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Background Acquiring a second language is an invaluable skill that allows for travel, trade and diplomacy. Previously in the UK, learning a second language at school was only required in secondary school (aged 11+ years). In 2014, the Department for Education stipulated that children in Key Stage Two (ages 7-10 years) are required to spend a minimum of one hour per week learning a Modern Foreign Language (MFL), such as Spanish, French or German. Whilst this was a step towards increasing the number of multilingual speakers in the UK, a review by Holmes and Myles (2019) found there was significant variation in the amount of time and planning dedicated to MFL lessons across primary schools and this could be explained by the lack of guidance given to teachers on how best to teach MFLs. Therefore, it is important to identify consistent, evidence-based approaches to teaching second languages in order to support both teachers and students in MFL lessons. The first step in learning any new language is to learn individual words and typically this involves learning new labels (spoken word forms) for words that are already known in the primary language of the learner. There is a mounting body of research that shows the benefits of presenting written word forms (orthography) when learning new words (Colenbrander et al., 2019; Ricketts, Bishop & Nation., 2009; Rosenthal & Ehri, 2008). This effect is known as orthographic facilitation. Existing research has focused on first language learning, but orthographic facilitation can generalise to foreign language learning, especially for words where orthography is a reliable cue because there is high consistency between their written and spoken forms (Krepel et al., 2020). Current practices for teaching words in foreign language lessons often do include visual word forms or other visual strategies (Graves, 2017). Yet, the evidence for this approach is limited. Krepel et al. (2020) taught Dutch-speaking children English words. Thus, children who already knew a language that has high consistency between written and spoken forms were taught new words in a language where spelling-sound consistency is lower. The purpose of this study is to see if the orthographic facilitation effect can be replicated in a situation where children who speak English (a less consistent language) learn Spanish (a more consistent language). This study is also novel in testing whether the orthographic facilitation effect translates to classroom teaching. Previously, studies have investigated orthographic facilitation in contexts where teaching is undertaken on an individual basis. In this study, words will be taught to whole classes. Aims 1) Does orthography facilitate learning of Spanish words for English-speaking children? 2) Can orthographic facilitation be observed when teaching is done with whole classes? |
