Foreign language reform in Swiss primary schools. potentials and limitations
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Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2012
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Collections
Type
04B - Conference paper
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism
Series number
13
Volume
Issue / Number
Pages / Duration
189-206
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Place of publication / Event location
Hamburg
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
In German-speaking Central Switzerland, French used to be the only foreign language (FL) taught in primary schools (from grade five onwards). Some cantons have now implemented a program including English as the first FL (L2) to be learnt at school (from grade three onwards), followed by French as the second FL (L3) (from grade five onwards). To examine the impact of this school reform, children of both programs were compared with respect to their French competencies (N = 893). After one year of French instruction, students with previous English (L2) instruction exhibited higher skills in French (L3) listening and reading than students without previous English (L2) instruction. One year later, however, the initial advantage of the more experienced learners had disappeared. The results argue for a more coordinated instruction of the different FLs taught at school that takes the existing experiences of the students into account.
Keywords
Event
International Conference on “Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies” (MIMS)
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
06.10.2010
Conference end date
08.10.2010
Date of the last check
ISBN
9789027273499
9789027219336
9789027219336
ISSN
1571-4934
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
No
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Expert editing/editorial review
Open access category
Closed
License
Citation
Haenni Hoti, A., & Heinzmann, S. (2012). Foreign language reform in Swiss primary schools. potentials and limitations. In K. Braunmüller & C. Gabriel (Eds.), Multilingual Individuals and Multilingual Societies (pp. 189–206). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/hsm.13.13hae