Studies on the Models of Children’s Foreign Language Education〔*〕

Li Qingzhao

(College of Foreign Languages Suzhou University，Suzhou Anhui234000)

Ⅰ．Introduction

Every primary school in China has launched English courses since 2001．On that year，the Ministry of Education clearly stipulates that“primary schools can have English courses in the third grade;well－prepared schools may teach English in the first grade”．Then，with English education booming in primary schools，kindergartens have implemented“bilingual education”as well．The results of“bilingual kindergarten”on Baidu map on January 31，2015 show the number in Beijing，Shanghai，Tianjin，Shenyang and Changchun is 619，122，177，255 and 225 respectively．Promoted by early English education policy，more and more teachers and parents tend to choose age 3 or earlier as the start point for children to learn English at class．However，is learning English really“the earlier the better”This paper，via combing series of empirical studies of foreign language learning，analyzes models of domestic children’s foreign language education and provides reference for domestic educational policy makers，educators and parents．

Ⅱ．Foreign bilingual research

Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis(CPH)〔1〕in language learning aroused researchers’attention in the field of national education，linguistics and psychology，etc．Age of learners became a hot factor in second language acquisition．In recent fifty years，studies on age factors has experienced mature period，prosperous period and rational period，mainly in aspects of initial speed，the processing mechanism，the final results and the possibility of reaching to the native equivalent language level．

In 1970s，most researchers such as Krashen〔2〕found that adults’initial speed in second language acquisition is higher than that of children，〔3〕while some researchers believed that children’s initial speed is superior to that of adults，〔4〕and some researches indicated that，in the initial stages of second language acquisition，there is no significant differences between adults and children．〔5〕

Since the initial speed is not sufficient to explain the validity of critical period，it’s replaced by studies on acquisition process and mechanism and the final achievements in 1990s．

Brain imaging technology and ERP technology are used in studies on the process of language acquisition．From the perspective of neurocognitive process，bilingual acquisition is compared with monolingual acquisition to see whether they adopt the same cognitive mechanism．Most studies，such as empirical studies of vocabulary，〔6〕sentence generation，〔7〕lexical meaning and inference，〔8〕have shown that the degree of bilingual processing automation is lower than the monolingual processing;in control tasks，bilingual and monolingual processing initiate different language areas，early bilinguals exert influence on neural circuit in brain executing control tasks;〔9〕the critical period is not critical in second language acquisition．

There are different findings in studies of starting time and the possibility of reaching to the native equivalent language level:only earlier starters can achieve authentic language as native speakers;〔10〕both earlier starters and late starters can reach native speakers language level;〔11〕neither earlier starters nor late starters can reach to the level of native speakers．〔12〕

In the related empirical research of final effect，Johnson and Newport in 1989 conducted researches on Chinese and South Korea adult English learners by doing grammatical judgments，their conclusions support the critical period hypothesis．However，different conclusions occurred when subjects were divided according to different age．Singleton in 2004 summed up the results in America foreign language teaching in primary school and middle school project，found that students who learn a foreign language in primary school do not have obvious advantages to those in middle schools．The correlation between the initial age and final results is not strong enough．

The visible common conclusions are:the rate and the final results of SLA are influenced by age factors;phonological acquisition is influenced by the critical period．But the critical period hypothesis can’t exactly explain age itself and learning results and age effect in other areas is still lack of unified answers with controversy．

Ⅲ．Domestic bilingual research

Many scholars at home have conducted researches concerning whether English teaching and learning in children is“the earlier the better”．Gui Shichun doubted the practicesof“learning foreign languagesatprimary school”，as the hypothesis that foreign languages should be learned“the earlier the better”lack sufficient basis or grounds in terms of theory and actual application;Zhao Shikai verified，with his own personal experiences，that foreign language at kinder garden and primary schools don’t seem to play significant role in facilitating his language abilities．Dong Yanping considers that there is no tremendous need to learn foreign languages from the period of primary school education based on the survey of education conditions in primary school in Guangdong Province．Wang Qiang stated that there was a successive argument concerning the grounds and effects of English curriculum policies in primary school．The decision was made by the government that English curriculum was established in primary school，which is short of enough basis of academic studies and trial experiments in particular areas．One of Huang Huaifei’s retrospective study disproved the proposition that“English learning is the earlier the better”，and proposed the teaching and learning of English mainly based on classroom teaching—such early learning cannot guarantee that a learner obtain better English points at different stages．Chen Hsuanchih proved that“the earlier the better”model of children’s foreign language teaching may affect the training of talents if bilingualism was undertaken too early．

1．Research Background

Bilingual education background across the Straits favors bilingual researches．Bilingual education in Hong Kong begins from the stage of kinder garden(at the age of 3)with systematic teaching，which is earlier than that in other countries(such as America)and areas．Taiwan begins from primary school(age 6 －10)also with systematic bilingual education．Bilingual education in mainland begins from primary school(age 7－11)with two languages in teaching．Recently，it advances to age 3 influenced by the research achievements in the domain of Language Acquisition in bilingual context．

2．Concept－mediation model in understanding cognitive process

Kirsner，Smith，Lockhart，King and Jain〔13〕conducted a series of experiments，testing the model of word representation and process，which includes concept－mediation model in language construction．The argument of this is that the object in concept is employed to connect different languages no matter how many types of knowledge representation．The concept－ mediation model also states that the bilinguals’lexicons are connected psychologically through changing the concepts．Based on the connected concepts，subjects can deal with various tasks involving pictures and words，such as words judgment and naming．The model as such obtains the verification from an array of behavioral evidence．Snodgrass and McCollough〔14〕employed a similar model explaining the influence of specific modality and free modality on surface representation．Chen Hsuanchih〔15〕conducted an experiment dealing with the semantic convenience of Chinese and English bilingual users and priming effect in translation，which verified that the concept－mediation model exists in different languages．

3．Implication of a contrastive trial

Swedish linguist Ellis employed experiment of Stroop task and color naming to survey bilinguals’language cognition．The subjects were Swedish Germans immigrants，and they can use German(mother tongue)or Svenska in naming．Ellis〔16〕found German(mother tongue)produces greater intervention for those newly immigrants;and after living in Sweden for a long time，their Svenska intervened greatly．The findings of this experiment shows that bilinguals’common used language cannot always be their mother tongue;the daily used language，the language they are more familiar with，are their main language．Thereby，the degree of familiarity is a significant variable for subjects．

Chen took the subjects of English－Chinese bilinguals in Hong Kong with similar variables and materials．The findings are:Chinese(mother tongue)produced more intervention no matter how these subjects are familiar with English，when he used Chinese as a test．The result supported the conclusion that commonly used language produces greater intervention，and also predicted that Chinese(commonly used language)still creates more intervention when the researcher conducted the test in English．However，the result shows that all the subjects whose commonly used languages are Chinese(mother tongue)，were intervened more by English after a period of English learning．Such a result differs from that of Ellis dealing with Svenska and German(see Table 1)．

The results of the contrastive trial show that Chinese/English bilinguals and German/Svenska bilinguals feature distinctively．It cannot be predicted that the result of a particular bilingual research is the same with that of another one．It may produce different representations for different subjects and bilingual languages in the same task．It reflects that the cognitive system of human beings will change due to linguistic features．Thereby，the bilingual policies or learning in a particular area cannot apply the research findings from other areas directly．

Table 1 The comparison between different bilingual subjects in the experiment of Stroop task and color naming

4．Factors influencing the cognition of bilinguals

A naming experiment was conducted to find out the influence of age and the degree of familiarity of mother language on foreign language learning．〔17〕The experiment used three groups of subjects:skilled bilinguals，adults who just began to learn a foreign language and children who began to learn a foreign language(control group)．The subjects’reaction to picture and words were tested．Chen found that:(1)skilled bilinguals reacted faster to the words than they did to pictures in mother tongue，their reaction time of picture in foreign language was the same with that of words in foreign language;(2)for the two groups who just began to learn a foreign language，adults reacted faster to words than they did to pictures in mother tongue，while children reacted faster to pictures than they did to words in mother tongue．For the naming task in foreign languages，the reaction time of both adults and children is the same in pictures and words form．

Assuming the reason why the experiment produced the second finding is that children didn’t master words(mother tongue)and they could only learn through picture as a strategy;while adults were good at words(mother tongue)and they could learn by using words．The same experiment was conducted by making subjects to learn a new language(French)．The findings verify the assumption above．It can be concluded from the two experiments that age is not the critical factor affecting foreign language learning;learning strategies，the new language and the degree of proficiency in mother tongue are important variables．

Ⅳ．Discussions

1．Not simply borrowing from other countries

It is not verified by predominant researches with hard evidence that the earlier to learn a foreign language the better it is，given the various bilingual researches both home and abroad．Although Curtiss confirmed that“critical period”did exist in language learning based on his longitudinal study of Ge-nie，critical period hypothesis is based on mother tongue，not a foreign language．Johnson conducted the same experiment by reusing the testing materials in 1989 and the same subjects for comparison．He found that negative relationship between the age when subjects reach the level of the target language and their test result was appreciably weakened．Birdsong and Molis also employing the testing result of Johnson and Newport in 1989 took Spanish learners as subjects．He found no evidence proved there was a relationship between the age when subjects reach the level of the target language and the test result．Chen Hsuanchih made a different research conclusion employing the method which was taken by Ellis taking the subjects of German－Svenska bilinguals．These researches show that different language contexts produce different results for different bilinguals．Lecumberri pointed out it was important to distinguish from second language context and foreign language context since there was an enormous gap in reality between the two types of contexts．Bilingual studies abroad take the foreign languages which belong to the Indo － European family of languages，as their second languages．Also their foreign language and their mother tongue belong to the same family of languages．While bilingual learning in China is exposed in the context of Chinese，which differs from the foreign language learning in the second language context abroad．Furthermore，a distance emerges as Chinese and English belong to different families of languages:Sino－Tibetan languages and Indo－European family respectively．Thereby，it cannot simply making policies for children’s foreign language education based on the experiment results from other areas directly．

2．Age is not a critical factor in English learning

Regarding the empirical studies concerning starting points of foreign language learning both home and abroad，the author sorted their results in different language context，with different inter－ language distance as below:

Table 2 Contrast among different studies arguing“the earlier learning the better it will be”in different language contexts

Thereby，some studies confirm that“the younger one learns a foreign language，the better it will be”，but the results of many studies also show the advantage is only reflected on some English techniques;what’s more，such advantages will probably disappear with the time goes on．Late learners can catch up and even obtain better results than early learners do;some researches also verify no differences exist between late learners and early learners．For example，Lecumberri and Mayo〔18〕in their study of Spanish users discovered that the earlier learning of foreign languages doesn’t mean the better it would be in the context of mother tongue．Late learners can also obtain higher points．Burstall’s ten year’s study under NFER Program in the UK，found that children’s advantage tested at age 13 almost disappeared at age 16．These children began to learn French in primary school．While those who learn French in a middle school could catch up and even surpass the early learners．The research report from Ellis also show that teenagers and children’s grammar learning and writing techniques will be equally advantaged，or even better than that of early foreign language learners．Other researchers such as Snow and Bialystok considered that late learners and early learners possess higher attention control level and stronger ability of linguistic knowledge analysis．Thereby，“The sooner the better”hypothesis of learning foreign language itself is controversial，and there is no strong evidence to support it．Age is not the important factor that affects foreign language learning．

Ⅴ．Conclusions

A number of empirical studies of age in foreign language learning at home and abroad cannot validate that age is the key factor deciding the achievement of foreign language learning．Learning strategies and interlingual distance between different languages and competency of language are all important factors that cannot be ignored．Chinese and English belong to different language family，and foreign research results cannot be directly“applied”in China as the early bilingual policy guidance．Most Chinese misbelieve“the sooner the better”of foreign language learning in the Chinese context and implement English education in early stage．Such practices interfere with learners’grasp of mother tongue，which are not conducive to the students’intelligence use，and the economic and intellectual investment will be wasted．

Mainland，in its bilingual education reform，can draw lessons from the reform in Taiwan and Hong Kong，correcting“English learning the earlier the better”and the practice of“one size fits all”which disregards the actual circumstances，and making realistic，scientific strategies for children’s foreign language education．A school can open English classes and use models according to its specific needs．Follow － up empirical researches will be conducted in some range，to survey the models of foreign language learning in depth．

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