In love with English : a mixed-methods investigation of Flemish children’s spontaneous engagement with out-of-school exposure

Recent research on EFL in Flanders has shown that Flemish children already possess a significant knowledge of English before they have received English classes in school. Their English skills are heavily influenced by their exposure to English, more specifically by their engagement in multimodal language activities such as using the internet and gaming (De Wilde et al. 2020a). The questionnaire data of the aforementioned large-scale research project also revealed that many children claim to use English spontaneously, even in situations where there is no communicative necessity to do so (for instance, when playing with their Dutch speaking peers). In this chapter, an emic perspective is taken in order to investigate when and why Flemish children who have not yet received any formal instruction in English engage in spontaneous English language use. Through a questionnaire a group of 43 children between 10 and 12 years old were asked to log the average time they spent daily on several activities in English (i.e. watching television, listening to music, reading, gaming, using the Internet, YouTube and/or social media, and speaking). On the basis of the information gathered in the questionnaires four focus group discussions were organized in which the children were probed to share when they use English productively in their daily lives. The data from the questionnaire were analysed quantitatively. The focus group discussions were transcribed and analysed in a qualitative manner. The analysis of the discussions revealed five main situations in which children engage in English: on holiday with other tourists, new foreign friends, locals and/ or hotel staff; at home with their mother, father, siblings and/or to themselves; at school with friends; online while gaming, chatting, texting or posting comments on social media; when singing along with songs. The reasons for using English seem to be hard to articulate for children. They frequently mention that English is ‘fun’, that it sounds ‘more original’, ‘better’, ‘cooler’ and ‘tougher’ than their mother tongue (Dutch). It is also clear from the data that even at such young age, children are aware of the value of English in today’s world.

ISBN:9783110743043

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Toegankelijkheid:Closed