EUN KYOUNG LEEGYEONGGI ACADEMY OF FOREIGN LAN -

GUAGES, SOUTH KOREA

Factors Influencing the Acqui-sition of English as a Second

Language

Table of Contents

Introduction Research Question Motivation for Research Research Purposes

Theoretical Background Age in Second Language Acquisition English-only Kindergartens in South Korea Other Factors that Affect a Second-language-learner’s English

Proficiency Research Methods

Research Design Subjects & Materials Procedure Results

Discussion & Conclusion References & Acknowledgement

Introduction

Research Question

What factors affect the acquisition of English grammar of children learning English as a sec-ond language?

Does the starting age have an influence? How about the hours children spend

each day on learning English? What is the relationship between such

factors and a child’s English proficiency, specifically, related to grammatical knowledge?

Motivation for Research

South Korea: high enthusiasm towards learning English as a second language

Students, parents, teachers lots of effort into English education

Is all that effort into early childhood English edu-cation necessary? How about English academies?

What are some effective ways people can learn English as their second language?

HOWEVER!

Research Purposes

Determine factors that could possibly influence a child’s ac-quisition of English as a second language

Guide teachers, parents, students in finding the most effec-tive ways to acquire English as a second language

Factors to be ExaminedInitial age of learning English

Past attendance of English-only kindergarten

Years of attending English-only kindergarten

Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)

Attitude towards English education at school

Current attendance of English academies

Experience of living in an English-speaking country

Overall attitude towards learning English

Hypothesis

Factors to be Examined Hypothesized to have an Effect

Initial age of learning English V

Past attendance of English-only kindergarten

Years of attending English-only kindergarten V

Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)

Attitude towards English education at school

Current attendance of English academies V

Experience of living in an English-speaking country V

Overall attitude towards learning English V

Theoretical Background

Age in Second Language Acquisition

Lenneberg (1967) The critical period: “a biologically determined period

of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire”

Johnson and Newport (1989) “success in learning is almost entirely predicted by

the age at which it begins.”

Increased passion for early English educa-tion in many nations.

English-only Kindergartens in South Korea

Yang (2004) Students who had received early English education

performed better on the English listening test taken compared to those who had not

The difference was minor

Questions the effectiveness of early child-hood English education (e.g. the attendance of English-only kindergartens)

HOWEVER!

Other Factors that Affect aSecond-language-learner’s English Proficiency

Johnson and Newport (1989) “no significant effect of the number of years of ex-

posure on language performance for learners be-yond the first few years of exposure”

“the correlations show a strong relationship be-tween these attitudinal variables and both test score and age of arrival”

initial age does not matter motivation was a factor that caused better

English performance.

Research Methods

Research Design

Experimental research Testing of grammatical

knowledge of the sub-jects

Survey that asks for the background information of each participant

Subjects

60 5th grade elementary school students randomly recruited from a local elementary school

Materials

Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) – listen-ing version Popular data collection method used by many re-

searchers Tests subjects’ implicit grammatical knowledge

In this research: Tests 3 grammatical features (30 questions each)

Word order (I ate an apple / I an apple ate*) Question (Do you know? / You do know?*) Negation (I do not see it / I no see it*)

Materials

Language Background Questionnaire (LBQ) A set of questions that asks for the subjects’ back-

ground information (especially related to English edu-cation)

Used to examine factors that might have influenced the subjects’ English grammatical knowledgeFactors to be Examined

Initial age of learning English

Past attendance of English-only kindergarten

Years of attending English-only kindergarten

Frequency of attending English-only kindergarten (per week)

Attitude towards English education at school

Current attendance of English academies

Experience of living in an English-speaking country

Overall attitude towards learning English

Procedure

1. Construct questions for the GJT and LBQ2. Record GJT questions and make a listening

file3. Recruit subjects4. Subjects listen to the recorded file and write

their answers on the provided answer sheet5. Have all subjects complete the LBQ6. Analyze data and make connections to the

LBQ to see any common factors that might have influenced the scores of the GJT

Data Analysis

Statistical analysis1) Analyze data by examining subjects’ performances on the

GJT & LBQ

2) Grade answer sheets and mark scores of each subject for each grammatical feature (word order, question, negation)

3) Calculate average accuracy for each grammatical feature

4) Record all data on a spreadsheet

5) Conduct correlational analysis: find the correlation between two sets of data (e.g. compare scores between students who enjoy learning English and students who do not)

6) Determine whether the two sets of data showed a correla-tion (refer to the critical values of the Spearman’s ranked correlation coefficient)

Results

Factors that affected subjects’ performances on the GJT

Initial age of receiving English education Past attendance of an English-only kindergarten Attitude towards learning English

Results

Table 1. Correlational Values

FactorsCorrelational

Values (p)

Significant

(│p│≥ 0.255)

Initial age of learning English -0.3888 *

Past attendance of English-only kindergarten -0.3633 *

Years of attending English-only kindergarten 0.14098

Frequency of attending English-only

kindergarten

-0.0968

Attitude towards English education at school 0.02369

Current attendance of English academies -0.0268

Experience of living in an English-speaking

country

-0.0991

Attitude towards learning English -0.6351 *

The correlational value (p) of two sets of data should be at least 0.255 (in absolute value) in order to say that the two sets of data have a correlation

Results

Figure 1. Correlational Values

* values are graphed as absolute values* EOK = English-only kindergarten* red line: minimum correlational value (0.255)

Discussion & Conclusion

Results of this research show that the following factors have an influence on the acquisition of the English gram-matical knowledge by young learners in Korea: Initial age of learning English as a second language

students who started learning English at an earlier age have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who started at a later age.

Experience of attending an English-only kindergarten students who had attended an English-only kindergarten for at

least a year have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who never attended one.

Attitude towards learning English as a second language students who have a positive attitude towards learning English

have higher English grammatical knowledge than those who do not enjoy learning English.

Discussion & Conclusion

Other factors (listed in table below) do not have a significant impact on the acquisition of English grammar:

However, due to the lack of examination of the relation-ships among factors, it cannot be determined whether they affect the English grammatical knowledge alone or along other factors affecting it.

Factors Correlational Values

Years of attending English-only kindergarten 0.14098

Frequency of attending English-only

kindergarten

-0.0968

Attitude towards English education at school 0.02369

Current attendance of English academies -0.0268

Experience of living in an English-speaking

country

-0.0991

Discussion & Conclusion

Limitations Subjects limited to 5th grade elementary school students in Korea

Results may differ for other age groups Only focuses on subjects’ grammatical knowledge

Results may differ for testing other English abilities (e.g. read-ing, speaking abilities)

Further studies Similar to this research with different subjects and English abilities Work as a guide for English learners when deciding how to proceed

with their English education Help learners of English find better and more effective ways to ac-

quire what is now called the global language

References

Brown, H. Douglas (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 4th ed. New York: Pearson.

Gass, S., and Selinker, L. (Eds.) (1992). Language Transfer in Lan-guage Learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Johnson, J., and Newport, E. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: the influence of maturational state on the acqui-sition of ESL. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.

Snow, Catherine E., and Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle (1978). "The Criti-cal Period for Language Acquisition: Evidence from Second Lan-guage Learning." Child Development 4th ser. 49: 1114-128.

Yang, So Yeong (2004). The Effectiveness of Early English Education Seen by the Performance of Elementary School English. Thesis. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 2004. N.p.: n.p. Hankuk Uni-versity of Foreign Studies.

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to… My mother who has been a great guidance throughout

the entire research The local school that willingly participated in this re-

search

THE END