensitization
• Awareness

4. BISB primary languages until 2014:
• Nursery to Y2 we ran two 25 minute
sessions of French. (“sensitisation”)
• Y3 to Y6 French increased to 50+25
minutes for French and;
• added in the same provision for
Spanish (50+25 minutes).
(Closer to “competency” model)

5. BISB primary languages currently:
• Nursery to Y2 we still run two 25
minute sessions of French.
(“sensitization”)
• Y3 to Y6 French one 50 minute lesson
for French and;
• add one 50 minute lesson for Spanish.
(“sensitization”)

6. BISB Languages in Secondary:
Years 7,8,9
• All pupils take French and Spanish
• three 50 minutes lessons per week per
language
Years 10,11
• Pupils select at least one but possibly both
languages to study through to IGCSE at the
end of Y11.
• three 50 minutes lessons per week per
language

7. BISB Languages in Secondary:
Years 12,13
• Pupils select at least one but possibly both
languages to study through to IB Diploma
level at the end of Y13.
• Three 50 minutes lessons per week per
language if chosen at ab initio or Standard
Level
• Five 50 minutes lessons per week per
language if chosen at Higher Level.

8. BISB IGCSE and IB DIPLOMA
results from 2011-2014:
• both French and Spanish results have been
100% A*-C, with most grades being A*/A.
• At IB all pupils are achieving a level 5 and
above, with the majority achieving 6 and 7.

9. Contexts for Language Learning
• Mother Tongue
• A second language –L2 (typically
as an immigrant in a naturalistic
situation)
• early foreign language learning.
(the context in most school settings,
including BISB)

10. “language learning by young
children in a natural setting is
widely recognised as something
quite different from the kind of
learning that takes place in school
by older children.”
-Andersson (1960)

11. “…children do not learn foreign
languages with miraculous ease in
school settings.”
-Carroll (19601)

12. THE NUMBER OF US ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
OFFERING WORLD LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION:

13. THE NUMBER OF US MIDDLE SCHOOLS
OFFERING WORLD LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION:

14. Two key Factors relating to in-school language
acquisition:
• Exposure time to language
instruction
• Continuity

15. “investment of more hours, through an
earlier start, has at least the potential
to raise general levels of achievement,
provided that issues of continuity and
progression are properly addressed.”
- Mitchell, Martin and Grenfell (1992)

16. “older learners seem to progress more
quickly than younger children, except
in the area of pronunciation”
- Burstall et al 1974:33, Burstall 1975,
1978)

17. Better…?
• Proficiency and the ultimate level of
attainment (Do children who start early
perform better than those who start later?)
• Rate of acquisition (are younger or older
learners quicker and more efficient at
learning languages, and if so, which aspects
of language learning are they best at at
different stages?)

18. …if learners of different ages are
matched according to the amount of
time they have been exposed to a
second language, and teaching and
amount of time are held constant,
older learners are likely to reach higher
levels of proficiency, especially in
institutional contexts such as schools.

19. “If the aim were efficiency
of learning then it was older
learners who should be
taught.”
-Waddington (1963)

20. Reasons that older learner may be
more efficient at language acquisition:
• they possess general cognitive abilities, enabling them to
process data more efficiently;
• they have a superior capacity for analytic thought and
better memory (Poole 1994);
• their L1 literacy (Cummins 1981) is likely to be well
developed;
• they have better discourse competence;
• they have experience of learning and have developed learner
strategies.
• some are likely to have made a conscious decision to learn a
particular FL, and will thus have better extrinsic and
intrinsic motivation (Poole 1994);
• they have mature concepts about the world (Johnstone
1996)

21. “The chances that younger
learners will overtake older
learners will be reduced if the
foreign language experience at
primary school is relatively little
and the time is spread out thinly.”
- Johnstone (1996)

22. Younger beginners advantages over
older beginners:
• More time at their disposal
• They approach FL learning in a non-
problematical way
• They are intuitive
• They have better pronunciation
• Their speed of recall is quicker
• FL learning contributes to their personal and
social development. (Johnstone 1996)

23. • It is vitally important to set up early
foreign language programmes, which
promote a young learner’s strengths
and which focus on the development
of good FL intonation, pronunciation
and speaking skills;
• It is essential to provide learners with
good models.

24. Continuity of
experience is
essential.

25. Burstall (1975) reported that
where pupils tended to gain, was
not so much in ‘mastery’ but in
attitude, particularly if they
were ‘successful in their efforts’

26. BISB languages from 2016?:
• Nursery to Y2 we run two 25 minute
sessions of French or Spanish
(“sensitisation”)
• Y3 to Y6 French or Spanish increased
to two 50 minutes lessons.
( “competency”)
• A third language option would then be
added from Y7 onwards.

27. Thank you

28. “Those who know
nothing of foreign
languages know nothing
of their own.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Maxims and Reflections