Page 17 - ELG1706 Jun Issue 448

DATA & ANALYSIS
NO CLEAR LINK BETWEEN ‘TIME ON TASK’ AND SUCCESS

TIME ON task, to use the educationalist
term for time learning in class, is generally
one of the strongest predictors for learning
outcomes. Language learning is unlikely
to be an exception. So which European
countries spend the most time learning their
first foreign language and when do they
learn it?
The Eurydice report finds that although
more countries are starting a foreign
language in primary, more time is dedicated
to it in secondary. Research from Germany
(see page 10) suggests this might be
counterproductive: children starting in year
1, who were reliant on learning implicitly
by immersion, were overtaken in lower
secondary school by children who started
two years later. The authors argue that this,
in part, is because children with the early
start did not get enough exposure. Their
teachers’ language level might also be a
factor.
In schooling overall, the countries with
the highest numbers of hours devoted
to language teaching in school – Malta,
Luxembourg and German-speaking
Belgium, are those where the first foreign
language is a medium of instruction at
secondary school. These hours do not
include any Clil and in fact no Clil hours
in any country are recorded in the Eurydice
figures. This means the total number of Figure 2: Relationship between the minimum instruction time
hours of language learning reported for recommended for the rst compulsory foreign language and the number
countries such as Austria, where Clil is of years over which this provision is spread during full-time compulsory
used in the first two years in primary, are general education, 2015/16. (Includes only countries with compulsory minimum)
significantly lower than the total hours of number of hours, around 500. But whereas across 17 European countries. They were
exposure to the language. Romania spreads it out over 11 years, followed by the French, the Poles and the
As the Eurydice data in Figure 3 shows Montenegro squeezes it into just six. Spanish. Sweden, the Netherlands and
clearly, there are two ways of counting So do longer hours result in better Estonia were at the top. Looking at the
time – the total amount of years and the outcomes? It is difficult to tell as schools Eurydice instruction time table, the most
total amount of full hours – and the two don’t report standards in terms of CEFR we can say is that there doesn’t appear to
are not always the same. So, for example, levels. What we do know is that research be a clear correlation between time on task
Montenegro and Romania do a similar has shown British teenagers to be the worst and learning outcomes.

ENGLISH STILL

TOP DOG

ENGLISH STILL dominates language
learning in Europe. In 2014, 97 per cent of
students in lower secondary school studied
it. This number drops to 85 per cent at
upper secondary mostly because fewer
students in vocational and educational
training are required to learn foreign
languages.
The number of students learning English
has risen during the last decade, mostly due
to a 19 per cent increase in those studying Figure 3: Foreign languages learnt by most students, primary and
the language at primary school – which has secondary education (ISCED 1-3).
grown 19 per cent since 2005. and 23 per cent in upper secondary. school, against only 13 per cent among
French, German and Spanish are the The figures for Germany are 23 per cent younger age groups. Numbers for Spanish
popular choices for a second foreign dropping to 19 in the last years of school. are growing, while enrolments for German
language. French was studied by 34 per cent For Spanish, the pattern is reversed with are holding steady and French is showing a
of students in lower secondary education 19 per cent learning it in the last years of slight fall.
editorial@elgazette.com 17

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