Multilingual Matters Learning Foreign Languages in Primary School: Research Insights (Second Language Acquisition): 115

This book presents research on the learning of foreign languages by children aged 6-12 years old in primary school settings. The collection provides a significant and important contribution to this often overlooked domain and aims to provide research-based evidence that might help to inform and develop pedagogical practice. Topics covered in the chapters include the influence of learner characteristics on word retrieval; explicit second language learning and language awareness; meaning construction; narrative oral development; conversational interaction and how it relates to individual variables; first language use; feedback on written production; intercultural awareness raising and feedback on diagnostic assessment. It will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, teachers and stakeholders who are interested in research on how children learn a second language at primary school. Review This fascinating collection provides a wealth of research focused on foreign language learners aged 6-12. An eye-opener on what children are capable of in linguistic, social and cognitive domains of learning, instructed and unassisted. This much needed work does indeed provide important insights for educators and researchers. I found my book of the year! --Jenefer Philp, Lancaster University, UK This volume responds to the need for evidence-based insights on the learning and teaching of foreign languages in school-based programs for young children. With contributions on linguistic, social, cognitive, and curricular dimensions of the foreign language experience, explored from a range of methodological orientations, it is a rich source of information for both language researchers and educators. --Laura Collins, Concordia University, Canada About the Author Maria del Pilar Garcia Mayo is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. She is the convener of the research group Language and Speech (http://www.laslab.org) and the academic director of the MA in Language Acquisition in Multilingual Settings. Her research interests include the second/third language acquisition of English morphosyntax, the study of conversational interaction and task-based language learning. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Learning Foreign Languages in Primary School Research Insights By María del Pilar García Mayo Multilingual Matters Copyright © 2017 María del Pilar García Mayo and the authors of individual chapters All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-78309-810-1 Contents Contributors, vii, Introduction María del Pilar García Mayo, xiii, 1 Factors Affecting the Speed of Word Retrieval in Children Learning English as a Foreign Language Ting Zhao and Victoria A. Murphy, 1, 2 Raising Children's Metalinguistic Awareness to Enhance Classroom Second Language Learning Angela Tellier and Karen Roehr-Brackin, 22, 3 The Development of Language Awareness at the Transition from Primary to Secondary School Carmen Muñoz, 49, 4 Learning How to Mean in Primary School CLIL Classrooms Ana Llinares, 69, 5 Benefits and Limitations of Conversational Interactions among Young Learners of English in a CLIL Context Amparo Lázaro Ibarrola and María de los Ángeles Hidalgo, 86, 6 Gender and Age in Child Interaction in an EFL CLIL Context: An Exploratory Study Agurtzane Azkarai and Ainara Imaz Agirre, 103, 7 Exploring Early EFL: L1 Use in Oral Narratives by CLIL and Non-CLIL Primary School Learners Elisabet Pladevall-Ballester and Alexandra Vraciu, 124, 8 Narrative Development in L1 and FL: A Longitudinal Study among Young Chinese Learners of English Yuko Goto Butler, Yeting Liu and Heejin Kim, 149, 9 A Two-Year Longitudinal Study of Three EFL Young Learners' Oral Output: The Development of Syntactic Complexity and Accuracy Anna Bret Blasco, 176, 10 Reformulation as a Problem-Solving Space for Young EFL Writers: A Longitudinal Study of