Reflections on Teaching Literacy to Young Bilingual EFL Learners

Abstract

Concerning the new field of second language learning, literacy as the outstanding subfield in SLA has influenced teaching and assessment. However, literacy programme in the L1 along with second or foreign languages requires further research. According to Swain [1] "… heritage language use without literacy has little effect". Thus, the current study aims to focus on learning Farsi as the L1, and English as the foreign language of 15 young first grade elementary participants so as to have thick description. In order to observe the rate of success in each language, three features which are number of pauses [2], false starts and repetitions [3] were analysed to tackle the first research question. The results depict no relationship between these three features in pairs except false starts and repetitions but it is not so strong. Considering the second research question among three stated features no one received high mean score, which is noticeable, since their language has not been fossilized. To sum up, the relative contribution of per feature in each language reveals more insights into the nature of each and all languages in order to scaffold the participants to develop firstly literacy in L1, and then to promote the foreign language.

Fluency in Language Assessment Literacy: A Literature Review

“…The relationship between language assessment literacy and language proficiency is complex and multifaceted. Language proficiency, encompassing aspects such as vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and narrative production, is influenced by various factors including bilingualism, sociolinguistic environment, and metalinguistic awareness (Jacobson et al, 2016;Karlsen et al, 2016;Shahmirzadi, 2017). Furthermore, the level of proficiency in a language, whether it is the first or second language, has been found to impact early literacy skills and assessments (Lonigan et al, 2018;Ostayan, 2016).…”