Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
TheAgeFactorintheForeignLanguageClass…
11
belongedtotwoAOgroups:theearlyclassroomlearners(henceforthECLs)
wereinstructedaccordingtothenewmodelandlearnedStandardGermanfrom
firstgradeonwards,Englishfrom3rdgradeonwardsandFrenchfrom5thgrade
onwards,whilethelateclassroomlearners(LCLs)wereinstructedaccording
totheoldsystemwithoutanyEnglishexposureatprimarylevel,learningonly
StandardGermanfromfirstgradeandFrenchfrom5thgradeonwards.They
weretestedatthebeginningandattheendofacademicallyorientedhighschool
whentheywere13and18yearsoldrespectively.
Forthisqualitativeanalysis,weselectedafocalgroupof20earlylearners
and20latelearnersfromthose200whohadparticipatedinthequantitative
phase.Earlyandlatelearnerswereselectedaccordingtoscoresonarange
ofFLproficiencytestsatTimes1and2(listeningcomprehensiontask,oral
proficiencytasks,productiveandreceptivevocabularytasks,argumentativeand
narrativeessays,grammaticalityjudgmenttask,seePfenninger,2014a;2014b;
Pfenninger&Singleton,inprep.).FollowingMuñoz(2014),thecriterionfor
selectionintothehighachievementgroups(earlyorlatestart)wasascore
inthe75thpercentileonalltasks.Thecriterionforselectionintothelow
achievementgroups(earlyorlatestart)wasascoreinthe25thpercentileon
alltests.Furthermore,thehigh-achieversallhadgradesatorabove5(6being
thehighestgrade).Followingthesegroupingvariables,weendedupwithfour
groupsof10participants,eachofwhichwastestedatthebeginningandatthe
endofsecondaryschool(Time1andTime2respectively),amountingtoarep-
resentativesampleof40students:10earlylearners,highachievement(ELH);
10earlylearners,lowachievement(ELL);10latelearners,highachievement
(LLH);and10latelearners,lowachievement(LLL).Thisprocedureenabled
ustostudydifferentgroupswithinthedesign,thatis,earlyvs.latestarters,
youngervs.olderstudents,andthemostsuccessfullearnersvs.theleastsuc-
cessfullearnersinthesample.
Taskandprocedure.Weaskedourparticipantstowritea200-wordlan-
guageexperienceessaysothatwecoulddirectlyhearfromthesestudentsin
theirownwordswhatitwasliketostartstudyingaFLrelativelyearlyand
relativelylaterespectively.Wechosethistaskbecauseexploringparticipants’
ownperspectivesthroughcertainformsofintrospection,suchasreflective
writing,canhelpusunderstandwhich(contextual)elementsmayberelevant
tomotivationinagivenclassroom.Ushioda(2009,p.216),forexample,
writesthat“individualdifferenceresearchcantellusverylittleaboutparticular
studentssittinginourclassroom,athome,orintheself-accesscenter,about
howtheyaremotivatedornotmotivatedandwhy.”Whilestudentperspectives
haveoccupiedacentralpositioninsocialconstructivistapproachestoeduca-
tion(e.g.,Brooks&Brooks,2000;Larochelleetal.,2009)aswellasinthe
advocacyofautonomyintheclassroom(e.g.,Cotterall&Crabbe,2008;Little,
