Catalan students’ basic English skills have improved in recent years both in the 6th grade and in the 4th grade of secondary school. The improvement of education and exposure to the language through songs, series, movies or YouTubers has managed to make a significant leap, presenting more students at the top level of the table (30% of the total) and the low level has been reduced (by 16%). Despite the remarkable effort of schools, especially to reduce grammar and teach how to “speak” in English, the role of families remains key to achieving the best grades, according to a study by the University of Barcelona.
The professors of the Faculty of Philology, Elsa Tragant and Carme Muñoz, who have developed the most complete longitudinal study on the variables that influence the assimilation of a foreign language, affirm that “the majority of students” who obtained better grades of English at the end of secondary school are those who started receiving extracurricular classes (language schools, conversation classes, exchanges) from the 4th grade or even later. Those students who received hardly any lessons are represented in the high level. Conversely, no student with low English grades had done extracurricular activities.
From this data it can be inferred that the teaching of English at school does not guarantee a sufficiency of the language at an excellent level and this is replaced by the individual commitment of families so that their children are trained in languages. The exception is students who meet certain characteristics (good aptitude, use of English in their free time, motivation to learn…).
In theory, students should have a B1 level at the end of high school. But this is far from reality. In 2017, Catalan universities set the goal of titling those students with a B2 in a foreign language, a small leap that should be achieved in four years, compared to the supposed high school level. With this, the campuses wanted to stimulate the learning of languages, fundamental in the working reality.
A period of four years was given to demand this level from students starting university. The Government withdrew the requirement in 2021 (replacing it with a university-specific test). The rectors alleged, for not demanding it, inequity. Young people whose families were interested and could pay for after-school classes obtained the level. Not so those without the push of families and the economic possibility.
Tragant and Muñoz have accompanied 140 students from 13 educational centers in Barcelona, ??mostly public, for ten years. and they have collected it in a work endorsed by the British Council, Lifelong Learning of the European Commission and RecerCaixa. In the same, it is observed that the differences in level in a classroom widen as the years go by. “This creates demotivation in the 4th year of secondary school, and even earlier, among students with a low level, who have difficulty continuing classes”, says the report. Seniors who find the classes “boring” or “repetitive” are also frustrated.
The researchers recommend fewer closed grammar and lexical exercises (which present the difficulty of adjusting levels) and more open activities that allow inter-levels and that promote collaboration between classmates.
The conclusion is obvious that the more exposure or contact with the language, the more knowledge. But the language level of the family also plays an important role.
“Everything that can be provided to the child in English at home contributes to enriching his knowledge”, says Muñoz. Games, questions, songs, readings and the viewing of multimedia content in the original version. In the latter case, Muñoz underlines the benefit of listening to cartoons in English, to become familiar with the language.
The study observes the performance differences between 4th grade ESO students who have a family environment favorable to access to English and those who do not. It correlates with the level of English of the parents. Thus, a polyglot context makes it easier for them to watch series or other types of content such as YouTube, online gaming platforms or web pages in the English language. Another key is the involvement of older siblings. If they master the language, they can accompany the little ones in their difficulties in understanding a film and help overcome initial frustrations.
Muñoz explains that those parents who have English as a professional tool motivate their children’s learning. Or when they observe firsthand that, with that language, they can travel, discover the world and communicate universally.
Regarding English as a third language, the researchers demonstrate through a comparison of the results of the basic skills in the three languages ??that “in most cases where the students had good results in English, they also had in Spanish and Catalan”. This indicates that acquired first and second language skills can predict foreign language learning abilities given the right conditions. In the brilliant cases, it is observed that “there is like an underlying ability that helps to learn all languages”.
The need to strengthen the foreign language is a matter of concern to center management. The authors recommend, for example, that there should not be such an abrupt methodological change between primary and secondary school, when attention is formalized to grammar and linguistic correction.
The school lacks English teachers. In January 2022, when more than 3,500 teachers entered the education system (to compensate for the reduction in teaching hours promised in exchange for advancing the school calendar), English teachers were the second most alone specialty. tendered in primary and the first in ESO.
