Hat die Einführung von 'Frühenglisch' in der Primarschule einen Einfluss auf die Motivation der Primarschulkinder Französisch zu lernen?

The introduction of English as the first foreign language (FL) taught in many German-speaking cantons of Switzerland has triggered concerns among educational politicians, academics and teachers that learning English – the global lingua franca – before French will diminish the need to learn another FL and, thus, negatively affect the students' motivation to learn French. A minority also believes, however, that the motivation to learn French may actually profit from previous English instruction as English can function as an icebreaker and stimulate an interest in and openness towards further languages. In this article empirical results from a Swiss National Science Foundation project regarding the influence of previous English instruction on the motivation to learn French among primary school children will be presented. The results show that English instruction from third grade onwards neither exerts a negative nor a positive influence on the subsequent motivation to learn French. It is other factors, such as the learners' language attitudes, their self-concept, gender and the language background of learners, that decisively influence the motivation to learn French.