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Some aspects of foreign language learning
Studies in Educational Evaluation, Vol.6, pp.57-63. © Pergamon Press Ltd. 1980. Printed in Great Britain.
0191-491X/80/{)101-0057 $05.00/0
SOME ASPECTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING Astrid Nystriim Institute of International Education, University of Stockholm
The language learning controversy that raged in Sweden in the late 1960's was heated and fairly confused, for many reasons. One such reason was that terms were used which had not been clearly defined. Moreover, the confusion created among foreign-language teachers concerned both the methods which ought to be applied and whether the same method should be applied for pupils of different language aptitude and academic ability and at all levels of instruction. Dunlop (1975) gave a detailed description of the situation in Sweden. Although, in the general debate, it seemed as if only two methods were discussed, Dunlop identified four types of methods by using IEA data to analyze the teaching of English in Swedish schools in the early 70's. In his book Dunlop stated that "... an extreme Direct Method was not practised widely or consistently in Swedish schools at the time of the survey. This finding is therefore contrary to the belief expressed by many participants in the Language Learning Controversy... It seems more true to state that teachers of English chose aspects of differing methods to suit their perception of the academic ability of the class being taught". While the Dunlop study dealt primarily with what different language teaching methods were actually being used in the teaching of English, the study reported here has tried to clarify some aspects connected with the second part of the debat~ as stated above: whether the same method should be applied for pupils of different language aptitude and academic ability and at all age levels. The data used here are data collected in Sweden, England and Scotland on French as a foreign language as part of the IEA study (Carroll, 1975). The design of the IEA study and the fact that the data on English and French as foreign languages were collected in 1971 made the analysis of the information gathered particularly interesting for the Swedish educational authorities, since it was hoped that the results might highlight some of the problems debated in connection with the language learning controversy. One important finding reported by Dunlop is that, contrary to what might have been believed as a result of the language learning controversy, Swedish teachers of English as a foreign language did not adhere strictly to either inductive or deductive teaching methods. The Nystr~m study on French as a foreign language (1978) adopts Carroll's Model of School Learning (Carroll, 1963) to investigate the relationship between French language proficiency and classroom procedures. Teaching methods, as reported in the IEA data by teachers as well as by students, are included in the concept "Quality of Instruction", which is one of the five variables contained in Carroll's Model, the other four being "Aptitude for learning the task under consideration", "Ability to understand instruction", "Opportunity to learn", and "Perseverance in learning to criterion". The IEA comparative study of French as a foreign language provided a unique opportunity of testing the Carroll model cross-nationally. As pointed out by Hus~n in his Foreword to Carroll (1975), the world can be regarded
57
58
A. N~tr6m
as one big laboratory where widely different education practices with regard to school organization and curriculum provisions are employed. With Carroll's Model of School Learning as a starting-point, limitations of the IEA data had to be considered:
the following
I. To express learning as a function of the ratio of the amount of time spent on the learning task and the amount of time needed to learn the task require: access to data that can be expressed solely in terms of time. With one exception, this is not the case with the IEA Data Bank. Time of exposure to French instruction is the only exception. Consequently, a modified design had to be sought. 2. The opportunity to learn, measured by the number of years of studying French was thoroughly analyzed by Carroll (1975) in the international French report and proved to be an important factor in explaining the level of proficiency achieved. The Nystrbm study takes these findings as its point of departure. 3. The quality of instruction, as well as the individual student characteristic: expressed as ability, aptitude, and perseverance can be investigated by m e a m of the IEA data. The limitations of certain measures should not discourage us from attempting to analyze the existing data, since these aspects are of decisive importance in all curriculum work. The main emphasis in the Nystrbm study is put on the quality of instruction.
THE DESIGN OF THE STUDY The IEA study tested four different student populations, which are reported by Walker (1976). The definitions of populations adopted for the present study are as follows: Population II: Students aged 14 in full-time schooling, who have studied French for 3-4 years (England) or 2-4 years (Scotland) and are currently studying French as a foreign language. Population III: Students belonging to the 9th grade of the Swedish compulsory school who chose French as their second foreign language and who have studied French for 3 years. Population IV: Students in the pre-university year grade of full-time schooling who are currently studying French and who have studied it for 3 years (Sweden C language = third foreign language), for 5-6 years
In o r d e r t o i s o l a t e t h e i n f l u e n c e o f t h e i m p o r t a n t o p p o r t u n i t y - t o - l e a r n variable, g r o u p s w h i c h were h o m o g e n e o u s w i t h r e g a r d t o t h e n u m b e r o f y e a r s t h e y had s t u d i e d F r e n c h were s e l e c t e d . Since foreign-language instruction i n Sweden e m p h a s i z e s t h e s p o k e n l a n g u a g e more t h a n seems t o b e t h e c a s e i n most o f t h e other seven participating n a t i o n s , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e i n f o r m a t i o n on t h e n a t i o n a l e d u c a t i o n a l s y s t e m s p r o v i d e d , i t was v e r y i m p o r t a n t t o i n c l u d e b o t h L i s t e n i n g C o m p r e h e n s i o n and S p e a k i n g t e s t s . A s s u m i n g t h a t l a n g u a g e c o m p e t e n c e c a n b e a c h i e v e d by t r a i n i n g a c o m b i n a t i o n o f b o t h r e c e p t i v e and p r o d u c t i v e s k i l l s b y b o t h o r a l and w r i t t e n m e d i a , t h e f o l l o w i n g p a t t e r n o f d e p e n d e n t v a r i a b l e s was s e l e c t e d : READING Comprehension
LISTENING Comprehension
receptive skills
WRITTEN Composition
SPEAKING Fluency
productive skills
written media
oral media
Aspec~ of Foreign Language Learning
59
The number of students selected for each type of test is shown in Table I at each population level.
T A B L E i:
Number of Students
Number of Students Abbreviations Used For Student Groups Engl Pop II Scotl Pop II Swe Pop III Engl Pop IV Scotl Pop IV Swe Pop IVC Swe Pop IVB
Number of Years Studied French
Reading Compr.
Listening Compr.
Written Compos.
Speaking
3-4 2-4 3 7 5-6 3 6
1355 754 919 577 839 791 609
322 752 909 148 839 773 612
308 745 817 147 835 787 642
72 183 128 65 192 78 76
Since the items from the IEA teacher questionnaires could not be linked to individual students or even to particular classes of students, both independent and dependent variables selected for the study had to be derived from student responses. This inability to line students to their teachers was due to the fact that, in some countries, teachers' unions were suspicious about the utilization of information about the teaching of individual teachers and even thought the test scores could be used by the authorities in checking teacher "efficiency". As a result, however, the number of independent variables that can be used in this study is seriously reduced.
OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN: TIME FACTORS In the Swedish national report on French as a Foreign Language (NystrSm, 1975) it was indicated that the number of years French has been studied must be related to other aspects of the language learning situation. In that report, two groups of Swedish students were compared, both of which had studied French for three years. Group A were 16-year-old students who had taken French as their second foreign language (B-language) and who had studied it for a total of 5+4+4=13 French lessons per week over a period of three years. Group B were 19-year-old students who had taken French as their third foreign language (C-language) and who had studied it for a total of 10-]l lessons per week over a period of three years. These two groups of students were tested by the same IEA instruments. They were split into four groups according to their Word Knowledge test results (score quartiles) and should therefore be comparable with regard to their verbal ability. Figure 1 presents the mean scores and standard deviations for their Reading and Listening Comprehension tests. It appears from these figures that the younger students (Group A) did not achieve quite as high Reading and Listening Comprehension as the older group, who had taken another foreign language before beginning to study French. The same trend was found, although it was not as clear, for the Written Composition tests and the Speaking tests. This investigation supports the propositions advanced in the NystrSm study reported here that learning time, defined as the number of years of student exposure to French instruction, accounts for a considerable portion of variation in proficiency. It also suggests that student age (and earlier experience for foreign language instruction) is another time factor that accounts for a considerable portion of variance.
60
A. Nystr6m
FIGURE i: Means and Standard Deviations according to their word knowledge score) Listening Comprehension
Reading Comprehension 40
for Groups A and B (split into 4 Groups for French Reading Comprehension and
40
Listening Comprehension
i] 30
II
HI
~lj 20
dll d!LI EJrP IL]II ljl,~
d il
II,~ il
if
30
I
3
JI,'1 H
'ql dll
1
I Iid Jl
Jhll
20
U
I
i0
10 I I
U
d -
I
I
A
I
~
B
I
J
A
I
I
B
ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND INSTRUCTION The French as a Foreign Language samples are shown to be selective -- particularly so in Sweden, where the choice of French is closely correlated with socioeconomic background (NystrSm, 1975) -- a fact which restricts the range of the Word Knowledge test scores within each population. In spite of this, an analysis was performed to test the correlation between this verbal ability variable and student achievement in all the four French skills. Earlier IEA research (Carroll, 1975; Peaker, 1975) has shown that the Word Knowledge test consistently accounts for a certain amount of variance in French Reading as well as Listening Comprehension. The NystrSm study advanced the proposition that verbal ability in the mother tongue is highly correlated with French as a foreign language proficiency. Since Carroll (1963) assumes that the ability to understand instruction could be expressed as some combination of "general intelligence" and "verbal ability", the students were divided into three different groups for each population and each nation, according to their scores in the IEA Word Knowledge test. Students belonging to the first quartile were called "Low Ability Students" and those scoring in the fourth quartile "High Ability Students". The fifty per cent belonging to the second and third quartiles were the "Medium Ability Students". To test the proposition, mean scores and standard deviations of all the four French skills for Low, Medium, and High Ability students were calculated and the variations were tested for significance. The difference between these student groups in terms of test scores is significant in almost all cases, also for the Written Composition and Speaking tests, usually at the .001 level; further, with very few exceptions, linearity analyses show no deviation that could not be accepted under the null hypothesis. The fact that the analysis gives linear results shows that students scoring in the Low Ability group on their Word Knowledge test, also achieve low French proficiency in all the four skills, that the Medium Ability groups achieve medium French proficiency, and that the High Ability group achieve high French proficiency. This also seems to confirm the proposition
Aspec~ of Fore~n Language Learnmg
61
offered by the cognitive language learning theories, viz. that we learn languages by insight, by interpretation and by solving problems, and consequently that the development of the mother tongue is of paramount importance to foreign language learning. The development of the mother tongue is also a very important factor for the students' ability to understand the foreign language instruction offered at school. Consequently, these results seem to support the suggestions made by Carroll, referred to above. Carroll also suggests that "this variable (in contrast to pure aptitude variables) is thought of as interacting with the method of instruction in a special and interesting way" (Carroll, 1963).
QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION Teachers and students agree on several issues connected with the teaching strategy problems: one such issue analyzed in this study is that individualized teaching is not practised in French classes in any of the nations involved at any level of instruction. All the students of a teaching unit are taught French in the same way. An analysis of how this affects students of different verbal ability was conducted and reveals some interesting points. The 322 English 14-year-old students who had studied French for 3-4 years were split into three groups (Low, Medium, and High Ability students according to their verbal ability in the mother tongue). The Listening Comprehension achievement of these groups was subjected to analyses of variance. Each group was then divided into three sub-groups as a result of their own estimate of how often French was used in class as the language of instruction CA=often, B=sometimes, and C=rarely or never). The Listening Comprehension achievement of each group was calculated and tested for significant difference between the A, B, and C groups. Figure 2 shows that low ability students (L) who learn French in classes where French is used rarely or never (C) show equally low Listening Comprehension achievement as those who learn French in classes where French is used often CA). The best strategy for that type of student seems to be the use of French "sometimes" (B).
20 H 15
ANOVA TEST for the entire group: differences significant at the .001 level t tests for the sub-groups:
".....
10
"~.
tAB L 3.39 ** (.01) tBC M 2.58 L 2.17
i
A
i
i
B
C
* {.05) * (.05)
FIGURE 2: Listening Comprehension of high, medium and low verbal ability students in England (Population II) by frequency of use of French in class.
62
A. Nystrdm
The same type of analyses for 147 (Population IV) English students at the pre-university level who have studied French for 7 years or more give even more interesting results. While the ANOVA tests for the entire group gave no significant differences, a split into low, medium and high ability students shows how differently they react to the use of English during their French lessons often (A) or sometimes (B) -- very few students estimate English to be used "rarely or never" at that level of instruction. The skill tested is that of Written Composition and the results are shown in Figure 3. .....'
FIGURE 3: Results in Written Composition in French for Population IV English students split according to their Word Knowledge (High, Medium, Low) and h o w often English is used in the c l a s s r o o m
I"""
100 90
80
t tests for the sub-groups
70
tAB M 2.87 ** (.01) L 2.23 * (.05)
60 50
,
A
L
B
~C
Low Ability students (L) of this group achieve significantly better results in French Written Composition if they are taught in classes where their mother tongue (English) is used often (A) than in classes where English is used as the medium of instruction only sometimes (B). On the other hand, Medium Ability students (M) achieve significantly poorer Written Composition results if they are taught French in classes where English is used often (A) than in classes where English is used only sometimes (B). Two propositions advanced in connection with these analyses of the Quality of Instruction factor are that (I) foreign-language teaching strategies stimulating an active student participation during lessons increase the quality of instruction, and that (2) student activity can be promoted by using the foreign language to be learnt as the language of instruction only to the extent that the message is understood by all the students of the teaching unit. In all, 63 breakdown analyses of the type described were conducted, and they seem to support the proposition that foreign-language teaching strategies which stimulate an active student participation during lessons increase the quality of instruction. However, while some analyses show clear differences in the performance of students belonging to the three ability groups, others do not. Results consistent over nations or across levels of instruction would have been more satisfactory. At any rate, it seems reasonable to think that higher quality of French instruction might be achieved, if students of different verbal ability levels by means of some kind of "setting" or grouping could be taught separately when training French skills. IEA data have often been used to compare achievement levels of separate school subjects between nations without due regard to differences between these nations with regard to national educational policy questions. The study reported
Aspects of Foreign Language Learning
63
here is an example of how IEA data can be used to high-light the conflict between national overall educational aims and purely pedagogical issues. The general idea behind the Swedish policy of mixing students in heterogeneous groups is that integration and equality should be achieved between students of different socioeconomic background and ability. However, the analyses reported by Nystr~m show that students are not equal in terms of ability and motivation when they start studying French and that, if they are all indiscriminately subjected to the same teaching strategies, the initial differences increase quickly, leading to dropout. An important policy question, then, to be discussed by Swedish policy makers at the macro level is whether equality between students should be interpreted as equal treatment in school leading to increased difference in achievement between students, or if the students should be offered possibilities of equal achievement by means of different treatment. Do we want French to be spoken by a great number of Swedish citizens in tomorrow's society or only by an ~lite?
REFERENCES CARROLL, J.B. A model of school learning. In Teachers College Record, 1963/64, pp. 723-733, 1963. CARROLL, J.B. The teaching of French as a foreign language in eight countries. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksel] International, 1975. DUNLOP, I. The teaching of English in Swedish schools. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1975. NYSTROM, A. Franska s o m Fr~mmande Spr~k (French as a foreign language). Stockholm: Utbildningsforskning, rapport No 22, Liber L~romede] and Skoloverstyrelsen (National Board of Education), 1975. NYSTROM, A. French as a foreign language -- A comparative study on factors a f f e c t i n g student achievement. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1978. PEAKER, G.F. An empirical study of education in twenty-one countries: A technical report. International Studies in Evaluation, Vol. VIII. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, and New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975. WALKER, D . A . The IEA six subject survey: An empirical study of e d u c a t d o n in twenty-one countries. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, and New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1976.
THE AUTHOR ASTRID NYSTROM is a researcher at the Institute for International Education at the University of Stockholm and also works in the Educational Administration in Karlstad/Sweden.
0191-491X/80/{)101-0057 $05.00/0
SOME ASPECTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING Astrid Nystriim Institute of International Education, University of Stockholm
The language learning controversy that raged in Sweden in the late 1960's was heated and fairly confused, for many reasons. One such reason was that terms were used which had not been clearly defined. Moreover, the confusion created among foreign-language teachers concerned both the methods which ought to be applied and whether the same method should be applied for pupils of different language aptitude and academic ability and at all levels of instruction. Dunlop (1975) gave a detailed description of the situation in Sweden. Although, in the general debate, it seemed as if only two methods were discussed, Dunlop identified four types of methods by using IEA data to analyze the teaching of English in Swedish schools in the early 70's. In his book Dunlop stated that "... an extreme Direct Method was not practised widely or consistently in Swedish schools at the time of the survey. This finding is therefore contrary to the belief expressed by many participants in the Language Learning Controversy... It seems more true to state that teachers of English chose aspects of differing methods to suit their perception of the academic ability of the class being taught". While the Dunlop study dealt primarily with what different language teaching methods were actually being used in the teaching of English, the study reported here has tried to clarify some aspects connected with the second part of the debat~ as stated above: whether the same method should be applied for pupils of different language aptitude and academic ability and at all age levels. The data used here are data collected in Sweden, England and Scotland on French as a foreign language as part of the IEA study (Carroll, 1975). The design of the IEA study and the fact that the data on English and French as foreign languages were collected in 1971 made the analysis of the information gathered particularly interesting for the Swedish educational authorities, since it was hoped that the results might highlight some of the problems debated in connection with the language learning controversy. One important finding reported by Dunlop is that, contrary to what might have been believed as a result of the language learning controversy, Swedish teachers of English as a foreign language did not adhere strictly to either inductive or deductive teaching methods. The Nystr~m study on French as a foreign language (1978) adopts Carroll's Model of School Learning (Carroll, 1963) to investigate the relationship between French language proficiency and classroom procedures. Teaching methods, as reported in the IEA data by teachers as well as by students, are included in the concept "Quality of Instruction", which is one of the five variables contained in Carroll's Model, the other four being "Aptitude for learning the task under consideration", "Ability to understand instruction", "Opportunity to learn", and "Perseverance in learning to criterion". The IEA comparative study of French as a foreign language provided a unique opportunity of testing the Carroll model cross-nationally. As pointed out by Hus~n in his Foreword to Carroll (1975), the world can be regarded
57
58
A. N~tr6m
as one big laboratory where widely different education practices with regard to school organization and curriculum provisions are employed. With Carroll's Model of School Learning as a starting-point, limitations of the IEA data had to be considered:
the following
I. To express learning as a function of the ratio of the amount of time spent on the learning task and the amount of time needed to learn the task require: access to data that can be expressed solely in terms of time. With one exception, this is not the case with the IEA Data Bank. Time of exposure to French instruction is the only exception. Consequently, a modified design had to be sought. 2. The opportunity to learn, measured by the number of years of studying French was thoroughly analyzed by Carroll (1975) in the international French report and proved to be an important factor in explaining the level of proficiency achieved. The Nystrbm study takes these findings as its point of departure. 3. The quality of instruction, as well as the individual student characteristic: expressed as ability, aptitude, and perseverance can be investigated by m e a m of the IEA data. The limitations of certain measures should not discourage us from attempting to analyze the existing data, since these aspects are of decisive importance in all curriculum work. The main emphasis in the Nystrbm study is put on the quality of instruction.
THE DESIGN OF THE STUDY The IEA study tested four different student populations, which are reported by Walker (1976). The definitions of populations adopted for the present study are as follows: Population II: Students aged 14 in full-time schooling, who have studied French for 3-4 years (England) or 2-4 years (Scotland) and are currently studying French as a foreign language. Population III: Students belonging to the 9th grade of the Swedish compulsory school who chose French as their second foreign language and who have studied French for 3 years. Population IV: Students in the pre-university year grade of full-time schooling who are currently studying French and who have studied it for 3 years (Sweden C language = third foreign language), for 5-6 years
In o r d e r t o i s o l a t e t h e i n f l u e n c e o f t h e i m p o r t a n t o p p o r t u n i t y - t o - l e a r n variable, g r o u p s w h i c h were h o m o g e n e o u s w i t h r e g a r d t o t h e n u m b e r o f y e a r s t h e y had s t u d i e d F r e n c h were s e l e c t e d . Since foreign-language instruction i n Sweden e m p h a s i z e s t h e s p o k e n l a n g u a g e more t h a n seems t o b e t h e c a s e i n most o f t h e other seven participating n a t i o n s , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e i n f o r m a t i o n on t h e n a t i o n a l e d u c a t i o n a l s y s t e m s p r o v i d e d , i t was v e r y i m p o r t a n t t o i n c l u d e b o t h L i s t e n i n g C o m p r e h e n s i o n and S p e a k i n g t e s t s . A s s u m i n g t h a t l a n g u a g e c o m p e t e n c e c a n b e a c h i e v e d by t r a i n i n g a c o m b i n a t i o n o f b o t h r e c e p t i v e and p r o d u c t i v e s k i l l s b y b o t h o r a l and w r i t t e n m e d i a , t h e f o l l o w i n g p a t t e r n o f d e p e n d e n t v a r i a b l e s was s e l e c t e d : READING Comprehension
LISTENING Comprehension
receptive skills
WRITTEN Composition
SPEAKING Fluency
productive skills
written media
oral media
Aspec~ of Foreign Language Learning
59
The number of students selected for each type of test is shown in Table I at each population level.
T A B L E i:
Number of Students
Number of Students Abbreviations Used For Student Groups Engl Pop II Scotl Pop II Swe Pop III Engl Pop IV Scotl Pop IV Swe Pop IVC Swe Pop IVB
Number of Years Studied French
Reading Compr.
Listening Compr.
Written Compos.
Speaking
3-4 2-4 3 7 5-6 3 6
1355 754 919 577 839 791 609
322 752 909 148 839 773 612
308 745 817 147 835 787 642
72 183 128 65 192 78 76
Since the items from the IEA teacher questionnaires could not be linked to individual students or even to particular classes of students, both independent and dependent variables selected for the study had to be derived from student responses. This inability to line students to their teachers was due to the fact that, in some countries, teachers' unions were suspicious about the utilization of information about the teaching of individual teachers and even thought the test scores could be used by the authorities in checking teacher "efficiency". As a result, however, the number of independent variables that can be used in this study is seriously reduced.
OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN: TIME FACTORS In the Swedish national report on French as a Foreign Language (NystrSm, 1975) it was indicated that the number of years French has been studied must be related to other aspects of the language learning situation. In that report, two groups of Swedish students were compared, both of which had studied French for three years. Group A were 16-year-old students who had taken French as their second foreign language (B-language) and who had studied it for a total of 5+4+4=13 French lessons per week over a period of three years. Group B were 19-year-old students who had taken French as their third foreign language (C-language) and who had studied it for a total of 10-]l lessons per week over a period of three years. These two groups of students were tested by the same IEA instruments. They were split into four groups according to their Word Knowledge test results (score quartiles) and should therefore be comparable with regard to their verbal ability. Figure 1 presents the mean scores and standard deviations for their Reading and Listening Comprehension tests. It appears from these figures that the younger students (Group A) did not achieve quite as high Reading and Listening Comprehension as the older group, who had taken another foreign language before beginning to study French. The same trend was found, although it was not as clear, for the Written Composition tests and the Speaking tests. This investigation supports the propositions advanced in the NystrSm study reported here that learning time, defined as the number of years of student exposure to French instruction, accounts for a considerable portion of variation in proficiency. It also suggests that student age (and earlier experience for foreign language instruction) is another time factor that accounts for a considerable portion of variance.
60
A. Nystr6m
FIGURE i: Means and Standard Deviations according to their word knowledge score) Listening Comprehension
Reading Comprehension 40
for Groups A and B (split into 4 Groups for French Reading Comprehension and
40
Listening Comprehension
i] 30
II
HI
~lj 20
dll d!LI EJrP IL]II ljl,~
d il
II,~ il
if
30
I
3
JI,'1 H
'ql dll
1
I Iid Jl
Jhll
20
U
I
i0
10 I I
U
d -
I
I
A
I
~
B
I
J
A
I
I
B
ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND INSTRUCTION The French as a Foreign Language samples are shown to be selective -- particularly so in Sweden, where the choice of French is closely correlated with socioeconomic background (NystrSm, 1975) -- a fact which restricts the range of the Word Knowledge test scores within each population. In spite of this, an analysis was performed to test the correlation between this verbal ability variable and student achievement in all the four French skills. Earlier IEA research (Carroll, 1975; Peaker, 1975) has shown that the Word Knowledge test consistently accounts for a certain amount of variance in French Reading as well as Listening Comprehension. The NystrSm study advanced the proposition that verbal ability in the mother tongue is highly correlated with French as a foreign language proficiency. Since Carroll (1963) assumes that the ability to understand instruction could be expressed as some combination of "general intelligence" and "verbal ability", the students were divided into three different groups for each population and each nation, according to their scores in the IEA Word Knowledge test. Students belonging to the first quartile were called "Low Ability Students" and those scoring in the fourth quartile "High Ability Students". The fifty per cent belonging to the second and third quartiles were the "Medium Ability Students". To test the proposition, mean scores and standard deviations of all the four French skills for Low, Medium, and High Ability students were calculated and the variations were tested for significance. The difference between these student groups in terms of test scores is significant in almost all cases, also for the Written Composition and Speaking tests, usually at the .001 level; further, with very few exceptions, linearity analyses show no deviation that could not be accepted under the null hypothesis. The fact that the analysis gives linear results shows that students scoring in the Low Ability group on their Word Knowledge test, also achieve low French proficiency in all the four skills, that the Medium Ability groups achieve medium French proficiency, and that the High Ability group achieve high French proficiency. This also seems to confirm the proposition
Aspec~ of Fore~n Language Learnmg
61
offered by the cognitive language learning theories, viz. that we learn languages by insight, by interpretation and by solving problems, and consequently that the development of the mother tongue is of paramount importance to foreign language learning. The development of the mother tongue is also a very important factor for the students' ability to understand the foreign language instruction offered at school. Consequently, these results seem to support the suggestions made by Carroll, referred to above. Carroll also suggests that "this variable (in contrast to pure aptitude variables) is thought of as interacting with the method of instruction in a special and interesting way" (Carroll, 1963).
QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION Teachers and students agree on several issues connected with the teaching strategy problems: one such issue analyzed in this study is that individualized teaching is not practised in French classes in any of the nations involved at any level of instruction. All the students of a teaching unit are taught French in the same way. An analysis of how this affects students of different verbal ability was conducted and reveals some interesting points. The 322 English 14-year-old students who had studied French for 3-4 years were split into three groups (Low, Medium, and High Ability students according to their verbal ability in the mother tongue). The Listening Comprehension achievement of these groups was subjected to analyses of variance. Each group was then divided into three sub-groups as a result of their own estimate of how often French was used in class as the language of instruction CA=often, B=sometimes, and C=rarely or never). The Listening Comprehension achievement of each group was calculated and tested for significant difference between the A, B, and C groups. Figure 2 shows that low ability students (L) who learn French in classes where French is used rarely or never (C) show equally low Listening Comprehension achievement as those who learn French in classes where French is used often CA). The best strategy for that type of student seems to be the use of French "sometimes" (B).
20 H 15
ANOVA TEST for the entire group: differences significant at the .001 level t tests for the sub-groups:
".....
10
"~.
tAB L 3.39 ** (.01) tBC M 2.58 L 2.17
i
A
i
i
B
C
* {.05) * (.05)
FIGURE 2: Listening Comprehension of high, medium and low verbal ability students in England (Population II) by frequency of use of French in class.
62
A. Nystrdm
The same type of analyses for 147 (Population IV) English students at the pre-university level who have studied French for 7 years or more give even more interesting results. While the ANOVA tests for the entire group gave no significant differences, a split into low, medium and high ability students shows how differently they react to the use of English during their French lessons often (A) or sometimes (B) -- very few students estimate English to be used "rarely or never" at that level of instruction. The skill tested is that of Written Composition and the results are shown in Figure 3. .....'
FIGURE 3: Results in Written Composition in French for Population IV English students split according to their Word Knowledge (High, Medium, Low) and h o w often English is used in the c l a s s r o o m
I"""
100 90
80
t tests for the sub-groups
70
tAB M 2.87 ** (.01) L 2.23 * (.05)
60 50
,
A
L
B
~C
Low Ability students (L) of this group achieve significantly better results in French Written Composition if they are taught in classes where their mother tongue (English) is used often (A) than in classes where English is used as the medium of instruction only sometimes (B). On the other hand, Medium Ability students (M) achieve significantly poorer Written Composition results if they are taught French in classes where English is used often (A) than in classes where English is used only sometimes (B). Two propositions advanced in connection with these analyses of the Quality of Instruction factor are that (I) foreign-language teaching strategies stimulating an active student participation during lessons increase the quality of instruction, and that (2) student activity can be promoted by using the foreign language to be learnt as the language of instruction only to the extent that the message is understood by all the students of the teaching unit. In all, 63 breakdown analyses of the type described were conducted, and they seem to support the proposition that foreign-language teaching strategies which stimulate an active student participation during lessons increase the quality of instruction. However, while some analyses show clear differences in the performance of students belonging to the three ability groups, others do not. Results consistent over nations or across levels of instruction would have been more satisfactory. At any rate, it seems reasonable to think that higher quality of French instruction might be achieved, if students of different verbal ability levels by means of some kind of "setting" or grouping could be taught separately when training French skills. IEA data have often been used to compare achievement levels of separate school subjects between nations without due regard to differences between these nations with regard to national educational policy questions. The study reported
Aspects of Foreign Language Learning
63
here is an example of how IEA data can be used to high-light the conflict between national overall educational aims and purely pedagogical issues. The general idea behind the Swedish policy of mixing students in heterogeneous groups is that integration and equality should be achieved between students of different socioeconomic background and ability. However, the analyses reported by Nystr~m show that students are not equal in terms of ability and motivation when they start studying French and that, if they are all indiscriminately subjected to the same teaching strategies, the initial differences increase quickly, leading to dropout. An important policy question, then, to be discussed by Swedish policy makers at the macro level is whether equality between students should be interpreted as equal treatment in school leading to increased difference in achievement between students, or if the students should be offered possibilities of equal achievement by means of different treatment. Do we want French to be spoken by a great number of Swedish citizens in tomorrow's society or only by an ~lite?
REFERENCES CARROLL, J.B. A model of school learning. In Teachers College Record, 1963/64, pp. 723-733, 1963. CARROLL, J.B. The teaching of French as a foreign language in eight countries. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksel] International, 1975. DUNLOP, I. The teaching of English in Swedish schools. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1975. NYSTROM, A. Franska s o m Fr~mmande Spr~k (French as a foreign language). Stockholm: Utbildningsforskning, rapport No 22, Liber L~romede] and Skoloverstyrelsen (National Board of Education), 1975. NYSTROM, A. French as a foreign language -- A comparative study on factors a f f e c t i n g student achievement. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1978. PEAKER, G.F. An empirical study of education in twenty-one countries: A technical report. International Studies in Evaluation, Vol. VIII. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, and New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975. WALKER, D . A . The IEA six subject survey: An empirical study of e d u c a t d o n in twenty-one countries. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, and New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1976.
THE AUTHOR ASTRID NYSTROM is a researcher at the Institute for International Education at the University of Stockholm and also works in the Educational Administration in Karlstad/Sweden.