Page 21 - ELG1801 Jan Issue 453

FEATURES & COMMENT

English? It doesn’t look like it. Percentage of 15 year-olds at B1-B2 in English
Speakers of Germanic languages appear to
have trouble with Romance languages. Two L2 (at B1+)
communities in Belgium, the Flemish and the 90-80%
German speakers, study French as their first 80-60%
language, and neither get anywhere near a B1
average in it. 60-40%
In the case of the Flemish, this may be 40-30%
because of their desire to form a separate 30-20%
state.
German-speaking Belgians, though, are 20-10%
reportedly determined for Belgium to remain
united. Surrounded as they are by French-
speaking Belgians, they have an enormous
amount of exposure to the language.
But the problem some Belgians have with Sweden 82% Estonia 61%
French is certainly not because they are bad
at language learning more generally.
When you look at the level they achieve
in their second foreign language, English,
you can see that, like their Flemish-speaking
countryfolk, they smash the B1 barrier.
If we look carefully at the table we can see Netherlands 66%
that the biggest predictor of ability to learn Belgium 29% Poland 31%
English is not the number of hours spent
in the classroom but the language family to
which someone’s first language belongs. France 14% Slovenia 54%
Speakers of Germanic languages all reach
B1 or higher in English, another Germanic Croatia 47%
language, by the age of fifteen. And as for Bulgaria 35%
those who speak a Romance language – none
of them do. Portugal 32%
Indeed, apart from Poland, every single Greece 48%
country in the bottom third of the table for Spain 27%
English are Romance speakers. Most Slavs,
the Greeks and even the Estonians and Malta 82%
Maltese, who have languages that are not
even Indo-European, do better.
And it works the other way round too. Percentage of learners reading B1/B2 at age 15
The Swedes are rubbish at Spanish, while the
Belgian French are below par in English. And L2 Min.
as for the Spanish, by the age of fifteen they Country from compulsory L2 (at B1/2) L3 (at B1/2)
have spent nine years desperately trying to age hours (L2)
learn English, with over 40 per cent of them Sweden (Germanic) 7 480 English (82%) Spanish (4%)
also doing private lessons. And they still don’t
hit B1. Yet, according to the EU test results, Malta (Non Indo European) 6 1316 English (82%) Italian (35%)
significantly more reach that level in French Netherlands (Germanic) 10 School choice English (66%) German (48%)
after only two years.
Of course, there are other reasons we could Estonia (Non Indo- 7 551 English (61%) German (25%)
find for the difference in outcomes – cultural, European)
political and the simple question of who dubs Slovenia (Slavic) 10 492 English (54%) German (25%)
their television and who subtitles it.
But the fact remains that Romance- English (48%) French (11%)
language speakers struggle more with Greece (Indo-European) 9 473
Germanic languages than other European
speakers – even, perhaps, when they live in a Croatia (Slavic) 8 525 English (47%) German (13%)
Germanic-speaking country. A 2017 study in Bulgaria (Slavic) 8 551 English (35%) German (21%)
the US, reported in Education Week, showed
that Spanish-speaking English learners take Portugal (Romance) 9 579 English (32%) French (11%)
longer, even than Chinese and Koreans, to Belgium French (Romance) 11 485 English (29%) German (37%)
acquire the level of academic English to do
well at school. Poland (Slavic) 7 537 English (31%) German (6%)
So, how long does it take to learn English?
It depends on your first language. Spain (Romance) 6 805 English (27%) French (29%)
France (Romance) 7 783 English (14%) Spanish (11%)
MELANIE BUTLER Belgium German 7 1153 French (29%) English (58%)
Editor at large (Germanic)
@MelanieButler_E Belgium 6 School choice French (19%) English (80%)
Flemish (Germanic)
editorial@elgazette.com 39