Impact of the language portfolio on child autonomy in second language acquisition at preschool age

Vičević Ivanović, Sanja. (2017). Impact of the language portfolio on child autonomy in second language acquisition at preschool age. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of German Language and Literature.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij glotodidaktike) [mentor Lutze-Miculinić, Marija].

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Abstract

The study of learner autonomy is characterised by a multitude of theories. Given such heterogeneity, the theoretical framework of learner autonomy in this thesis is based on Reinder's model for autonomous learning. According to this theory, autonomous learning can take place if some conditions are met; for example, from the political aspect, the learner has to have an opportunity to take responsibility for his or her learning. Then, he or she has to be motivated, facing no affective or social obstacles that can constrain learning. This also requires the learner's consciousness of learning which implies the learner's ability to plan, monitor and evaluate his or her learning. In this view, learner autonomy can be defined as the learner's abilities and attitudes regarding planning, monitoring and evaluating his or her own learning in the given social, cultural and political context. Such theoretical considerations imply self-assessment and the use of language learning strategies as the foundations of learner autonomy, and the given attitudes on learner autonomy represent a theoretical and conceptual basis for the study of autonomy in early foreign language learning. Taking into account the studies on self-assessment and the use of language learning strategies in early foreign language teaching that have been carried out in different countries and in Croatia, we can say that the research of learner autonomy in early foreign language learning (i.e. child autonomy in second language acquisition at preschool age) is at its beginnings. There has not been much research on self-assessment in young language learners, apart from research activities related to self-assessment and the European Language Portfolio. Based on the findings from the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Croatia, directly or indirectly related to the European Language Portfolio use, we know that young language learns can carry out self-assessment. On the other hand, review of research on the use of language learning strategies in second language acquisition at preschool age and among young school learners provides evidence regarding the use of language learning strategies and thus enables the raising of awareness of strategy use at that age. Furthermore, building on the results of a research project, which started in 2007 and ended in 2010, on the development of learner autonomy through the European Language Portfolio in Croatian primary education, with Yvonne Vrhovac as the lead researcher, it should be further studied how the implementation of the (European) Language Portfolio could prepare preschool children to monitor their learning, use language learning strategies and self-assess the acquired knowledge. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the impact of the Language Portfolio, defined and conceptualised according to the Croatian European Language Portfolio for learners from 7 to 11 years of age, on autonomy in second language acquisition – which is operationalised in the empirical part of research as the learner's self-assessment and the learner's use of language learning strategies at preschool age. In the quasi-experimental design of the study, data was collected twice – before and after the experimental intervention, by two different instruments. Using the first instrument, language knowledge was measured with 6 questions at the level of listening comprehension, with 6 questions at the level of spoken production and with 6 questions at the level of spoken interaction. These 18 questions were followed by the participants’ self-assessment of accuracy of the given answers using 3 emoticons (happy – showing that the answer is correct, neutral – showing that the answer is either correct or incorrect, sad – showing that the answer is not correct). The second instrument was a structured interview consisting of 6 questions. Participants were asked about how they would teach six plush toys some second language words and structures. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed and the reported strategies were later counted. The sample consisted of 65 participants, 33 from the experimental group and 32 from the control group; the participants were included in the preschool programme for Italian minority in Croatia and in the preschool programme for early learning of French or German. The experimental intervention consisted of the implementation of the Language Portfolio in all three preschool programmes. The results obtained through the self-assessment instrument indicated that preschool children’s assessment of their language proficiency is higher than their actual language proficiency, which we presume is connected to the age of the participants and the favourable context of foreign language learning. Furthermore, preschool children’s self-assessment of language did not change significantly throughout the year, as opposed to their actual language proficiency which did. The reason why the self-assessment of language proficiency did not improve within one year is perhaps that the given period was too short for participants to become more mature and too short to raise awareness of the foreign language learning and teaching processes. In the end, the use of the Language Portfolio in the period of one school year did not affect the self-assessment of preschool children, and the lack of influence of the Language Portfolio on the self-assessment of language proficiency can be explained primarily by the relatively short period of using the Language Portfolio and by the limited frequency of its use, as it is not a part of the preschool programme. The result could also be a consequence of the lack of additional self-assessment activities along the use of the Language Portfolio and of the way self-assessment criteria was designed in the Language Portfolio. We should add that another possible reason for the lack of influence of the Language Portfolio on self-assessment is insufficient training regarding self-assessment at preschool age and a lack of work experience, as well as the insufficient responsiveness of the participants of preschool age to self-assessment. We should not disregard possible sources of invalidity regarding the instrument and experimental manipulation. Based on these findings, we can conclude that developing a legislative background for the implementation of the Language Portfolio in preschool programmes must come before the regulation of Language Portfolio use in preschool education. In addition, self-assessment on the basis of the European Language Portfolio needs to be systematically developed and its implementation needs to be continually integrated on a daily basis throughout a period longer than a school year. It is also very important to find the most developmentally appropriate selfassessment criteria. Seeing that preschool teachers have a crucial role in the implementation of self-assessment on the basis of the European Language Portfolio, it is necessary to enable professional development for preschool teachers on that topic and cooperation among preschool teachers who are interested in promoting self-assessment. Based on the findings, we believe that future practical and research work with the Language Portfolio could be facilitated by the development of a common European Language Portfolio, which primarily means creating a database of common self-assessment criteria. With this in mind, as one of the pedagogical implications of the study, we present a list of descriptors at the level of listening comprehension, spoken production and spoken interaction for A1 at preschool age. On the other hand, in the interviewed sample in this research, the use of 29 learning strategies organised in seven groups was identified – informal strategies, formal strategies, memory strategies, analysing strategies, social strategies, affective strategies and metacognitive strategies. In line with the theoretical framework, these seven groups of language learning strategies are divided according to their function into cognitive strategies (informal strategies, formal strategies, memory strategies and analysing strategies), metacognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies (social and affective strategies). When it comes to language learning strategies that were established in this research to be among the most significant results in terms of the frequency of their identification, we should highlight the finding that at the level of seven groups of language learning strategies, the most frequently named are memory strategies and informal strategies, whereas other language learning strategies are rarely named. Memory strategies, belonging to the group of the most frequent language learning strategies, are probably very typical for this age, whereas the presence of informal learning strategies, which come after memory strategies in terms of frequency, can be explained by exposure to activates that encourage their use. In addition, the less frequent occurrence of social strategies may be typical for the Croatian context of early language learning. The marginally significant more frequent naming of language learning strategies in the second measurement could be explained by the participants’ progression in language proficiency and their maturation. However, considering that in the second measurement the experimental group was less likely to name language learning strategies, the question is how the teaching of these strategies had been approached. As for the diversity in the naming of language learning strategies in the examined sample, the results showed that the naming of language learning strategies is not diversified neither with regard to the measurements nor the groups. It seems that the period of one school year is too short to achieve progress in language proficiency and maturation that could otherwise support the use of diverse language learning strategies. In addition, the tendency of the experimental group to name less diverse language learning strategies might point to the fact that the issue of the approach to teaching language learning strategies remains open and that language learning strategies are one of the individual factors, which means that with a different sample in combination with other individual factors different results might be obtained. The findings that show that the use of the Language Portfolio does not affect neither the frequency of the naming of language learning strategies nor the diversity in their naming show the absence of the effect of the LP on the use language learning strategies among participants, for which several possible reasons have been found. For example, asking the question How did we learn today? after new content had been taught and carrying out selfassessment are probably activities that are not enough to achieve progress in the use of language learning strategies. Moreover, asking the questions How did we learn today? and carrying out self-assessment during one school year is probably too short a period for achieving progress in the use of language learning strategies, especially if we take into account that in the given period time allocated to teaching language learning strategies had also been limited as it is not a part of the preschool programme, in spite of the existing documents that could serve as a foundation. Finally, the lack of professional training in regard to teaching language learning strategies at preschool age and the lack of work experience in that field are obstacles to progress in the use of language learning strategies; in addition, perhaps the participants themselves are not likely to use language learning strategies at that age. We should also bear in mind possible sources of invalidity regarding the instrument and experimental manipulation. Apart from the results mentioned above, the sample brought forth an interesting finding on the decline in the non-naming of language learning strategies in the second measurement, which might indicate a tendency of preschool children to use language learning strategies. Therefore, we can conclude that the existing documents that form a basis for the introduction of teaching language learning strategies should be made more concrete in preschool programmes. Systematic teaching oriented towards raising awareness, practising and the independent use of language learning strategies should be implemented into everyday teaching practice in a period longer than one school year. We should not forget that the preschool teacher has a key role in teaching language learning strategies, which is why it is essential to ensure professional training for preschool teachers. Since the first step towards systematic teaching of language learning strategies is the development of a list of common language learning strategies used at preschool age, one of the pedagogical implications of this study is a list of language learning strategies that is adapted to preschool children in terms of language and content. Examining the connection between language proficiency and self-assessment and the frequency of use of language learning strategies on the sample in the first measurement shows that the participants with higher language proficiency at the level of seven groups of language learning strategies named informal language learning strategies more frequently and that the participants who assessed their language proficiency higher than it actually is, named social strategies more frequently, whereas in the second measurement the participants who assessed their language proficiency higher than it actually is, named formal strategies more frequently. It seems that the participants with higher language proficiency can use their exposure to informal strategies in a better way so that they use them more often, and the participants who assess their language proficiency higher than it actually is, show a greater inclination towards learning a language in social contact due to their higher self-confidence and are more ready to use formal strategies that are characteristic of the school context. Examining correlation between language proficiency and self-assessment and diversity in the use of language learning strategies among participants showed that the participants who assessed their language proficiency higher than it actually is used more diverse language learning strategies; we believe that this is the result of higher self-confidence that makes such participants perhaps more likely to use different language learning strategies. These findings point to the importance of looking at the subjective impression of one’s language proficiency and use of language learning strategies in the discussion of the participants’ objective knowledge and use of language learning strategies. The study on the influence of the Language Portfolio on the autonomy in foreign language learning at preschool age is just the first step in the study of using the (European) Language Portfolio at preschool age in Croatia and it is an attempt to highlight the importance of developing learner autonomy in foreign language learning at preschool age. This thesis was written with the aim of using the findings in the form of clear pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research as a contribution to the positioning of these issues in the focus of interest of researchers and teachers alike.

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