Forschungsergebnisse zu Einflussfaktoren auf die Englischfertigkeiten von PrimarschülerInnen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Migrationshintergrunds

In 2004 the Swiss conference of cantonal educational ministers issued a new series of guidelines for foreign language (FL) instruction throughout Switzerland. One of the recommended innovations was to introduce the instruction of a second foreign language in primary schools. The implementation of this policy serves to intensify and prepone FL instruction. As a result of this, the German-speaking cantons of Central Switzerland, Obwalden, Zug, Schwyz and Lucerne, in which the present study is conducted, established the so-called "3/5 model" with the primary school children learning English (L2) from 3rd grade onwards and French (L3) from 5th grade onwards. This school reform is subject to an ongoing public debate. The research project 'Frühenglisch – Überforderung oder Chance?', financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation, analyses the effectiveness of this model. In this contribution selected research findings on the English language skills of the children (listening, reading) after one year of English instruction are presented to demonstrate which individual and contextual factors contribute to the explanation of these skills (n=30 school classes). Using multilevel analysis as a statistical method, different models were developed to analyse the associations between demographic variables (gender, number of languages spoken at home, nationality, number of books at home, etc.), student- and class-related variables, and the target variables. In our study the following factors could be shown to contribute to the explanation of the English listening and reading skills of the 3rd graders: previous language knowledge (reading skills in German, L1), feelings of being overburdened and fear of making mistakes. Additionally, students with special needs, who are following a reduced study plan performed significantly lower than their classmates. More strikingly, children with a binational identification, who identify themselves with Switzerland and another country, performed better than children with a mononational identification (identifying either with Switzerland or another country) in the English listening test.