English Language Learning in Europe: Classroom, or Chat Room, or Both?

• In Event: Conceptualizing and Assessing English as a Foreign Language: The European Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the influence of classroom learning as opposed to students’ private use of English on their acquisition of English competences at secondary school in Germany and Switzerland (year 12), thus focusing on the school- and learner levels in the model by Creemers & Kyriakides (2008).
German curricular standards are typical of European ones overall: learners are expected to understand a wide range of demanding texts, to express themselves fluently and to produce clear, well-structured English texts (e.g. essays) in English (KMK, 2012). Research on second language acquisition in classroom contexts has shown that key factors facilitating the acquisition of such complex competences are high quality input and interaction, work with multi-faceted and authentic materials and timely feedback from teachers and peers (Ellis, 2008). While the effectiveness of these classroom factors has been well documented in empirical studies (DESI, 2008), there is much less information about out-of- school learning. Internet and new media provide today’s learners with the opportunity of receiving rich linguistic input and interaction whenever they wish, and empirical studies in different European countries, especially Scandinavia and Benelux, have already shown significant positive effects of out-of-school contact for upper secondardy English skills ( Black 2005; Kuppens, 2010; Sundqvist 2012; Sylvén & Sundqvist 2012).
For this paper, we first re-analysed the data from the German large-scale empirical LISA study (N = 3639; Leucht, Kampa & Köller, 2016) to determine the respective influence of different in-classroom factors. We found that learners’ listening and reading skills correlated positively with the use of English in classroom interactions with peers (r = .23, p < .05) and teachers (r = - .25, p < .05), and with the frequency of in-class reading activities (r = .30 - .29 p < .05). Students’ reading and listening skills intercorrelated highly (r = .94, p < .05), yet much more attention was being paid by teachers to reading than to listening competences.
The MEWS study, in addition, provided a wealth of data on student’s private use of media in English. It measured learners’ English competences in writing, listening and reading at secondary level in Switzerland and Germany (N = 2400). Furthermore, detailed information was collected about their instructional classroom practices as well as private media use (internet, streaming services, interactive on-line games, etc.). While the evaluation of this data is on-going at the point of submission, preliminary studies to MEWS have already shown private media use to be significant particularly for the acquisition of listening competences, but less so for academic writing as this is a special skill requiring specific and detailed classroom instruction.
Comparing and contrasting data from the two studies will allow us to discuss the relative effect in- and out-of classroom activities, providing key input for EFL teaching and policy in Europe. Tying in with the overall conference theme, we will also evaluate whether there are student groups who might be excluded from online learning opportunities by lack of access to media sources, and suggest ways of supporting them efficiently.

Authors

• Maleika Krueger, University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland

• Oliver Meyer, University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland