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EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SCHOOL CONTEXTS
Series Editor: Janet Enever, Umeå University, Sweden
The early learning of languages in instructed contexts has become an increas-
ingly common global phenomenon during the past 30 years, yet there
remains much work to be done to establish the field as a distinctive area for
interdisciplinary investigation. This international research series covers chil-
dren learning second, foreign and additional languages in educational con-
texts between the ages of approximately 3 and 12 years. The series will take
a global perspective and encourage the sharing of theoretical discussion and
empirical evidence on transnational issues. It will provide a platform to
address questions raised by teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers
who are seeking understanding of theoretical issues and empirical evidence
with which to underpin policy development, implementation and classroom
procedures for this young age group. Themes of particular interest for the
series include: teacher models and teacher development, models of early lan-
guage learning, policy implementation, motivation, approaches to teaching
and learning, language progress and outcomes, assessment, intercultural
learning, sustainability in provision, comparative and transnational perspec-
tives, cross-phase transfer issues, curriculum integration – additional sugges-
tions for themes are also most welcome.
Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can
be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to
Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1
2AW, UK.

EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SCHOOL CONTEXTS: 1
Early Language Learning
Complexity and Mixed Methods
Edited by
Janet Enever and Eva Lindgren
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

DOI: 10.21832/ENEVER8316
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Enever, Janet, editor. | Lindgren, Eva, editor.
Title: Early Language Learning in School Contexts:
Complexity and Mixed Methods/Edited by Janet Enever and Eva Lindgren.
Description: St Nicholas House: Bristol; Blue Ridge Summit, PA,
USA: Multilingual Matters, [2017] | Series: Early Language Learning in
School Contexts: 1 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007051| ISBN 9781783098316 (hbk : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781783098309 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783098347 (kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages—Study and teaching (primary)—Foreign
countries. | Language acquisition—Foreign countries. | Language
acquisition—Age factors.
Classification: LCC P57.E8 E275 2017 | DDC 372.65—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007051
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-831-6 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-830-9 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA.
Website: www.multilingual-matters.com
Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters
Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com
Copyright © 2017 Janet Enever, Eva Lindgren and the authors of individual chapters.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without permission in writing from the publisher.
The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are
natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable for-
ests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, prefer-
ence is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC
and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted
to the printer concerned.
Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India.
Printed and bound in the UK by Short Run Press Ltd.
Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.
In memory of our good friend and colleague Magdalena Szpotowicz

v
Contents
Figures and Tables vii
Contributors xi
1 Introduction: Mixed Methods in Early Language Learning Research
– Examining Complexity 1
Eva Lindgren and Janet Enever
Part 1: Overviews of Research Findings
2 Early Language Learning in Complex Linguistic Settings: Insights
from Africa 9
Agatha J. van Ginkel
3 Considering the Complexities of Teaching Intercultural
Understanding in Foreign Languages 24
Patricia Driscoll
4 Literacy Development in Children with English as an Additional
Language (EAL) 41
Victoria A. Murphy
Part 2: Empirical Studies Using Mixed Methods
5 Verbal Working Memory and Foreign Language Learning in English
Primary Schools: Implications for Teaching and Learning 65
Alison Porter
6 Piecing Together the Jigsaw: Understanding Motivations of English
Learners in Chinese Primary School through a Questionnaire
and Elicited Metaphor Analysis 85
Jiang Changsheng, Zhang Jie, Liang Xiaohua, Yuan Yuan and Xie Qun
7 Codeswitching Your Way to Language Learning? Receptive
Codeswitching with Digital Storybooks in Early Language
Learning 108
Judith Buendgens-Kosten, Ilonca Hardy and Daniela Elsner

8 Individual Differences and English L2 Learning in Two Primary
Classrooms in France 127
Heather Hilton
9 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): A Panacea
for Young English Language Learners? 145
Karmen Pižorn
Part 3: Longitudinal Perspectives Using Mixed Methods
10 The Dynamics of Motivation Development among Young
Learners of English in China 167
Yuko Goto Butler
11 Young Italian Learners’ Foreign Language Development:
A Longitudinal Perspective 186
Lucilla Lopriore
12 Employing Mixed Methods for the Construction of Thick
Descriptions of Early Language Learning 201
13 Developmental Aspects of Early EFL Learning 222
Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović
Part 4: Evaluating Early Language Learning Programmes
14 Child EFL Interaction: Age, Instructional Setting and Development 249
María del Pilar García Mayo and Ainara Imaz Agirre
15 Evaluating the Educational Outcomes of an Early Foreign Language
Programme: The Design of an Impact Study for the Primary
English Programme in Mexico 269
Peter Sayer, Ruth Ban and Magdalena López de Anda
16 The Development of a Curriculum-Based C-Test for Young EFL
Learners 289
Raphaela Porsch and Eva Wilden
17 Mixed Methods in Early Language Learning Research 305
Janet Enever and Eva Lindgren
Index 315
vi Early Language Learning

vii
Figures and Tables
Figures
Figure 2.1 Comprehension scores Dutch, English, Pokomo and
Sabaot (Graham & Van Ginkel, 2014) 12
Figure 2.2 English scores of the Kom L1 based bilingual programme
(Walter & Trammel, 2010) 13
Figure 2.3 Primary school English proficiency in Ethiopia (American
Institute for Research, 2012) 15
Figure 4.1 PIRLS 2006: Reading scores by immigrant status at
age 10 (OECD, 2012: 4) 44
Figure 4.2 The multiword phrase test (Smith & Murphy, 2015) 50
Figure 5.1 Test scores of higher and lower verbal working memory
participants 75
Figure 5.2 Sample attempts at French spellings (extract 1) 76
Figure 6.1 Yr 1/Yr 3 motivational differences 95
Figure 6.2 Yr 1/Yr 3 intrinsic/extrinsic motivation (mean) 96
Figure 6.3 The major types of source domains for intrinsic/
extrinsic-motivation metaphors 98
Figure 7.1 MuViT screenshot 110
Figure 7.2 Simple examples of macro- and micro-switches 113
Figure 7.3 Number of macro-switches, plotted by duration in
seconds and distance in forward pages 115
Figure 9.1 The distribution of communication, content and
cognition dimensions 157
Figure 10.1 Students’ mean responses by time (grade levels) and
SES (mother’s educational level) 174

Figure 11.1 Learners’ perceptions of the FL difficulties at
age 13 192
Figure 11.2 Learners’ explanations for their comparison to their
friends at age 13 193
Figure 11.3 Exposure to and use of English at home (age 13) 194
Figure 11.4 Exposure to and use of English at home: Opportunities
(age 13) 194
Figure 11.5 Surfing the internet at home (age 13) 195
Figure 11.6 Exposure to and use of English at home: Watching films
in English 195
Figure 11.7 Exposure to and use of English out of home: Travelling
abroad 196
Figure 11.8 Listening test results (age 13) 196
Figure 11.9 Reading and writing test results (age 13) 196
Figure 12.1 Illustration of Tomas’ achievements over six years 210
Figure 12.2 Illustration of David’s achievements over six years 213
Figure 12.3 Illustration of Mikael’s achievements over six years 214
Figure 13.1 Development of the participants’ motivation
(three-point scale) 230
Figure 13.2 The participants’ preferences for classroom
arrangements (%) 232
Figure 13.3 Development of the participants’ self-concept
(three-point scale) 233
Figure 13.4 The participants’ outside school EFL behaviour as
reported by their parents (%) 234
Figure 13.5 Development of the participants’ accuracy and fluency
in oral production (five-point scale) 235
Figure 14.1 Age group differences in the percentages of use of
conversational strategies at Time 1 258
Figure 14.2 Age group differences in the percentages of use of
conversational strategies at Time 2 258
Figure 14.3 Instructional setting differences in the percentages of
use of conversational strategies at Time 1 259
Figure 14.4 Instructional setting differences in the percentages of
use of conversational strategies at T2 259
Figure 14.5 Percentages of conversational strategies at T1 and T2 in
the CLIL group 260
Figure 14.6 Percentages of conversational strategies at T1 and T2 in
the mainstream group 260
Figure 15.1 Progression in the Mexican programme 271
Figure 15.2 The puppet study 278
Figure 15.3 Where did the highest achieving students learn English? 280
Figure 15.4 A student’s notebook describing a science experiment 282
viii Early Language Learning

Tables
Table 2.1 Pass rates at end of school exams in South Africa 16
Table 4.1 EAL versus non-EAL and achievement at age 5, 7 11 and
16: England 2013 46
Table 5.1 Summary of constructs and tasks 71
Table 5.2 Summary of the influence of verbal working memory on
FL Reading Aloud (FLRA), FL Reading Comprehension
(FLRC), FL Receptive Vocabulary (FLRV) and FL Elicited
Imitation (FLEI) at all test times 73
Table 6.1 Example of elicited metaphor analysis 90
Table 6.2 Background information of the participating schools 92
Table 6.3 Intrinsic/extrinsic-motivation metaphors in four schools 96
Table 6.4 Examples of intrinsic-motivation metaphors 97
Table 6.5 Examples of extrinsic-motivation metaphors 97
Table 6.6 The role of significant others 97
Table 7.1 Number of subjects per condition 114
Table 7.2 Number of different switch types in the logfiles
(arithmetic mean, in trilingual treatment) 117
Table 7.3 Pearson’s correlation coefficients for measures of rCS
and vocabulary gain 117
Table 7.4 Inter-rater reliability 119
Table 7.5 rCS ratings (trilingual treatment only) 120
Table 8.1 Individual variables measured in the Seine & Marne
Primary English project 132
Table 8.2 Tasks used to measure emergent knowledge and skill
in English 133
Table 8.3 Composition of the primary English groups,
institutional and methodological variables 135
Table 8.4 Class means for measures of individual differences and
English knowledge and skill, with group comparisons
(column 4) 137
Table 9.1 Listening comprehension test results before and after
the experiment 150
Table 9.2 The percentage of learners who improved their results
on the listening comprehension test 151
Table 9.3 Reading comprehension and writing test results 151
Table 9.4 The percentage of learners who improved their results
on the reading comprehension and writing test 151
Table 9.5 Learners’ attitudes to English language instruction prior
to the experiment 152
Table 9.6 Learners’ attitudes to English language instruction after
the experiment 153
Figures and Tables ix

Table 9.7 Learners’ improvement in their attitudes to English
language instruction 153
Table 9.8 The students’ attitudes to English language learning
prior to experiment 153
Table 9.9 Learners’ improvement in their attitudes to English
language learning 154
Table 9.10 The students’ attitudes to 22 CLIL activities 154
Table 9.11 Students’ arguments why they liked or disliked
the activities 156
Table 9.12 The students’ perceptions of the CLIL teaching approach 157
Table 9.13 Chi-square test for equal proportions 157
Table 10.1 Variables used for quantitative analyses in this study 173
Table 10.2 ANOVA with repeated measures (shaded if significant
at the 0.05 alpha level) 174
Table 10.3 Main findings from the interview data 176
Table 11.1 Longitudinal study structure 189
Table 12.1 Overview of instruments used over the six-year period
to collect data of production and reception achievements,
attitudes and context 205
Table 13.1 Participants’ ages in grades 5–8 225
Table 13.2 Administration of instruments 228
Table 13.3 Summary of significant (+) and non-significant (–)
interactions of motivation, self-concept (Pearson
correlation, n = 18) and language learning behaviour
(t-test, n = 81). 237
Table 13.4 Summary of significant (+) and non-significant (–)
interactions of accuracy and fluency scores with
out-of-school exposure to English in grade 8 237
Table 14.1 Distribution of the participants in the study 255
Table 15.1 Alignment of framework, competencies and research
questions 274
Table 16.1 Descriptive data, mean (of sum score), difficulty (p),
discrimination (rit) and reliability (α) 295
Table 16.2 Correlations of C-test scores and school grades
in English 295
Table 16.3 Test-management strategies employed in the C-test 297
Table 16.4 Language learner strategies employed in the C-test 298
x Early Language Learning

xi
Contributors
Ruth Ban is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and
Instruction at Barry University in Miami, FL. She holds a PhD from
University of South Florida in Second Language Acquisition and Instructional
Technology. Her research interests include professional and language identity
of language teachers and teaching young learners. She participated in the
development of the English language teaching programme for public primary
schools in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico.
Judith Buendgens-Kosten is a postdoctoral researcher at Goethe University
Frankfurt (Germany). She received an MA in English Linguistics, German
Literature and Philosophy from RWTH Aachen University, a doctorate in
English linguistics from RWTH Aachen University and an MA in Online
and Distance Education from the Open University, UK. Her research focuses
on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and multilingualism.
Patricia Driscoll is a Reader in Education and Director of Research
Development at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. She has taught in
primary, secondary and tertiary education and delivered professional develop-
ment courses for pre-and in-service teachers. She also teaches on doctoral pro-
grammes. Her research focuses mainly on early language learning and teacher
education. Her research interests include: intercultural and cultural education,
multicultural schooling, creativity in early language learning, integrated peda-
gogic approaches in foreign and community languages, cross-curricular teach-
ing, inclusive education and social justice. She has conducted national, regional
and local-level research studies and has published in professional and academic
journals and books. Her most recent edited volume is Debates and Modern
Languages Education (Driscoll, Macaro and Swarbrick, Routledge, 2014).
Daniela Elsner is Full Professor of Teaching English as a foreign language
(TEFL) Pedagogy at Goethe University Frankfurt Main (Germany), where
she is also one of the directors of the Centre of Teacher Education and
Educational Research. Her research focuses on early foreign language educa-
tion, bi- and plurilingualism, multilingual CALL, and language teacher

education. In 2014, she was awarded the national Ars Legendi Prize for
Teaching Excellence in Higher Education. She is co-author of ‘Sally’
(Oldenbourg Publishers), Germany’s most popular textbook for the English
language classroom in primary schools.
Janet Enever is Professor of Language Teaching and Learning at Umeå
University, Sweden and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading, UK.
Her research interests focus on the fields of early foreign language learning,
language globalisation and language policy. She holds a doctoral degree from
Bristol University, UK in Primary Foreign Languages Policy and has previ-
ously worked at universities in London, Krakow and Budapest. Recent pub-
lications include: ELLiE. Early Language Learning in Europe (2011) (ed.) and
‘Primary ELT: Issues and trends’, in Routledge Handbook of English Language
Teaching, (2016, G. Hall, ed.). She is coordinator for the AILA Research
Network in Early Language Learning (2014–2017).
María del Pilar García Mayo is Full Professor of English Language and
Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country. She has two main lines
of research: the acquisition of English morphosyntax from a generative per-
spective and EFL young and adult learner interaction. She has published
numerous articles and chapters and (co-)edited several special issues and vol-
umes. She is the main researcher of the Language and Speech Research Group
(www.laslab.org), noted by the Basque Government for excellence in research
in the field and the director of the MA programme Language Acquisition in
Multilingual Settings
Yuko Goto Butler is Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics at the
Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also
the director of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
programme at Penn. Her research interests are primarily focused on the
improvement of second/foreign language education among young learners in
the USA and Asia in response to the diverse needs of an increasingly globalis-
ing world. Her work has also focused on identifying effective ESL/EFL teach-
ing and learning strategies and assessment methods that take into account
the relevant linguistic and cultural contexts in which instruction takes place.
Ilonca Hardy is Professor of Elementary Education, Faculty of Education,
Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany. She obtained her PhD in
Educational Psychology (University of Iowa, USA) in 1998; was a post-
doctoral research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Human
Development, Berlin (1998–2007); and at the Habilitation in Education at
the Free University Berlin in 2007. Her research focuses on early childhood
education, instructional processes in science and language teaching, and
children with German as a second language.
xii Early Language Learning

Heather Hilton moved to France, after working as a French teacher and
completing a doctorate in the USA (Emory University), spending 25 years at
the Université de Savoie, before moving on to a research position in Paris and
is now Professor of Language Acquisition and Teaching at the Université de
Lyon. Her research in foreign language teaching methodology and language
acquisition is strongly grounded in sociocognitive theories of learning and in
psycholinguistic theories of language processing and use.
Ainara Imaz Agirre obtained her PhD in 2015 at the University of the
Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and currently teaches in Primary and Infant
Teaching Training Degrees at University of Mondragon (Mondragon
Unibertsitatea). Her main interests include second and third language acquisi-
tion from different perspectives (generative and interactionist frameworks).
Changsheng Jiang received his PhD at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong and has been working as Associate Professor in the School of Foreign
Languages in Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China. His
research areas include L2 motivation, L2 learner identity and World Englishes.
Xiaohua Liang received her PhD at Hong Kong University and is now
Professor of Applied English Linguistics at Zhongnan University of Economics
and Law, working as the Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning.
Fascinated by theories, research methods and practices, she is enthusiastic
about both teaching and learning in applied linguistics. With her experience
of 32 years of teaching and researching, she has been involved in the com-
plete Chinese education system at all levels, and is recognised by her publica-
tions and presentations at international conferences such as AILA, AAAL,
AERA, ALA, Asia TEFL and HAAL.
Eva Lindgren is Associate Professor of Language Teaching and Learning at
the Department of Language Studies at Umeå University, Sweden. Her
research interests include multilingualism, literacy and young learners. She
is the director of literacy research at Umeå University (LITUM) and takes a
great interest in the development of research in close collaboration with
schools, for example, in indigenous Sami communities. Another line of
research focuses on the way society values languages and she uses large data-
bases in order to investigate how knowledge of different languages may, or
may not, impact on future life chances.
Magdalena López is a Professor in the Sociocultural Studies Department at
ITESO University, Guadalajara, and the coordinator of Sciences of
Communication Undergraduate Program. She holds a PhD in Information and
Communication Society. She has developed dozens of research and interven-
tion projects related to the learning and communication processes from the
Contributors xiii

sociocultural approach; her research focuses on the impacts of the use of
telematics technologies in the ways of knowing, being, interacting and con-
structing meaning. Since 2010, she has collaborated in several projects about
the implementation process of the National Program of English in Basic
Education in Mexico.
Lucilla Lopriore is an Associate Professor of English Linguistics, Roma Tre
University. She has an MA in TEFL Reading University and a PhD in Italian
as a Foreign Language, Siena for Foreigners University. She was TESOL Italy
President (1996–98), TESOL International Board of Directors (2001–2004)
and TESOL International Research Committee (2013–2017). She was the
Italian national coordinator of the Early Language Learning in Europe
(ELLiE) longitudinal research study (2006–2010). As a teacher-educator and
course book writer, her fields of interest are: early language learning, English
as a lingua franca (ELF), language teacher education, assessment and evalu-
ation, content and language integrated learning (CLIL). She has published
extensively in the field of teacher education, early language learning, ELF,
CLIL and assessment.
Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović retired from the University of Zagreb in
2014, where she held the post of Professor of Second Language Acquisition
and TEFL. Her main research interests centre on second language acquisi-
tion, teaching modern languages to young learners, role of affective factors
(attitudes, motivation, language anxiety and self-concept) in language learn-
ing and foreign language teacher education. She has been involved in a
number of large scale national and international research projects, the latest
one being the Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) study. Her publica-
tions include two research books on affective learner factors and over 100
papers. She has co-edited several research volumes.
Victoria Murphy is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of
Education, University of Oxford. She is the research group convener of the
Applied Linguistics and the REAL (Research in English as an Additional
Language) research groups. She is also the course director of the MSc in Applied
Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition. Victoria’s area of research lies
mainly within the realm of child L2/foreign language (FL) learning, vocabu-
lary and literacy development. She has published in a wide range of applied
linguistics journals and is the author of Second Language Learning in the Early
School Years: Trends and Contexts published by Oxford University Press in 2014,
as well as the lead editor of Early Childhood Education in English for Speakers of
Other Languages published by the British Council in 2016.
Karmen Pižorn is an Associate Professor of English in Education, University
of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Slovenia. She obtained her PhD in English
xiv Early Language Learning

Language Teaching Methodology from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty
of Arts in 2003. She has been a primary teacher educator and national testing
team leader of English for primary and lower-secondary students for 15
years, co-leader of the National Project of Implementing Foreign Languages
to Year 2 students of primary school in Slovenia (2009–2012), advisory board
member to the EU Surveylang project and Slovenian coordinator of the EU
DysTEFL2 project (2014–2016). She has published articles and books in the
field of early language learning, language assessment, language education and
language policies. Her research interests include: language assessment, early
language learning, CLIL, teacher education, ICT in language learning and
language policies and politics.
Raphaela Porsch is a Senior Researcher in Education/Empirical School and
Classroom Research, University of Muenster, Institute of Educational
Science, Germany. Her PhD was about assessment of EFL writing competen-
cies and was obtained at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute of
Educational Science (2010). Her research interests include: teacher education,
teacher qualification/teaching out-of-field, emotions and (early) foreign lan-
guage teaching.
Alison Porter is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of
Southampton. She obtained her PhD in Modern Languages in 2014. She has
been a primary FL (French) teacher for 10 years and EFL/ESL teacher for
seven years. She teaches on both MA Applied Linguistics and undergraduate
degree programmes. Her research interests include: early classroom language
learning, foreign and second language reading, language learning assessment
and the role of individual differences in language learning.
Peter Sayer is an Associate Professor in the Department of teaching and
learning at Ohio State University. He holds a PhD in Language and Literacy
from Arizona State University. His work focuses on language education and
teacher preparation and sociolinguistics. He is the author of Tensions and
Ambiguities in English Language Teaching (Routledge, 2012). Since its inception
2009, he has collaborated with the Ministry of Education to support the
implementation of the English programme for public primary schools in
Mexico.
Agatha J. van Ginkel has, for most of her career, worked in the areas of
literacy and languages, and aspects of first, second and foreign language acqui-
sition, applying this knowledge in formal and non-formal education in Africa
and Asia. Her research interest includes factors that influence transfer of read-
ing across languages and scripts and measuring of reading performance in
different languages providing context-appropriate solutions to a variety of
reading problems in linguistic-specific contexts. She received a PhD in Applied
Contributors xv

Linguistics from Leeds Metropolitan University (UK), an MA in TEFL from
University of Reading (UK), a BA in Teaching English from Windesheim
University (NL) and a BA and MA in Special Educational Needs (SEN) from
Fontys University of Applied Science and Free University of Amsterdam (the
Netherlands).
Eva Wilden is Professor for EFL Education and teacher educator at Vechta
University/Germany. Her PhD is in Foreign Language Learning Research,
Kassel University/Germany. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Education
(history through the medium of German) from Nottingham University and
has worked as a secondary school teacher in England and Germany (EFL,
history and CLIL history). Her empirical research currently focuses on assess-
ing receptive EFL skills, primary and secondary EFL education, inclusive for-
eign language education, culture and language learning, media and
multi-literacy education and CLIL.
Qun Xie is Professor of English, Zhongnan University of Economics and
Law, China. She obtained her PhD in 2004 from the Department of English,
Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include modern
drama studies, English education and comparative cultural studies. She has
published two books and over 20 essays on modern drama studies and
English teaching, and has translated six English novels and books of literary
criticism into Chinese.
Yuan Yuan is an Associate Professor at the Zhongnan University of
Economics and Law, China. Her doctoral dissertation looked at the relation-
ship between second language users and L2 user identity by employing nar-
rative inquiry and conversation analytic approaches. Her main research
interests include discourse analysis, intercultural communication and iden-
tity. She is the author of Cultures of Learning: An Evolving Concept and an
Expanding Field; Stereotypes and Talk-in-Interaction: The Strategies Used in Identity
Negotiation and Identity (Re)formation in a Study-Abroad Context: The Case of a
Chinese Learner of Japanese.
Jie Zhang received her PhD from Macquarie University in 2011. Her PhD
research is an investigation of language ideologies, language policies and lan-
guage practices in the context of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She is
now Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of English
Language and Literature, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law,
China. Her research areas include language policy and planning, language
learning and identity, and second language acquisition and intercultural com-
munication. Her book, English Desire in the Olympic Spotlight, will be published
by De Gruyter.
xvi Early Language Learning

1
Introduction: Mixed Methods
in Early Language Learning
Research – Examining
Complexity
In this volume we examine the full complexity of language learning, and in
particular the foreign, or second, language learning of young learners in
instructed contexts. The aim of the volume is twofold: first and foremost we
bring together and present recent research results from the early language
learning classroom context. Second, the volume reviews the choice of research
methodologies for early language learning research in schools with a particu-
lar focus on mixed methods, and proposes that in the multidisciplinary con-
text of early language learning, this paradigm allows for a more comprehensive
understanding of the evidence than other approaches might provide.
Before we describe the volume and its underpinnings, we would like to
give a brief note on terminology. The term foreign language (FL) will be used
for languages other than the mother tongue(s) a person learns in an instructed
context where the national language used outside the formal context is not
the FL. The term second language (L2) will refer to a language learnt in, or
outside, a formal context within a society where the L2 is used as the
national, or most widely used, language. However, a word of caution may be
necessary. In the case of, for example, Sweden or the Netherlands, English
does not have the status of national language, but it is used to such a high
degree in society that children learn it in much the same way as an L2 rather
than an FL.
Language learning has traditionally been studied from a variety of theo-
retical perspectives drawing on a range of research methodologies. Recently,
Atkinson (2011) called for a broader, holistic approach to the understanding
of the learning of other languages than the mother tongue(s) in which the
full dynamics and complexity are acknowledged by the use of cognitive,
sociocultural and dynamic systems theories. In terms of methods, the
1

cognitive approach has typically included testing and quantitative methods,
while the sociocultural approaches have preferred qualitative approaches
such as ethnography and case studies. In a thorough review and discussion
about complex/dynamic systems in second language research Larsen-
Freeman (2011: 62–63) describes how a variety of methodologies can and
have been used to study complex systems: quantitative, computer-based
modelling, qualitative modelling with or without computers, dynamic
descriptions using an ethnographic approach, formative experiments and
design experiments.
Mixed methods research (MMR) appeared in the late 1980s as a prag-
matic response to debates about the acceptability of combining qualitative
and quantitative approaches to research, particularly in the social sciences.
Underpinning this debate was the contested area of research methods, where
quantitative methods may be identified as connected with a positivist (or
post-positivist) worldview and qualitative methods with a constructivist
worldview (Creswell, 2003; see Riazi & Candlin, 2014 for a critical review
and Gheitasi & Lindgren, 2015 for an overview). MMR is based on the philo-
sophical assumption that both quantitative and qualitative methods are nec-
essary throughout the research process (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2006) and
that they allow researchers to explore a variety of research questions within
the same study (Teddlie & Tashakori, 2003). By employing MMR, it is
argued that validity can be increased by triangulation, complementarity or
by the use of results from one study in the development of another (Greene
et al., 1989). Greene et al. (1989: 259) further explain that mixed methods can
‘extend the breadth and range of the study’, as well as increase the depth and
scope of the outcomes. A challenge in mixed methods research ‘concerns the
level of theorising and conceptualising of the research problem so that differ-
ent layers and various dimensions of the issue in question can be studied and
integrated by means of an MMR [mixed methods research] framework’
(Riazi & Candlin, 2014: 161).
However, MMR is a contested area and Fetters (2016: 3) draws our atten-
tion to the existence of many previous research studies, which have included
both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, dating back to the earliest
part of the 20th century at least. He cites particularly the disciplines of
anthropology, social psychology and sociology as reflecting an approach that
includes a mix of methods in a single research programme. Similarly,
Maxwell (2013) reports that such traditions date back some centuries in the
fields of natural, social and health sciences, reminding us that barriers as to
what constituted legitimate research methodologies did not exist in Ancient
Greek times where astronomy ‘used both observational description and
quantitative measurement’ (Maxwell, 2013: 14).
Regardless of the contested philosophical and historical underpinnings
of MMR, the use of more than one theoretical and methodological approach
seems useful for early language learning research. The complexity of the
2 Early Language Learning

language classroom, including how children learn foreign languages, what
may influence their learning and what role the teacher and the context play,
all lend themselves well to the mix of methods. For example, in order to
understand more about children’s reading in a foreign language, students
may be asked in a questionnaire how they feel about reading in a foreign
language; in parallel, data on their reading skills is collected by means of a
test and the teacher is interviewed about teaching strategies. When analys-
ing the data, quantitative methods can be used for test and questionnaire
data, which may then be discussed in the light of the teachers’ response. In
a sequential study, children’s interviews can serve as input to a larger survey
about, for example, motivation for learning foreign languages.
This Volume
In this volume we report on a variety of studies, which represent a mix
of instructed contexts, countries and methods. In the final chapter we return
to the question of mixed methods and discuss its potential for early language
learning research. The contexts for early language learning in the studies
include English as an additional language (EAL), English as a second or for-
eign language (L2/FL), French as a modern foreign language (MFL), contro-
versies on choices of medium of instruction (MOI) and classrooms exploring
the potential for content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Each of
these themes reflects an area of current growth in the broad field of early
language learning worldwide today. The contexts from which the research
studies are drawn include: China, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK and the African countries of Kenya, South Africa,
Cameroon and Ethiopia. Across the continents of Africa, Europe, Asia and
Latin America (as reflected in this choice of research papers) growth in early
language learning has been substantial since the beginning of the 21st cen-
tury. Research in each of these regions is now beginning to build, but further
knowledge is needed to establish understanding and expertise in the very
varied contexts emerging today.
The first part of the book includes three overviews of recent research
findings in quite different contexts. This part is introduced by Agatha van
Ginkel who discusses research evidence from a range of multilingual con-
texts in Africa to consider the complex question of decisions on the medium
of instruction in the first few years of schooling. This is followed by a chap-
ter focusing on the importance of including cultural, social and intercultural
learning in the primary languages curriculum. Patricia Driscoll critiques
recent research in the field to propose that a distinctive cultural strand needs
to be placed at the heart of the primary curriculum. The first part is con-
cluded with a wide-ranging discussion of research in the field of EAL in UK
primary schools. Here, Victoria Murphy explores research on vocabulary and
Introduction 3

literacy development placing particular importance on the development of
rich, high quality lexical representations, which can promote more advanced
and complex reading and writing skills in English.
The second part of the book includes five empirical studies of early lan-
guage learning, all of which adopt a mixed method approach to data collec-
tion and analysis. The introductory chapter from Alison Porter reports on a
classroom study of oracy and literacy development in French in the UK with
findings revealing the benefits of providing input through a number of
modalities. This is followed by an innovative approach to exploring questions
of motivation for primary learners of English in China where data were col-
lected using the tools of elicited metaphor, combined with questionnaire
responses. A team of researchers based in Wuhan, China worked on this
study, originally initiated by Jin Lixian as a visiting researcher based in
Leicester, UK. This is followed by a similarly innovative study, using a quite
different methodology, to report on the effects of using multilingual virtual
storybooks in primary classrooms in Germany. Here, Judith Buendgens-
Kosten, Ilonca Hardy and Daniela Elsner have focused on revealing evidence
of vocabulary development and story comprehension in their study. The
fourth chapter in this part comes from Heather Hilton, providing a study of
early learners of English in France. The study compares outcomes from a class
of beginners starting in grade 1 with another class which started in grade 3.
This close empirical study provides a fine-grained analysis of both individual
case studies and a series of group studies. As a final chapter to this part,
Karmen Pižorn tackles the thorny debate over CLIL in primary classrooms.
Her critical analysis of research and current claims is well-illustrated by a
small-scale study of a CLIL classroom compared with a parallel class where
more conventional approaches to EFL teaching and learning are adopted.
The third part includes four chapters that adopt a longitudinal perspec-
tive in answering questions related to early language learning. Themes
included are motivation and self-concept, broad language outcomes and the
development of listening, reading and writing skills, all of which lend them-
selves well to tracking over time as a mechanism for recording their dynamic
development. This part opens with Yuko Goto Butler’s study of motivation
in primary school learners of English in China. Her study triangulates a
number of qualitative and quantitative measures to identify factors influenc-
ing motivation over time. The three further studies in this part all take as
their starting point data initially collected in the ELLiE study (Enever, 2011).
First, in Lucilla Lopriore’s chapter, the longitudinal focus is on the develop-
ment of listening, reading and writing skills over time in Italy. Outcomes are
reviewed in relation to both teacher assessment and learner self-assessment.
Next, Eva Lindgren and Janet Enever report on a continuation of the study
with a sub-sample of the original cohort based in Sweden. In their chapter
they discuss final outcomes achieved after six years of English classes, pro-
viding rich, thick descriptions of learner achievements. Finally, Jelena

Mihaljević Djigunović discusses longitudinal evidence from 81 Croatian
learners of English to review the instability of young learners’ attitudes,
motivation and L2 self-concept over time. The implications of her findings
are considered from a theoretical and practical perspective.
The final part of the book includes three chapters offering an evaluative
perspective on some of the major themes for early language learning in
instructed contexts today. This part is introduced with a chapter from María
del Pilar García Mayo and Ainara Imaz Agirre who discuss interactive tasks
in the primary FL classroom. For many, interactive tasks are seen as essential
building blocks for progress in language learning, thus our understanding of
task design and effectiveness in the primary years is vital. In their study the
researchers compared two learning environments, firstly a CLIL-type envi-
ronment and secondly a mainstream EFL environment. Their report on inter-
action for the 27 dyads in their study indicates a more frequent use of
conversational adjustments as one outcome from instruction in a CLIL-type
environment, while age appears to be of limited significance as a variable.
This use was not constant in time for any of the FL groups, however. In the
second chapter in this part, the context shifts to Mexico, where Peter Sayer,
Ruth Ban and Magdalena López de Anda report on the design and implemen-
tation of a large-scale impact study for the evaluation of primary English.
This chapter reports on the pilot phase, implemented in one Mexican state,
charting the evidence of both linguistic and non-linguistic gains made across
the first six grades of schooling. The final chapter in this part, authored by
Raphaela Porsch and Eva Wilden, presents a project for the development of a
final test framework for use at the beginning of secondary school in
Germany. The proposed C-test aims at measuring general language ability
with a view to providing secondary school (year 5) EFL teachers with a tool
for diagnosing their new pupils EFL learning. The authors discuss the first
stages of design and development for this complex evaluative tool.
In the concluding chapter to this volume we reflect on the potential con-
tribution that MMR may offer the field of early language learning (ELL)
research. Here, we discuss the variety of contributions presented, proposing
that factors such as scale and multidisciplinarity may be more likely to pro-
mote the choice of an MMR design. Nonetheless, we fully acknowledge the
continuing contribution that a singular research design can make to extend
the knowledge base of research in ELL and call for expansion of investiga-
tions in all directions.
References
Atkinson, D. (2011) Introduction: Cognitivism and second language acquisition. In
D. Atkinson (ed.) Alternative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (pp. 1–23).
London: Routledge.
Creswell, J. (2003) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches
(2nd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Introduction 5

Creswell, J.W. and Plano Clark, V.L. (2006) Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods
Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Enever, J. (ed.) (2011) ELLiE. Early Language Learning in Europe. London: British Council.
See https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/B309%20ELLiE%20
Book%202011%20FINAL.pdf (accessed 16 March 2017).
Fetters, M.D. (2016) ‘Haven’t we always been doing mixed methods research?’ Lessons
learned from the development of the horseless carriage. Journal of Mixed Methods
Research 10 (1), 3–11.
Gheitasi, P. and Lindgren, E. (2015) Broadening the understanding of the language class-
room: Mixed methods. In E. Lindgren and J. Enever (eds) Språkdidaktik: Researching
Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 21–30). Umeå: Umeå Universitet.
Greene, J.C., Caracelli, V.J. and Graham, W.F. (1989) Toward a conceptual framework for
mixed method evaluation designs. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 11 (3),
255–274.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2011) A complexity theory approach to second language develop-
ment/acquisition. In D. Atkinson (ed.) Alternative Approaches to Second Language
Acquisition (pp. 48–72). London: Routledge.
Maxwell, J.A. (2016) Expanding the history and range of mixed methods research. Journal
of Mixed Methods Research 10 (1), 12–27.
Riazi, M.A. and Candlin, C.N. (2014) Mixed-methods research in language teaching and
learning: Opportunities, issues and challenges. Language Teaching 47, 135–173.
Teddlie, C. and Tashakkori, A. (2003) Major issues and controversies in the use of mixed
methods in the social and behavioral sciences. In A. Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (eds)
Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research (pp. 3–50). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.

Part 1
Overviews of Research Findings

9
Early Language Learning in
Complex Linguistic Settings:
Insights from Africa
Agatha J. van Ginkel
Introduction
Most of the people in the world speak or have to speak more than one
language. Often people use different languages to communicate with differ-
ent people in their neighbourhood, at the market or sometimes even within
the family when in-laws are from other language communities. Companies
often employ multilinguals as it will help them to communicate to a wide
audience in the languages that they best understand. Multilingualism is in
many ways more common and advantageous than monolingualism. Having
said that, multilingualism also provides some challenges, in particular when
a country has 30, 50, 80 or even more than 100 languages, as is often the case
in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The challenge for these countries is to find
a way for all different language communities to communicate with each
other. To do so, one language is chosen that each person is expected to learn.
This often happens at school. The question is also which language or lan-
guages are used at school? How do children learn a new language best? How
do children become multilingual? This is a serious and challenging issue in
many multilingual developing countries.
This chapter seeks to gain more insight in language education in multi-
lingual countries in developing contexts. It will do so by first examining
different approaches to education in multilingual settings and reviewing
them based on what is already known. Then, it will look at data from differ-
ent multilingual countries to better understand what evidence comes from
the field about different multilingual education models in developing coun-
tries. After that, it will briefly look at data that have emerged from situations
where more than one mother tongue is spoken in a classroom. Next, it will
review the most prominent context factors that influence the pace of lan-
guage learning. Then, all information will be pulled together to look at what
2

picture is emerging from these findings. Finally, the chapter will briefly dis-
cuss a common economic argument that prevents implementing the best
approach for becoming multilingual in developing countries.
Models of Language Education
As stated in the introduction, there are many countries in Africa, Latin
America and Asia that are multilingual. Different models of bi/multilin-
gual education are used in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These will be
discussed first. While it hardly seems possible to differentiate models
between all the programmes that are going on, in general one can catego-
rise the different bilingual education programmes into one of the following
models:
(1) Submersion models in which only the new language is used. The students
tend to be minority language speakers with a low status mother tongue
(Alidou et al., 2006; Baker, 2006; Skutnabb-Kangas, 1988).
(2) Immersion models in which initially only the new language is used and
later on both languages are developed. A well-known immersion pro-
gramme is the French programme in Canada (Baker, 2006; Thomas &
Collier, 1997). It is important to note that in immersion programmes,
the students tend to speak a majority language. The parents deliberately
choose these programmes, the programmes are well resourced and the
input has been tailor made for the students (Alidou et al., 2006; Ellis,
1994). If this is not the case, then it is often a submersion model.
(3) Early exit models where the first language of the child is used as medium
of instruction during the first 1–4 years of education, after that the
new language is used as a medium of instruction (Alidou et al., 2006;
Baker, 2006).
(4) Late exit models where the first language of the child is used as medium
of instruction during the first 6–8 years of education, after that the
new language is used as a medium of instruction (Alidou et al., 2006;
Baker, 2006).
(5) Additive models or dual language models where both the first language and
the new language are used throughout education (Alidou et al., 2006;
Baker, 2006).
These five models are helpful references to understand some of the
research that has emerged from different counties. The research referred to
in this chapter mostly comes from Africa, as the situation in Africa is most
pressing. In Africa, about 2500 language are spoken, while about only 176
languages are used as language in education in Africa (Gadelii, 2004; Ouane &
Glanz, 2010).
10 Part 1: Overviews of Research Findings

Evidence for the Success of Different Models
In the last few years, there has been a new body of research emerging
from multilingual countries in developing contexts that are helpful in under-
standing what is useful for children in multilingual contexts. Although, not
all the data lead to straightforward conclusions, it is helpful to review the
research. The data give insights of the degrees of success of submersion, early
exit and late exit models.
Mismatch between classroom practice and policy
One of the first things to notice when reviewing research from different
countries is that while a country might have a language in education policy
stating one of the above models, the reality in the classroom might be that a
completely different model is used than that stated in the policy. Some
research from Kenya provides insights into this. The language policy in
Kenya mandates that the mother tongue of the children is used during the
first three years of primary school and that English and Kiswahili are learnt
as a subject (early exit model). However, the reality in most classrooms is
that English is used for more than 60% of the time (Nyaga & Anthonissen,
2012; Piper & Zuilkowski, 2015). Thus, the reality in the classroom is more
of a submersion model. According to Piper and Zuilkowski (2015), the reason
for using English is that English is highly valued and believed to be the way
out of poverty. People also believe that children learn English by getting
educated in English. People believe in the submersion model.
The data from the Kenyan classrooms show that these beliefs do not hold
up very well (Nyaga & Anthonissen, 2012; Piper & Zuilkowski, 2015). Even
though the children hear a lot of English in the classroom and much less
Kiswahili or mother tongue, the children’s mastery of English is not sufficient,
even inadequate for them to understand what they are reading. The reading
tests showed that children were understanding very little of what they were
reading in English, while in the mother tongue their comprehension scores
were much higher. This showed that the mismatch between policy and the
implementation in the classroom is not helping the children at all, ‘the Kenyan
education system is trying to “buy” strong English language reading outcomes
through an emphasis on English-medium instruction; but what is actually
being produced are children with limited fluency in either oral or written
English and minimal reading skills in their own languages as well’ (Piper et al.,
2016: 148).
Another research study from Kenya showed that if the language of
instruction is known to the children, comprehension scores for reading can
be comparable with those in Western countries (Graham & Van Ginkel,
2014). The study compared the first language reading ability of grade 2
children from two European countries with that of children from two
Early Language Learning in Complex Linguistic Settings 11

language groups in Kenya. The study included 112 children from the
Netherlands, 27 children from the UK, 177 children from the Pokomo com-
munity in Kenya and 105 children from the Sabaot community in Kenya.
Figure 2.1 shows the average comprehension scores for the four languages.
The average comprehension scores were for English 90%, for Sabaot 82%,
for Dutch 81% and for Pokomo 68%. While the Pokomo and Sabaot compre-
hension showed a greater spread than the two European languages, in all
languages, more than 50% of the readers were able to comprehend at least
80% of what they read. There was a wider distribution among the two
Kenyan languages, which could be explained by some educational and socio-
linguistic reasons, but the results show that reading in a known language
means that children can perform well in school.
These data from Kenya show that a language policy is not always imple-
mented in the classroom. They also show that changing the medium of
instruction to a desired language rather than a language understood by chil-
dren, does not mean that children learn the desired language well and do well
educationally in that desired language. The data also show that if a known
language is used in the classroom, learning results in developing countries
can be comparable to learning results in developed countries, even though
there are many other differences.
Submersion model compared with early exit models
In many African countries, an early exit model is the currently stated
model in the language policy. Recently, Taylor and Coetzee (2013) analysed
the data for English and mathematics standardised tests from the South
African Annual National Assessment over a period of five years. Their
analyses show that the use of the mother tongue in lower grades leads to
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Percent
within
each
group
Score in comprehension
Dutch Eng Eng/Swa/Pok Sa+Ki+En
Figure 2.1 Comprehension scores Dutch, English, Pokomo and Sabaot (Graham & Van
Ginkel, 2014)

significantly better English proficiency rates in grades 4, 5 and 6
(Taylor & Coetzee, 2013). Similarly, data from India confirm that reading in
the mother tongue is having a positive effect on learning to read in English
(Berry, 2013). Furthermore, the data from South Africa showed that in the
high performing schools, students learn English better than in low perform-
ing schools (Taylor & Coetzee, 2013). This is an important observation as it
would have implications for deciding the most appropriate grade for intro-
ducing a new medium of instruction. It implies that it is very likely that
children in high performing schools could probably cognitively benefit from
English as a medium of instruction earlier than children in the low perform-
ing schools. Therefore, a flexible policy for deciding when a new medium of
instruction can be used is necessary. The study also shows that there are
other context factors that influence the rate of learning and learning out-
comes. The most prominent factors will be looked at later in this chapter.
Another set of data comes from Cameroon. In one of the language com-
munities in Cameroon, a pilot project was started to see what the difference
would be if children began learning through English as a medium of instruc-
tion (submersion model) from the start, or when they would have the first
three years education in their home language and learnt English as a subject
(early exit model). The Kom Experimental Mother Tongue Education Pilot
Project (KEPP) collected data from both kinds of learners. The data from
KEPP showed that the students who had their mother tongue as medium of
instruction outperformed the students who had English as medium of
instruction in all subjects, also in English (Walter & Chuo, 2012; Walter &
Trammell, 2010). Figure 2.2 shows the score. L1 means children who had
Kom as a medium of instruction; L2 refers to the children who had English
as a medium of instruction.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1-L1 1-L2 2-L1 2-L2 3-L1 3-L2
Average
score
for
English
Class and Language of Instrucon
Figure 2.2 English scores of the Kom L1 based bilingual programme (Walter Trammel,
2010)

In year 4, the mother tongue students were transitioned to use English
as a medium of instruction. The scores of the students dropped considerably,
showing that three years education with the mother tongue as medium of
instruction was not sufficient to prepare the students for the transition.
Interestingly, the students who had been in an English-only class for all four
and five years of education, scored lower and seemed even less prepared for
the linguistic demands in class 4 and 5 than the KEPP students. Walter and
Chuo (2012) attributed the higher scores of the KEPP students to the fact
that their foundation in education was laid in their mother tongue. Thus, the
data from Cameroon also show that learning through the home language is
more beneficial for learning a new language than having the new language
directly as a medium of instruction. Furthermore, the data also showed that
early transition (after three years of mother tongue education) is still not
sufficient for the children to have learnt the new medium of instruction well
enough to be able to benefit from it well in class 4 and onwards.
Different models used in one country
Ethiopia is an interesting case when it comes to language in education
policy. It is one of the few countries in Africa that allows for different multi-
lingual education models. It has a language policy in education that states
that the first four years of primary school should be in the home language of
the children and they learn Amharic (national language of Ethiopia) and
English as a subject. From year 5 onwards, the regions in Ethiopia can choose
which language to continue with. They can either continue using the home
language of the child or they can use English as a medium of instruction. For
different reasons, the 11 regions in Ethiopia have made different choices.
Some regions have chosen to use English as a medium of instruction from
grade 5 onwards, others from grade 7 onwards. A few regions have chosen to
offer a dual language track from grade 7 onwards and use English as a medium
of instruction for some subjects, while mother tongue is used for other sub-
jects. Then, there are also a few regions that only use English as a medium of
instruction from grade 9 onwards (Heugh et al., 2007). Thus, in Ethiopia an
early exit model and a late exit model are stated in policy. Having said that,
for several language communities in Ethiopia, mother tongue education is not
yet applied as the languages do not have a written form and/or no materials
have been developed for use in school. For those children, the medium of
instruction at school is mostly Amharic, a submersion model.
There are a few data sets that provide some insights on how these situa-
tions affect education outcomes. The national tests in grade 8 provide
insights of how (without an intervention) the children are performing in
these different models of language education. The national grade 8 tests of
the different regions show that grade 8 students who had their home lan-
guage as medium of instruction and English as a subject throughout primary

school, outperformed the students who had English as medium of instruc-
tion in all subjects (Heugh et al., 2007). Thus, indications are that using the
home language as a medium of instruction throughout primary school gives
children the best chance to do well in school.
There is also a data set that shows how children are performing at learn-
ing English in the first few years of primary school. The data set measured
the proficiency of English compared to the minimum required learning com-
petences for the Ethiopian curriculum. Per grade, it shows the percentage of
students that have reached minimum required learning competences. The
scores were divided into four groups: below basic, basic, proficient and
advanced. The results in Figure 2.3 show that most students in grades 1, 2
and 3 score below basic. Furthermore, in year 4 only 19% of students in grade
4 (the sum of proficient and advanced level) have reached the required knowl-
edge and skills of the minimum required learning competences for grade 4.
These minimum learning competences are set at the threshold level that
would suggest that transition to using English as medium of instruction
would be successful. The scores are far below the minimum threshold levels.
These data suggest that using English as a medium of instruction in
grade 5 (as is happening in some regions) would make it hard for students to
benefit from education at all.
What can be learned from language research in Ethiopia is that transition
to English as a medium of instruction during the second half of primary
education (year 5) is not helping the children to do well in their education,
in fact it even seems detrimental to their learning results. This corroborated
the findings from Cameroon. In the context of Ethiopia, the data suggest
that eight years of mother tongue education, a late exit model, is necessary
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Below basic Basic Proﬁcient Advanced
Percentage
of
student
Performance level categories
Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4
Figure 2.3 Primary school English proficiency in Ethiopia (American Institute for Research,
2012)

to have some kind of success in learning through English as a medium of
instruction after that.
Different language in education policies throughout the years
The findings from Ethiopia, suggesting that a late exit models provides
better learning results, are further corroborated by data from South Africa.
Throughout the years, the language in education policy in South Africa has
changed. Data from the end of school exams from South Africa over a few
decades (from 1955–1998) provide insights on when children were perform-
ing better at school and when the results were going down. The data in Table
2.1 show the results of the final school leaving exams in class 8. The language
of the exams is English. The results show some interesting developments.
The pass rate is quite high in 1979 (87%), but decreased in 1992 and has
continued to decline from then onwards. This seems to reflect the change in
language policy. The children who had eight years of primary school instruc-
tion in their mother tongue scored well in the school leaving tests. However
when in the early 1990s the policy changed to include only four years of
mother tongue provision, then the scores on the school-leaving test also
declined.
These data seem to suggest that the early switch to English does not
work in the majority of South African schools (Heugh, 2012). It could of
course also be that more changes took place and the instruction was too poor
for early transition. What seems to be clear is that ‘There is [a] gap between
students’ English proficiency and the linguistic demands of learning through
the medium of English’ (Probyn, 2006: 393).
Table 2.1 Pass rates at end of school exams in South Africa
Year African language
speaking students
Pass rate
(%)
Overall total number of
candidate, plus pass
rate (%)
1955 595 43.5
1976 9595 83.7
1979 14,574 73.5 85,276 (87%)
1980 29,973 53.2 109,897 (75%)
1982 70,241 48.4 139,488 (69%)
1992 342,038 44 448,491 (56%)
1994 392,434 49 495,408 (58%)
1997 559,233 (47.4%)
1998 552,862 (49%)
Source: Adapted from Heugh (2012).

Multiple Mother Tongues in a Class
While the above research seems to show that it is good for children to start
education in a language they understand and then have time to learn another
language later, a burning issue arises. In several research reports, it is mentioned
that in classrooms sometimes more than one mother tongue is spoken by the
children. For example, through research in Ghana (Leherr, 2009), it came to
light that nearly four out of 10 students did not understand the Ghanaian lan-
guage used in that primary school. The question is then, what language would
be a good medium of instruction for all these children?
The KEPP data collected in Cameroon provides some interesting informa-
tion. Besides the Kom speaking children, there was another group of children
in both the mother tongue and the English language classes that spoke a differ-
ent African language, Fulfulde. The data from the Fulfulde children were col-
lected separately to see how they were doing in a ‘mother tongue class’ where
the medium of instruction was not their mother tongue. Would they perform
better or worse than if they were attending an English medium class? The data
showed that the Fulfulde children did better in the Kom medium class than in
the English medium class. The Fulfulde speaking students in the Kom medium
schools outperformed the Fulfulde speaking students in the English medium
school by a factor of 72.4% in grade 2 and by 127% in grade 3 (Walter, 2015).
This seems to suggest that learning in another African language is easier for the
children than to learn in a linguistically quite different language such as English.
A similar report comes from Nepal, where children learned to read in their
mother tongue while learning Nepali and English as a subject. After two years
of education, the children can read as well in their mother tongue as in Nepali
(MLE-Team, 2013). However, reading in English is not going very well, while
they are also learning it as a subject (M. Wong, 18th June 2015, Personal corre-
spondence). Still, much more research needs to be done in this area, but the
initial data seem to suggest that if a language is ‘closer to home’ it is easier for
the children to acquire it than when it is ‘farther from home’, as is the case with
former colonial languages such as English. It seems to suggest that different
trajectories of learning take place depending on the ‘closeness’ of the language.
Furthermore, often no guidelines are provided for teachers in linguisti-
cally diverse classrooms and the teachers use their own interpretations and
teaching methodologies for these situations (Nyaga Anthonissen, 2012).
More research is necessary to be able to provide the teachers with guidelines
on how to help children to learn best in these classrooms.
Other Contextual Factors
Taylor and Coetzee’s (2013) research has already indicated that other
factors play a role in language acquisition in education situations. Also,

research from Ghana (Leherr, 2009) showed that additional factors also play
a role. While the children in Kenya and Cameroon did well in reading in their
mother tongue, in Ghana they did not perform as well as expected. Leherr
(2009), in her report, indicates that the teacher seems to be an important
factor in learning outcomes. Students of effective teachers score better than
students of less effective teachers (Leherr, 2009). This also reflects what
Taylor and Coetzee (2013) noticed with the high and low performing schools
in South Africa. Even though the language factor plays a pivotal role in edu-
cation, there are some other factors in different contexts that may result in
a new language being learnt at a different pace. It is therefore important to
consider contextual factors that may play a significant role in language edu-
cation. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss them in detail, so
only the most important factors that have been identified by research are
listed here:
(1) The language level of the teachers. A minimum level is required for language
teaching for good learning to take place (Enever et al., 2009; Institute of
International Education, 2012; Pflepsen Backman, 2012).
(2) The use of the second/foreign language outside of the school setting. When the
language is used outside the classroom (second language) it is acquired
at a faster pace than when it is only used in the classroom (foreign lan-
guage) (Baker, 2006; Ellis, 1994).
(3) The age at which students start to learn the new language. Students that start
at the age of nine or 10 have cognitive advantages over the younger
students, while the younger students learn language intuitively. What
is important is to make use of the advantages of the different ages
(Johnstone, 2002; Mihaljevic Djigunlvic, 2014; Muñoz, 2008, 2014;
Nikolov, 2009). Students that are nine years or older have the poten-
tial to learn languages faster in a school setting than students who
start at the age of five or six. The ‘older’ students do better at learning
a new language in an instructional setting like school, because of
their cognitive maturity. Younger students have the advantage that
their learning is more intuitive, but in a school setting they might
learn as much in four years as the nine or 10 year old would learn in
two years.
(4) Clearly stated language competences and vocabulary that matches the compe-
tences. When a syllabus has clearly stated competences and vocabulary
listed that match the competences, then the pace of learning improves.
A lack of clear language competences and a mismatch of needed vocabu-
lary mean that it takes longer to acquire the threshold level (Benson
et al., 2010).
(5) The status of the new language and the first language. When a language has
low status or is perceived to be less valuable, it takes longer to reach a
threshold level (Nikolov Józsa, 2006).

(6) The materials available for language learning. When students have materi-
als available for language learning, their pace of language learning can
be faster (American Institute for Research, 2012; Enever et al., 2009;
Enever, 2011).
(7) The number of students in the class. Fewer students in a classroom give a
faster language acquisition pace (Enever, 2011).
(8) The hours of language learning. The more hours spent on language learning
(not just exposure) the faster the pace of learning (Enever et al., 2008).
(9) Scripts of the two languages. When the two languages have different
scripts, it takes longer to learn the second language (Asfaha et al., 2009;
Piper Van Ginkel, 2016).
(10) The language distance (i.e. how linguistically similar or different they are).
When the languages are related, the language acquisition pace is faster
than when they are not related (Chiswick Miller, 2004).
All these factors play a role in determining the appropriate pacing and
sequencing for a given context (Pflepsen Backman, 2012; Van Ginkel, 2014).
The Emerging Picture
The information in this chapter has helped to gain some insights on
language education in developing contexts. One thing that is clear, is that the
situation is diverse and one solution will not fit all contexts. While much
more research is necessary, there is a certain picture emerging: in a develop-
ing country, the longer children have a chance to learn a new language that
will be used as a medium of instruction, the more chance they have to per-
form to their ability in education. It is also emerging that submersion and
early exit models are not successful. For most children in these programmes,
it is sink or swim. It is important to note the difference between submersion
and immersion models. Immersion only tends to be effective when children
speak a majority language. In most situations in Africa, children will speak a
minority language, which is a significant factor and that makes an intended
immersion programme, a submersion programme.
Moreover, because in submersion and early exit models there is hardly
any space for the minority children’s language or culture, they tend to have
a negative effect on children (Caffery et al., 2014; Skutnabb-Kangas, 1988).
For example, because the language and culture of the children is hardly given
any space it harms their self-esteem, relationships, roots and sometimes race
(Baker, 2006).
As for the multilingual classroom, the data also seem to indicate that
length depends on how ‘close’ or ‘far’ away the language is that will be used
as a medium of instruction. The research from Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya
show that just submerging the children in the new language is not helping

them to learn the language faster or better. The data from Cameroon showed
that children who learn in their mother tongue even learn English better
than those who are submerged in English. What is also evident is that much
more research is necessary to understand what would be best for children in
a linguistically diverse classroom.
Furthermore, the success of language education depends very much on
the context in which it is implemented. Understanding the context is there-
fore pivotal and will provide guidance for which models are most effective
in which settings. It is quite possible that a multilingual country needs to
have a flexible language policy that allows the home language to be used as
sole medium of instruction until the new language has been learnt well
enough, so that children can cognitively benefit from it when it is (also) used
as a medium of instruction.
Economic Considerations for Implementing
Multilingual Education
Having said all the above, the implementation of a late exit programme
is often not considered because it seems rather expensive to develop school
materials in 80+ languages, train teachers in 80+ languages. This is a particu-
larly pressing issue in developing countries and is important to address. This
economic argument seems to be valid, but it would mean that many children
will start education in languages they do not understand, which increases
the risk of low learning outcomes. Therefore, it needs to be given thought
before even looking at the academic advantages of mother tongue based mul-
tilingual education. It is believed that the most cost beneficial approach to
education in complex multilingual settings is to transition minority language
children as quickly as possible to a language of wider communication. That
would prevent the cost of materials development in different languages,
printing books in many languages and upgrading the teacher training pro-
grammes, which are indeed some of the extra costs (Alidou et al., 2006).
However, there is also a cost of children not performing well in school, drop-
ping out of school and repeating grades, which is not calculated in these
‘budgets’. To fully understand the cost of multilingual education, one has to
consider all the costs and weigh them up against one another. Taking into
account better learning outcomes, if few children repeated classes and fewer
dropped out, then efficiency of education improves. Furthermore, because
the students are better educated, they contribute to a better educated human
capital, who can then earn more. There is more evidence that a well-
implemented multilingual education programme is, in the end, less costly
than the largely unproductive ‘other language only’ education systems
(Bender et al., 2005). Thus, when considering the economic argument, it is
important to include all costs and benefits of a certain approach and not only

the immediate, the most visible cost, but also take into consideration longer-
term outcomes of the investment.
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24
Considering the Complexities
of Teaching Intercultural
Understanding in Foreign
Languages
Patricia Driscoll
‘Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an
opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster
pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.’
National Curriculum (2014: 212)
The new national curriculum in England includes for the first time foreign
languages (FL) as part of the statutory requirements at Key Stage 2 (7–11
years). From September 2014 all state schools are legally required to provide
FL to learners from the age of 7 to 14. Extending statutory learning by four
years offers the potential for enhanced linguistic proficiency and deeper
levels of cultural understanding. The strong cultural statement quoted above,
taken from the FL programme of study in the national curriculum, high-
lights the importance of culture and its role in language teaching. Cultural
learning, however, is rarely given prominence in primary language lessons in
England (Cable et al., 2010), a scenario reflected in primary and secondary
schools across Europe. The recent Council of Europe’s guide on plurilingual
and intercultural education (Beacco et al., 2015), indicates that intercultural
learning and cultural enrichment have been chiefly disregarded as a central
objective of language learning in the Common European Framework of
Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001) across member states. Beacco
et al. (2015) argue that despite the success of the CEFR for language teaching
and assessment in all sectors of education across Europe, the cultural dimen-
sion is generally marginalised in schools.
This chapter focuses on cultural learning associated with primary for-
eign languages. Informed by a range of evidence, the chapter explores the
mismatch between the clearly articulated cultural purpose of language
teaching in policy documents and curriculum guidance materials and actual
3

practice in schools (Driscoll et al., 2013). I argue that given the rise in migra-
tion across Europe and the rapidly increasing multicultural dimension of pri-
mary schools, it is timely to review cultural development in languages
education and reconceptualise it within a whole-school interconnected
approach. Planning a coherent approach to cultural and intercultural develop-
ment, which draws upon children’s experiences across curriculum subjects as
well as their experience outside of school, has more chance of liberating
young learners from insularity, opening their minds to other cultures and
deepening their understanding of themselves and the world. This chapter is
located within the English education system, itself culturally bound with
educational traditions, values, purposes and pedagogy. I hope, however, that
the chapter will have broader relevance to other education systems and pri-
mary FL communities.
This chapter is informed by a mixed method longitudinal research study
comprising observation of lessons and interviews with teachers and head
teachers, as well as focus group discussions and questionnaires to children
across Key Stage 2. Data were gathered in 40 primary schools across England
for three years. The study was designed to investigate primary language
practice and to assess children’s progress over time in the four skills of listen-
ing, speaking, reading and writing through specifically designed language
achievement tests, as well as national tests at the end of primary schooling.
The findings indicated that despite the importance teachers and head teach-
ers attributed to intercultural and cultural learning in FL, lessons generally
included mere snippets of cultural information giving a shallow understand-
ing of the target cultures and very few opportunities for cultural reflection
and analysis (Cable et al., 2010). The deeper purposes of intercultural learning
conveyed by the teaching staff when interviewed were unfulfilled.
Distinctions need to be made between intercultural and cultural develop-
ment, understanding or competence. As the prefix ‘inter’ suggests, learning
or the development of competencies occur in the space between or among
cultures. FL is a major mechanism within the curriculum for imparting an
understanding about the cultures and social practices in another country/
countries. It acts as a window to the wider world. At a basic level, the aim of
‘intercultural’ understanding or learning implies (1) a process of self-
realisation and reflection about one’s own culture which leads to the develop-
ment of a sense of a cultural self; (2) an understanding of another or ‘foreign’
culture; and (3) the capacity to function across at least two different cultural
settings. The FL teacher has three interconnected tasks: (1) to provide oppor-
tunities for learners to reflect upon and analyse their own cultural reference
points which inform their identity; (2) to learn about the cultural character-
istics, social practices and attitudes of another country; and (3) to adapt their
behaviour and attitude when in the target culture. Intercultural understand-
ing therefore, comprises a complex set of educational aims requiring multi-
faceted teaching tasks.
Complexities of Teaching Intercultural Understanding in FLs 25

Jerome Bruner (1996) suggests that by focusing on antinomies or contra-
dictions within complex educational aims, we can learn useful lessons and
keep issues in balance. An ongoing dilemma for primary schools is finding a
sufficient supply of well-qualified teachers to teach FL. A major contradic-
tion arises therefore from the profile of many primary teachers with limited
experiences of either the target language or associated cultures and the com-
plex cultural requirements of the subject. The comprehensive questionnaires
administered by Driscoll et al. in 2004 and Wade and Marshall in 2009, indi-
cate there has been limited change in the relatively low levels of proficiency
and limited educational experiences of living abroad for primary languages
teachers in England (Driscoll et al., 2004; Wade Marshall, 2009). For the
FL teacher to provide a curriculum that promotes cultural insights and the
capacity to function in at least one of the countries where the target language
is spoken, they themselves need to have a level of knowledge and experience.
I argue in this chapter that in light of this contraction, we need to reconfig-
ure intercultural understanding so that the priority is not on the foreign
culture, but on learners as individuals, their reflections and ongoing self-
realisation. The in-depth qualitative interviews we conducted for the three-
year longitudinal study (Cable et al., 2010), reveal that primary teachers are
keen to offer a range of cultural experiences for their learners in a variety of
ways through different subjects inside and outside of school. Primary teach-
ers know their children and they are perfectly placed to help them reflect
upon their own culture at home and their cultural experiences at school and
in the community. Through designing concrete activities and experiences
that are rooted in the diversity of the local world, primary teachers can help
learners to develop their own intercultural skills, tolerance, empathy and the
capacity to adapt their behaviour. Before considering these issues in more
depth, I shall briefly consider some key arguments for including cultural and
intercultural understanding in FL learning and explore the aims and purposes
of the primary curriculum within which FL is located.
The Cultural Dimension
Cultural dexterity became a key strand in FL learning with the rise in
importance of fluent communication for trade, banking, academic pursuits
and general travel. In order to prevent miscommunication, it is argued, an
interlocutor needs to understand not only the linguistic structures and vocab-
ulary, but also how to interact in ways that are culturally acceptable to those
from the target culture (Byram, 1989, 2009). This argument is based, to an
extent, on the concept of a homogenised national and regional culture where
all individuals in country X think, behave and interact in similar ways.
Embedded within learning a FL are linguistic and cultural differences,
although not as separate entities. Kramsch argues (1993, 1998) that language

itself is a cultural product of the community and heritage, and an individual
speaks with their own voice as well as with the established reference points
of their native society. According to this view, language has a role in promot-
ing and preserving culture at the same time as it continually adapts to express
the needs of people and changing societies. Rather than heritage, policy docu-
ments highlight the societal benefits of language learning and the importance
of developing cultural knowledge, skills, dispositions, behaviour and attitudes
for economic wellbeing and workforce mobility (Council of Europe, 1982;
European Commission, 1995; Nuffield Foundation, 2000). FL is considered
strategically as well as economically important and an enabling skill to sup-
port both white collar and blue collar workers (Tinsley, 2013). Speaking
English undoubtedly has advantages as the language of international com-
munication and the most dominant language of the internet (British Council,
2014). An ethnocentric approach, however, hinders international partnerships
and trade, particularly when selling. In addition to the benefits of intercul-
tural competence for the economy, promoting a culturally open mind set for
social harmony at home is emphasised in a number of reports about the most
needed languages in the UK (Tinsley, 2013: British Council, 2014).
A widely used framework for intercultural competence and communica-
tion conceptualised by Michael Byram (1997) called the five savoirs, com-
prises knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for successful interaction with
people from other cultures. Designed to be taught by linguists for older learn-
ers, Byram and Doyé (1999) stress that the foundations for intercultural com-
petence should be laid in primary schools. By developing the competencies
within the savoirs, teachers can help children to foster an openness towards
‘otherness’ and a capacity to reflect upon cultural differences, as well as ques-
tion the assumptions of their own cultural group. These competencies
include, savoir, meaning knowledge of the cultural norms of self, other indi-
viduals and societal interaction. Savoir s’engager, meaning critical cultural
awareness, which, according to Byram is developed through reflection and
analysis of culture. Savoir apprendre/faire, which refers to the capacity for
interaction and discovery and savoir comprendre, which refers to the ability to
interpret something from another person’s point of view. Finally, savoir être
refers to attitudes such as curiosity and openness that promote open com-
munication, rather than those coloured by suspicion or intolerance.
Byram’s framework underpins the teaching and assessment of cultural
development in the CEFR and national policy in a number of countries
(Byram et al., 2002; Council of Europe, 2001; Hennebry, 2014). According to
the Council of Europe’s guide for plurilingual and intercultural education
(Beacco et al., 2015: 10) intercultural competence is:
The ability to experience otherness and cultural diversity, to analyse that
experience and to derive benefit from it. Once acquired, intercultural
competence makes it easier to understand otherness, establish cognitive

and affective links between past and new experiences of otherness, medi-
ate between members of two (or more) social groups and their cultures,
and question the assumptions of one’s own cultural group.
The concept of intercultural communicative competence implies an
ongoing process rather than a final product. Within these ambitions of cul-
tural decentring, it is not just that a learner is aware of their own cultural
judgements about rules of conduct, communication, behaviour and attitudes,
but also that they are able to bracket them to reduce cultural discord that
may impede communication. Drawing upon Canale and Swain (1980) and
van Ek (1986), Byram and Doyé (1999) argue that proficient intercultural
speakers need linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, which they
define as: ‘the ability to understand meaning (…) including what is taken for
granted and left unsaid’ and discourse competence defined as: ‘the ability to
overcome difficulties of production and understanding’ (Byram Doyé,
1999: 141). Furthermore, they suggest the ability to fill in the gaps in one’s
own knowledge (strategic competence) and the attitudes, dispositions and
insight to overcome misunderstandings and differences in interpretations of
the same phenomenon. Early awareness of these competences could arguably
begin in primary schools given the optimum conditions of highly trained
staff, who themselves are interculturally dextrous with a range of high qual-
ity resources and sufficient curriculum time to explore the nuances of com-
munication. In the meantime, while we wait for these optimum conditions,
a more holistic ‘primary’ approach to intercultural learning is required.
Aims and Purposes of Education
The first aim of the new National Curriculum for England relates to the
purpose of education, stating that it is designed to provide pupils with ‘an
introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citi-
zens’ (National Curriculum, 2014: 6). The second aim highlights the impor-
tance of the whole school experience rather than just subjects taught in
lesson time. It states that the national curriculum ‘is just one element in the
education of every child’ (p. 6) and the wider school curriculum should also
be well-designed for learning and skill development. In relation to subjects,
there are specific requirements for cultural learning outlined in the English,
art and design, design technology, history and FL curriculum. There is no
indication of how cultural learning should be explored in the wider curricu-
lum, however, the quality of cultural development overall within subjects
and the wider curriculum is inspected and graded by the Office for Standards
in Education (Ofsted), as part of the government’s assessment of a school’s
spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMCS). Following an
inspection, schools are awarded a grade by the inspectors ranging from

‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ to ‘inadequate’. According to
Ofsted (2016: 35, No. 136) the definition of cultural development is demon-
strated by pupils’:
(1) understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences
that have shaped their own heritage and those of others;
(2) understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures within
school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for
life in modern Britain;
(3) knowledge of Britain’s democratic parliamentary system and its cen-
tral role in shaping our history and values, and in continuing to develop
Britain;
(4) willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical,
sporting and cultural opportunities;
(5) interest in exploring, improving understanding of and showing respect
for different faiths and cultural diversity and the extent to which they
understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity, as shown by their
tolerance and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-
economic groups in the local, national and global communities.
The Ofsted framework comprises expectations about learners’ under-
standing of themselves (point 1); knowledge, behaviour and attitudes
towards, cultural diversity (point 2); cultural heritage and values (point 3):
higher order cultural engagement (point 4); and intercultural awareness
(points 1, 2 and 5). The Ofsted expectations for cultural development suggest
ongoing short term and long term educational aims. They also suggest a
notion of a heterogeneous national group that hold the same values, which
are British. The problematic concept of British values is undefined, rather the
emphasis is drawn to the importance of understanding, respecting and being
open and tolerant towards diversity. For pupils to demonstrate understand-
ing and respect, they need opportunities and experiences to explore, discuss,
analyse and reflect upon ‘otherness’.
Alexander (2010) argues that social and cultural representation is a core
purpose of primary education. This overarching goal is promoted through
the curriculum as subjects are taught through a selective lens. Historical
events, for example, can be a matter of some debate, but in general, history
is represented in the curriculum in a selective way intended to stimulate
allegiance and national pride rather than alienation, discord or shame.
Primary teachers are trained to promote the cultural threads inherent in the
national curriculum and schools are part of the central social infrastructure
for transmitting the national cultural legacy. On the one hand, therefore,
schools are tasked with ensuring respect for diversity, cultural difference and
otherness; on the other hand they are a mechanism to endorse, promote and
foster the nationally accepted social and cultural structures.

Through contrast, FL teachers can illuminate cultural differences, provide
an opening to other cultures and enrich pupils’ sphere of influence, thereby
liberating them from insularity. By comparing attitudes, perceptions and
understandings to (and of) events and customs from the past and present day
in a positive way, FL can help learners to identify with a different social or
cultural group and in doing so motivate learners to engage with ‘otherness’,
which has implications for social harmony at home. There is, however, more
of a tendency for FL to skim superficially through the historic footprint, land-
scape, landmarks and architecture of a country or point towards a
homogenised anthropological view of modes of behaviour, food and festivals.
According to Grenfell (2000) the emphasis on communicating in authentic
settings in secondary school modern foreign languages places the learner in
the role of tourist with associated cultural references related to the tourist
viewpoint. Situating the primary learner as a foreign tourist is at best prema-
ture, as children rarely travel or study abroad without their own family, or, if
they do, then they travel in an educational group with whom they maintain
their own cultural norms. As such, they have very limited opportunity for
interaction with unknown ‘others’ when travelling. Furthermore, assuming
that all children in one class or school conform to one culture contests all we
know about cultural differences in our schools, not only in terms of bilingual
and plurilingual families, but also in relation to sociocultural differences.
The mixed methods research design of the Cable et al. (2010) study, par-
ticularly in relation to the combining of data from children’s questionnaires
and focus group interview data, allowed us to penetrate some of the com-
plexity of investigating perceptions to learning about and attitudes towards
cultural differences. Approximately 140 children were surveyed in each year
from the age of seven followed by focus group interviews in each year group.
The quantitative data indicated that younger children (aged seven and eight)
reported enjoying learning about the country more than the older children
(aged nine and 10). However, 94% of children aged 10 and 11 reported that
they would like to visit the country, even though some did not enjoy learning
about it in lessons. The focus group interviews revealed a more complex
scenario. Children spoke of their enjoyment and interest in cultural experi-
ences at school such as learning about different customs, sampling tradi-
tional food and going on school trips, but some of the older children reported
an overall sense of boredom with lack of challenge in the FL curriculum and
the repeated diet in terms of resources and activities. Older children, there-
fore, did indeed enjoy learning about culture less, but because of the peda-
gogy rather than because of their attitudes towards others. Individual
differences were also highlighted through the interviews rather than through
the surveys, for instance, one learner said:
half of my family is Indian and I think learning French and lots of
other languages sort of brings you more into life … you know what’s

going on in the world; you know how people live… we learnt a lot
about different places in France; so not just one place (Year 6 Focus
group 2008–09)
There is a tendency in primary FL to teach children about cultural dif-
ferences between one country and another as though they were two
homogenised cultural groups (Cable et al., 2010). In other words, the English
do this, and the French, Spanish and Germans do that. It is difficult to see
how assuming that all children in one class adhere to a notional national
norm with one language and one set of beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, in
order to compare them with another homogenised group in another coun-
try, will lay foundations for tolerance, empathy and respect for other
cultures. The notion of sameness may work on a superficial level, but if
changing attitudes and developing certain dispositions and approaches to
interaction are the central goal, then creating an ‘us’ and ‘them’ flies in the
face of logic. While the notion of national and regional identity may be
important in creating a sense of belonging, and while it is important that
children learn and adhere to societal and school rules, conceptualising ‘other-
ness’ through national differences may suggest a judgement about something
‘wrong’ or ‘odd’.
Lo Bianco (2014) challenges the term ‘foreign’ in language education,
arguing that globalisation, communication, interconnectedness, unprece-
dented expansion of migration and population shifts have converted most
countries into multi- or pluri-cultural and lingual societies. Arguably, it is
time to rethink intercultural development in primary schools and place a
greater emphasis on children’s personal reflection, their own cultural refer-
ence points and developing a sense of pride in their own individual cultural
identity. Drawing upon the existing cultural learning experiences of children
in the class as a foundation for cultural learning requires a shift from a nos-
talgic notion of an unchanging culture deeply steeped in the soil of nations
to a living dynamic concept of culture that evolves as individuals and societ-
ies change. Rather than focusing solely on cultural differences between home
and abroad, the important skills of intercultural understanding, outlined in
the savoirs, could be explored through a focus on the social and cultural refer-
ences of members of a class and school, whether children are multilingual or
not, as well as the diverse cultural reference points in schools abroad.
Validating Children’s Sense of Self through
Cultural Reflection
Children do not start school culturally neutral. The majority of learners
inhabit a space with their family or guardians and if they attend a play-
school or nursery, they meet a small number of other children and adults.

Within this small, local learning society they learn to recognise customs
and values placed on different symbols and approaches to interaction.
Donaldson (1978) suggests that in general, young learners have the same
processes of interpretation as adults and the capacity to make sense of direct
human interaction, which Bruner (1983) argues, enables children to manage
highly complex scenes of human interaction regularly. As soon as they start
school, children join a larger community with a great number of people.
They begin to learn a new cultural code, new knowledge, skills and differ-
ent approaches to interaction. The cultural influences and codes of behav-
iour learnt in some home environments are more aligned to the school
culture. Some children therefore, have to modify their behaviour more than
others. All children, however, have to adapt to the new learning environ-
ment and adopt new practices. Many of the rules and codes are made explicit
as the teacher manages the class and teaches; however, codes of conduct are
rarely open to discussion, rather, they are presented as the ‘right’ way to
behave. In general schooling, children are rarely given opportunities to com-
pare their own cultural domains with others within the class or critique the
codes of conduct they are being taught. How then, can the foundations for
intercultural competence be laid in primary school if learning does not start
from the child’s own experience? Intercultural understanding essentially
requires being open to different practices and suspending judgement in an
attempt to understand the world from a different perspective. Is it not
better therefore, to start reflecting upon difference within the safe space of
classmates and friends?
The concept of funds of knowledge for capitalising on children’s social
and cultural learning experiences outside of school is useful here. Funds of
knowledge refer to the knowledge, skills and ways of doing and living, which
connect home, school and community (Moll et al., 1992; Gonzalez et al.,
1995). Based on lived experiences within the family, they are according to
Moll et al. (1992: 133) ‘historically accumulated and culturally-developed
bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household and individual func-
tioning and well-being’. Through these lived experiences, people develop
values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours including their approach to social
interaction. González and Moll (2002) argue for a pedagogy that is more
closely linked to students’ lives, their histories and their community.
Drawing upon a study that involved students and families from Latin
American backgrounds, they investigated how local funds of knowledge can
be used as a foundation for future learning in order to validate students’
identity and enhance their engagement. Using ethnographic research meth-
ods, including participant observation, interviewing, life history narratives
and field notes, teachers and high school students investigated the dynamic
processes of learning in the daily practices of student households. The find-
ings of their study indicated that over time, the status of local cultural and
social capital grows and the funds of knowledge become a valuable resource

for reconceptualising the academic discourse in the classroom. Links between
the home and school also improved and teachers’ professional practice was
transformed through participation in the research study.
Esteban-Guitart and Moll (2014) extend the concept of ‘funds of knowl-
edge’ to understand identity, which they refer to as ‘funds of identity’. They
suggest that through investigating the practices, beliefs, knowledge and ideas
that are culturally developed and socially imparted, insights can be gained
about how individuals perceive themselves and make meaning. Rather than
self as a metaphysical concept, they argue, self can be empirically linked to
what one does. Identity, rather than solely in the mind, is embedded in the
artefacts and activities of the social and cultural contexts. They suggest that
through drawings, self-portraits and discussion with children, their funds of
knowledge can be explored and insights gained into how, if at all, their funds
of knowledge differ from those of adults.
Designing a school curriculum to reflect funds of knowledge developed
at home may be too radical in light of a national curriculum constructed
around subject disciplines; however, it makes perfect sense to begin cultural
and intercultural development in primary school around a child’s own cul-
tural funds of knowledge and identity. While it may be impractical for all FL
teachers to conduct ethnographic research in children’s homes, finding a
space on the curriculum to help children research the artefacts, activities,
resources and approaches to interaction of their home and community as a
basis for sharing with others in the class is not. There are more than a million
learners in UK schools who speak a language other than English (National
Association of Language Development in the Curriculum, 2015) and the
number is increasing as migrants and refugees arrive in schools from across
the world. Valuing the diversity of cultures within one class and school can
help children settle and help teachers reveal the rich layers of cultural experi-
ences of children in the class. Conteh’s (2012) longitudinal case studies con-
tribute a further dimension. Using linguistic ethnographic methodology, she
tracked children’s learning experiences at home, in the community and at
school to investigate bilingual children’s concept of funds of knowledge. Her
findings suggest that using the concept of funds of knowledge, bilingual
children’s underachievement can be addressed. She argues that classrooms
need to be places where ‘threads, strands and fibres of global, national and
local discourses are dialectically mediated and dialogically played out in the
interactions between teachers and learners’ (Conteh, 2012: 114).
Teaching about the threads and strands of the target culture, whether
information about the landscape and festivals, customs when greeting others
or slight differences in the organisation of schooling, could become part of a
coherent programme which celebrates diversity at home and abroad. Culture
is both dynamic and responsive. Rather than straying into stereotypes, FL
could become the vehicle for extending the discourse of inclusion. Britain, for
example, is classed as a black tea drinking nation. It is rated fifth in the world

of tea drinking countries (Wikipedia, 2015). There are, however, many
Britons, who prefer coffee and some drink neither tea nor coffee. Information
that tea consumption is extremely high in Britain, belies the fact that tea-
drinking is rapidly reducing (Sturgess, 2013).
Primary schools are increasingly connected to other schools locally and
nationally through a variety of links and partnerships. Almost half of the
schools in the Cable et al. (2010) study had developed links associated with
FL learning with at least one school abroad. These links offered opportunities
for children to practise language through sharing curriculum resources and
information about their school and their lives. A number of schools also
organised face-to-face meetings and educational trips to their partner school
abroad and some schools extended these links for joint curriculum planning
and cross-curricular projects. Significantly, the mixed-method study con-
ducted by Cable et al. (2010) facilitated analysis of multiple perspectives
which provided a more comprehensive understanding of learner’s views
about cultural experiences within FL. As discussed above, the focus group
discussions both contextualised the responses from the questionnaire admin-
istered to pupils and contributed an individual learner perspective.
The British Council’s, School’s-Online website depicts a number of proj-
ects where schools in different countries have developed cross-cultural cur-
riculum themes to enable children to see first-hand different approaches to
knowledge, skill-development, customs and interaction. These projects do
not require linguistic knowledge and they indicate an increased motivation
to expand cultural opportunities in schools. Providing a coherent cultural
programme where learning objectives are planned rather than ad hoc,
requires teachers to conceptualise culture within a pedagogic frame.
Primary Teachers’ Toolkit
The predominant model for teaching foreign languages in primary
schools in England is a teacher who is not a linguist and who is unlikely to
have an in-depth knowledge of the target country (Cable et al., 2010; Driscoll
et al., 2004; Wade Marshall, 2009). The Driscoll et al. (2004) study high-
lighted the limited amount of cultural learning associated with FL across
England. Only 22% of the 2966 responding schools considered positive cul-
tural benefits arose from FL learning. The qualitative evidence, however,
drawn from interviews and discussion groups with a range of key stake-
holders in 15 case study primary schools in different local authorities, showed
vast regional differences. Where there was a perceived need and where teach-
ers had expertise, the cultural dimension was at the heart of FL learning. In
one case study school, for example, based in a multilingual area with over 70
languages represented in the school, the aim of teaching FL centred on inter-
cultural learning and language awareness. The school offered a range of

stimulating cultural activities in 12 languages including Mandarin Chinese
and Welsh. The local authority provided a wealth of resources for developing
children’s cultural understanding and tolerance. For this study, funded by the
government, the qualitative evidence, although offering an element of trian-
gulation, played a secondary role to the quantitative evidence. At that time,
the Department for Education were interested in providing a baseline of
practice from which to measure growth rather than understanding individ-
ual differences.
Only 20% of primary FL teachers are specialists who are likely to have
had an extended sojourn in a country where the target language is spoken as
part of their educational studies (Wade Marshall, 2009). The assumption
embedded within policy that primary FL teachers are equipped to teach
intercultural understanding by drawing upon their own experience of the
target country is overly optimistic (Driscoll et al., 2013). Indeed, it is a major
contradiction in policy to expect primary FL teachers to facilitate intercul-
tural understanding in a similar way to secondary school modern foreign
language teachers. Primary schools are perfectly placed to explore cultural
differences, motivate learners to enjoy ‘otherness’ and help them to develop
social and cultural skills. The primary workforce are expert in teaching
many if not all subjects across the curriculum. Their professional lives focus
on developing the ‘whole child’, yet cultural learning in FL still focuses
entirely on teaching the culture associated to the target language, rather than
including references about the target culture within a larger programme of
cultural learning.
According to Cable et al.’s (2010) study, primary age children in England,
who are learning a foreign language in school, learn a body of phrases, a bank
of nouns in different topic areas and a few verbs each year. Teachers generally
drew attention to well-known characteristics such as landmarks or celebra-
tions when teaching the language. Most teachers in the case study schools
also drew attention to the commonalities and differences between the two
language structures, such as adjectival agreements or verb construction. Eric
Hawkins (1981, 1984) argues that developing an awareness of language by
comparing different languages side by side creates a firm foundation for sub-
sequent language learning. This may be the case for language, but there is
little evidence to suggest that a firm foundation is being laid for subsequent
intercultural learning, despite the increased availability of multimedia
resources. The limited availability of intercultural training to help primary
teachers to develop their understanding and skills leads to limited systematic
planning for cultural development across year groups. As a consequence, the
cultural curriculum is not designed around learner’s developing social and
cultural capacities or their interests (Driscoll et al., 2013).
A large number of teachers have to rely on their own ‘toolkit’ of experi-
ences and many feel ill-equipped to teach intercultural understanding, not
only in England but across the world (Driscoll et al., 2004; Languages and

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MY days are full of pleasant memories
Of all those women sweet
Whom I have known! How tenderly their eyes
Flash thro’ the days—too fleet!—
Which long ago went by with sun and rain,
Flowers, or the winter snow;
And still thro’ memory’s palace-halls are fain
In rustling robes to go!
Or wed, or widow’d, or with milkless breasts,
Around those women stand,
Like mists that linger on the mountain crests
Rear’d in a phantom land;
And love is in their mien and in their look,
And from their lips a stream
Of tender words flows, smooth as any brook,
And softer than a dream:
And one by one, holding my hands, they say
Things of the years agone;
And each head will a little turn away,
And each one still sigh on,
Because they think such meagre joy we had;
For love was little bold,
And youth had store, and chances to be glad,
And squander’d so his gold.
Blue eyes, and gray, and blacker than the sloe,
And dusk and golden hair,
And lips that broke in kisses long ago,
Like sun-kiss’d flowers are there;
And warm fireside, and sunny orchard wall,
And river-brink and bower,
And wood and hill, and morning and day-fall,
And every place and hour!
And each on each a white unclouded brow
Still as a sister bends,
As they would say, “Love makes us kindred now,

Who sometime were his friends.”
Thomas Ashe.

THE GUEST.
LIGHTS Love, the timorous bird, to dwell,
While summer smiles, a guest with you?
Be wise betimes and use him well,
And he will stay in winter too:
For you can have no sweeter thing
Within the heart’s warm nest to sing.
The blue-plumed swallows fly away,
Ere autumn gilds a leaf; and then
Have wit to find another day
The little clay-built house again:
He will not know, a second spring,
His last year’s nest, if Love take wing.
Thomas Ashe.

THE SECRET.
From the French of Félix Arvers.
MY life its secret and its mystery has,
A love eternal in a moment born;
There is no hope to help my evil case,
And she knows naught who makes me thus forlorn.
And I unmark’d shall ever by her pass
Aye at her side, and yet for aye alone;
And I shall waste my bitter days, alas!
And never dare to claim my love my own!
And she whom God has made so sweet and dear,
Will go her way, distraught, and never hear
This murmur round her of my love and pain;
To austere duty true, will go her way,
And read these verses full of her, and say,
“Who is this woman that he sings of then?”
Thomas Ashe.

IF Love could last, if Love could last,
The Future be as was the Past,
Nor faith and fondness ever know
The chill of dwindling afterglow,
Oh, then we should not have to long
For cuckoo’s call and throstle’s song,
But every season then would ring
With rapturous voices of the spring.
In budding brake and grassy glade
The primrose then would never fade,
The windflower flag, the bluebell haze
Faint from the winding woodland ways,
But vernal hopes chase wintry fears,
And happy smiles and happier tears
Be like the sun and clouds at play,—
If Love could last!
If Love could last, the rose would then
Not bloom but once, to fade again.
June to the lily would not give
A life less fair than fugitive,
But flower and leaf and lawn renew
Their freshness nightly with the dew.
In forest dingles, dim and deep,
Where curtained noonday lies asleep,
The faithful ringdove ne’er would cease
Its anthem of abiding peace.
All the year round we then should stray
Through fragrance of the new-mown hay,
Or sit and ponder old-world rhymes
Under the leaves of scented limes.
Careless of time, we should not fear
The footsteps of the fleeting year,
Or, did the long warm days depart,
’Twould still be summer in our heart,—
Did L b t l t!

Did Love but last!
Did Love but last, no shade of grief
For fading flower, for falling leaf,
For stubbles whence the piled-up wain
Hath borne away the golden grain,
Leaving a load of loss behind,
Would shock the heart and haunt the mind.
With mellow gaze we then should see
The ripe fruit shaken from the tree,
The swallows troop, the acorns fall,
The last peach redden on the wall,
The oasthouse smoke, the hopbine burn,
Knowing that all good things return
To Love that lasts!
If Love could last, who then would mind
The freezing rack, the unfeeling wind,
The curdling pool, the shivering sedge,
The empty nest in leafless hedge,
Brown dripping bents and furrows bare,
The wild geese clamouring through the air,
The huddling kine, the sodden leaves,
Lack-lustre dawns and clammy eves?
For then through twilight days morose
We should within keep warm and close,
And by the friendly fireside blaze
Talk of the ever-sacred days
When first we met, and felt how drear
Were life without the other near;
Or, too at peace with bliss to speak,
Sit hand in hand, and cheek to cheek,—
If Love could last!
Yet Love Can Last.
Yet Love can last, yes, Love can last,

The Future be as was the Past,
And faith and fondness never know
The chill of dwindling afterglow,
If to familiar hearth there cling
The virgin freshness of the spring,
And April’s music still be heard
In wooing voice and winning word.
If when autumnal shadows streak
The furrowed brow, the wrinkled cheek,
Devotion, deepening to the close,
Like fruit that ripens, tenderer grows;
If, though the leaves of youth and hope
Lie thick on life’s declining slope,
The fond heart, faithful to the last,
Lingers in love-drifts of the past;
If, with the gravely shortening days,
Faith trims the lamp, Faith feeds the blaze,
And Reverence, robed in wintry white,
Sheds fragrance like a summer night,—
Then Love can last!
Alfred Austin.

A JOURNEY.
THE same green hill, the same blue sea,—
Yet, love, thou art no more to me!
The same long reach of yellow sand,—
Where is the touch of thy soft hand?
The same wide open arch of sky,—
But, sweetheart, thou no more art nigh!
God love thee and God keep thee strong:
I breathe that pure prayer through my song!
I send my soul across the waste
To seek and find thy soul in haste!
Across the inland woods and glades,
And through the leaf-laced checkered shades,
My spirit passes, seeking thee;
No more I tarry by the sea.
For where thou art am I for ever;
Mere space and time divide us never.
George Barlow.

IF ONLY THOU ART TRUE.
IF only a single Rose is left,
Why should the summer pine?
A blade of grass in a rocky cleft;
A single star to shine.
—Why should I sorrow if all be lost,
If only thou art mine?
If only a single Bluebell gleams
Bright on the barren heath,
Still of that flower the summer dreams,
Not of his August wreath.
—Why should I sorrow if thou art mine,
Love, beyond change and death?
If only once on a wintry day
The sun shines forth in the blue,
He gladdens the groves till they laugh as in May
And dream of the touch of the dew.
—Why should I sorrow if all be false,
If only thou art true?
George Barlow.

THE ECSTASY OF THE HAIR.
I’D send a troop of kisses to entangle
And lose themselves in labyrinths of hair,—
Thy deep dark night of hair with stars to spangle,
And each, a firefly’s tiny lamp, to dangle
Amid the tresses of that forest fair.
A perfume seems to blossom into air;
The ecstasy that hangs about the tresses,
Their blush, their overflow, their breath, their bloom;
A wind that gently lifts them and caresses,
And wings itself and floats about the room;
The beauty that the flame of youth expresses,
A tender fire, too tender to consume,
Which, seizing all my soul, pervades, possesses,
And mingleth in a subtly sweet perfume.
George Barlow.

COME, oh, come to me, voice or look, or spirit or dream, but, oh, come
now;
All these faces that crowd so thick are pale and cold and dead—Come
thou,
Scatter them back to the ivory gate and be alone and rule the night.
Surely all worlds are nothing to Love, for Love to flash thro’ the night and
come;
Hither and thither he flies at will, with thee he dwelleth—there is his home.
Come, O Love, with a voice, a message; haste, O Love, on thy wings of
light.
Love, I am calling thee, Love, I am calling; dost thou not hear my crying,
sweet?
Does not the live air throb with the pain of my beating heart, till thy heart
beat?—
Surely momently thou wilt be here, surely, O sweet Love, momently.
No, my voice would be all too faint, too faint, when it reached Love’s ear,
tho’ the night is still,
Fainter ever and fainter grown o’er hill and valley and valley and hill,
There where thou liest quietly sleeping, and Love keeps watch as the
dreams flit by.
Ah, my thought so subtle and swift, can it not fly till it reach thy brain,
And whisper there some faint regret for a weary watch and a distant pain?
—
Not too loud, to awake thy slumber; not too tender, to make thee weep;
Just so much for thy head to turn on the pillow so, and understand
Dimly, that a soft caress has come long leagues from a weary land,
Turn and half remember and smile, and send a kiss on the wings of sleep.
H. C. Beeching.

AHUNDRED years from now, dear heart,
We will not care at all.
It will not matter then a whit,
The honey or the gall.
The summer days that we have known
Will all forgotten be and flown;
The garden will be overgrown
Where now the roses fall.
A hundred years from now, dear heart,
We will not mind the pain.
The throbbing crimson tide of life
Will not have left a stain.
The song we sing together, dear,
The dream we dream together here,
Will mean no more than means a tear
Amid a summer rain.
The grief will all be o’er;
The sea of care will surge in vain
Upon a careless shore.
These glasses we turn down to-day
Here at the parting of the way:
We will be wineless then as they,
And will not mind it more.
We’ll neither know nor care
What came of all life’s bitterness
Or followed love’s despair.
Then fill the glasses up again
And kiss me through the rose-leaf rain;
We’ll build one castle more in Spain,
And dream one more dream there.

I CHARGE YOU, O WINDS OF THE WEST.

ICHARGE you, O winds of the West, O winds with the wings of the dove,
That ye blow o’er the brows of my Love, breathing low that I sicken
for love.
I charge you, O dews of the dawn, O tears of the star of the morn,
That ye fall at the feet of my love, with the sound of one weeping forlorn.
I charge you, O birds of the air, O birds flying home to your nest,
That ye sing in his ears of the joy that for ever has fled from my breast.
I charge you, O flowers of the Earth, O frailest of things, and most fair,
That ye droop in his path as the life in me shrivels and droops with despair.
O Moon, when he lifts up his face, when he seeth the waning of thee,
A memory of her who lies wan on the limits of life let it be.
Many tears cannot quench, nor my sighs extinguish the flames of love’s
fire,
Which lifteth my heart like a wave, and smites it and breaks its desire.
I rise like one in a dream; unbidden my feet know the way
To that garden where love stood in blossom with the red and white
hawthorn of May.
The song of the throstle is hushed, and the fountain is dry to its core,
The moon cometh up as of old; she seeks, but she finds him no more.
The pale-faced, pitiful moon shines down on the grass where I weep,
My face to the earth, and my breast in an anguish ne’er soothed into sleep.
The moon returns, and the spring, birds warble, trees burst into leaf,
But love once gone, goes for ever, and all that endures is the grief.
Mathilde Blind.

SONG.
THOU walkest with me as the spirit-light
Of the hushed moon, high o’er a snowy hill,
Walks with the houseless traveller all the night,
When trees are tongueless and when mute the rill.
Moon of my soul, O phantom of delight,
Thou walkest with me still.
The vestal flame of quenchless memory burns
In my soul’s sanctuary. Yea, still for thee
My bitter heart hath yearned, as moonward yearns
Each separate wave-pulse of the clamorous sea:
My moon of love, to whom for ever turns
That life that aches through me.
Mathilde Blind.

CÆLI.
IF stars were really watching eyes
Of angel armies in the skies,
I should forget all watchers there,
And only for your glances care.
And if your eyes were really stars,
With leagues that none can mete for bars
To keep me from their longed-for day,
I could not feel more far away.
F. W. Bourdillon.

LOVE IN THE HEART.
LOVE in the heart is as a nightingale
That sings in a green wood;
And none can pass unheeding there, nor fail
Of impulses of good.
Though cruel brief be Love’s bright hour of song,
Yet let him sing his fill!
For other hearts the echoes shall prolong
When Love’s own voice is still.
F. W. Bourdillon.

I will not let thee go.
Ends all our month-long love in this?
Can it be summed up so,
Quit in a single kiss?
If thy words’ breath could scare thy deeds,
As the soft south can blow
And toss the feathered seeds,
Then might I let thee go.
Had not the great sun seen, I might;
Or were he reckoned slow
To bring the false to light,
Then might I let thee go.
The stars that crowd the summer skies
Have watched us so below
With all their million eyes,
I dare not let thee go.
Have we not chid the changeful moon,
Now rising late, and now
Because she set too soon,
And shall I let thee go?
Have not the young flowers been content,
Plucked ere their buds could blow,
To seal our sacrament?
I cannot let thee go.

I hold thee by too many bands:
Thou sayest farewell, and lo!
I have thee by the hands,
And will not let thee go.
Robert Bridges.

LONG are the hours the sun is above,
But when evening comes I go home to my love.
I’m away the daylight hours and more,
Yet she comes not down to open the door.
She does not meet me upon the stair,—
She sits in my chamber and waits for me there.
As I enter the room, she does not move:
I always walk straight up to my love;
And she lets me take my wonted place
At her side, and gaze in her dear, dead face.
There as I sit, from her head thrown back
Her hair falls straight in a shadow black.
Aching and hot as my tired eyes be,
She is all that I wish to see.
And in my wearied and toil-dinned ear,
She says all things that I wish to hear.
Dusky and duskier grows the room,
Yet I see her best in the darker gloom.
When the winter eves are early and cold,
The firelight hours are a dream of gold.
And so I sit here night by night,
In rest and enjoyment of love’s delight.
But a knock on the door, a step on the stair
Will startle, alas, my love from her chair.
If a stranger comes, she will not stay:

At the first alarm she is off and away.
And he wonders, my guest, usurping her throne,
That I sit so much by myself alone.
Robert Bridges.

APPARITIONS.
I.
SUCH a starved bank of moss
Till, that May morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born!
II.
SKY—what a scowl of cloud
Till, near and far,
Ray on ray split the shroud:
Splendid, a star!
III.
WORLD—how it walled about
Life with disgrace
Till God’s own smile came out:
That was thy face.
Robert Browning.

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