Academic Achievement Through FLES: A Case for Promoting Greater Access to Foreign Language Study Among Young Learners

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established foreign languages as a core curricular content area; however, instructional emphasis continues to be placed on curricular areas that factor into state educational accountability programs. The present study explored whether foreign language study of first‐year Grade 3 foreign language students who continued their foreign language study through Grade 5 in Louisiana public schools contributed to their academic achievement in curricular areas tested on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program for the 21st Century (LEAP 21) test. Notable findings emerged. First, foreign language (FL) students significantly outperformed their non‐FL peers on every test (English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) of the Grade 4 LEAP 21. Second, the present research suggested that regardless of the test, whether the Grade 4 criterion‐referenced LEAP 21 or the Grade 5 norm‐referenced ITBS, at each grade level FL students significantly outperformed their non‐FL counterparts on language achievement tests.

Benefits of foreign language learning and bilingualism: An analysis of published empirical research 2005–2011

“…Cooper et al () found that students who studied an FL in school outperformed students who did not on the SAT Reasoning Test, which is administered to secondary school–aged students. Early language learners (i.e., birth to age 8) also outperformed their monolingual peers in all areas (i.e., English language arts, math, science, and social studies) on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program for the 21st Century test in Taylor and Lafayette's () study. Adult bilingual learners performed better than their monolingual peers on the First Certificate of English test of reading comprehension in Modirkhamene's () study.…”

“…Garrett (2011) and Zaunbauer and Möller (2010) both found that bilingual children had higher math skills and achieved at a faster rate than their monolingual peers. The results of Taylor and Lafayette's (2010) U.S.-based research showed that FL/WL students outperformed their non-FL/WL counterparts on language achievement tests. Memory performance and recall were found to be an asset of bilinguals in the research of Bialystok and Feng (2009) and Kuska, Zaunbauer, and Möller (2010) when compared to their monolingual counterparts, thus suggesting the positive influence of FL/WL learning and bilingual education on higher academic achievement and performance.…”

From Early Starters to Late Finishers? A Longitudinal Study of Early Foreign Language Learning in School

“…The benefits propagated for moving early L2 learning into elementary schools or preschools are manifold. The increased exposure at this early age is expected to lead to linguistic benefits in terms of higher language proficiency and potentially more nativelike pronunciation (Flege & MacKay, ), advantages in academic achievement (Taylor & Lafayette, ), and intercultural advantages (Nikolov & Mihaljević Djigunović, ), as well as moderate advantages for phonological and morphosyntactic achievement (Larson‐Hall, ), which may, however, disappear quickly (Pfenninger, ). Furthermore, younger learners show fewer problems with language anxiety (Johnstone, ), higher levels of motivation and positive attitudes toward language learning (Börner, Engel, & Groot‐Wilken, ; Graham, Courtney, Tonkyn, & Marinis, ; Mihaljević Djigunović & Lopriore, ), and potentially better employability in the future.…”

Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Defining the Constructs and Researching Learner Outcomes

“…9–10). Students in immersion learn content as well as or better than their peers who learn it in their L1 (e.g., Genesee, ; Taylor & Lafayette, ). Immersion students achieve high levels in L2 performance, although nonnative grammatical and discourse patterns persist (Harley, Cummins, Swain, & Allen, ; Swain, ).…”