English in Elementary Schools. Anja Steinlen
Zaunbauer & Möller, 2010; Zaunbauer & Möller, 2006, 2007, 2010; Zaunbauer, Bonerad & Möller, 2005; Zaunbauer, Gebauer & Möller, 2012, 2013) and involved over 650 elementary school students in Northern Germany attending either bilingual (immersion) programs (where all subjects were taught in English except for German-as-a-subject), i.e. one-way programs, or regular EFL programs (where English was taught as a subject), respectively, from grade 1 onwards. The focus of the MOBI-project was on the development of cognitive skills and language skills, such as German reading and writing, English vocabulary and reading, as well as the development of content knowledge in mathematics and science, which were assessed mainly with standardized tests. In grade 4, the data included around 300 students in immersion programs (e.g. Zaunbauer et al., 2012).
The aim of the second project is to evaluate the two-way immersion programs of the “Staatliche Europa-Schulen Berlin” (SESB, e.g., Möller et al., 2017). Teaching takes place in German and in one of the respective partner languages, i.e., English, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, or Turkish, and half of the teaching time is devoted to one of the two languages. The composition of the classes generally (but not exclusively) consists of 50% of learners with the first language German and of 50% of learners with the respective partner language as L1. The teachers of the subjects taught in the partner language usually speak the partner language as L1. The focus of this project is on the development of reading skills, mathematics and science in German and the partner language. The results are also compared to the development of other students in monolingual programs. Altogether, 789 students in grade 4 participated in this study.
In 2015, the Federal State of Bavaria initiated a project called “Lernen in zwei Sprachen – Bilinguale Grundschule Englisch” (Learning in two languages – bilingual elementary school English), with 21 elementary schools located all over Bavaria. The students in grades 1-4 were taught in two languages (i.e. German and English) in the subjects of mathematics, science, art, music and PE, corresponding to less intensive bilingual programs with less than 50% conducted in the target language English. Instruction in the bilingual classes was based on the competency expectations formulated in the curriculum LehrplanPLUS Primary School. Teaching units or phases in the subjects were conducted in English on suitable topics and occasions. The respective teacher selected topics suitable for the English language, and the focus was on implicit teaching of the English language. Lessons in the bilingual classes were given according to the timetable, i.e. without additional time quotas. The final report included data from 430 fourth graders (Böttger & Müller, 2020).
Since 2012, Steinlen and Piske have conducted studies on L1 and L2 language skills in three bilingual elementary schools in Germany. The main focus of these studies has been on the development of German and English by minority and majority language students. Most of the studies took place with students attending a partial immersion program offered by the Hügelschule (Tübingen, Germany). As another cohort at the Hügelschule has been added each year, the sample size increases by publication date, with more recent samples containing cohorts from earlier studies (e.g., Steinlen, 2016, 2017, 2018a, b; Steinlen & Piske, 2013, 2015, 2016a, b, 2018a,b, 2020, i. pr., Yadollahi et al., 2020). Other studies of this project dealt with a less intensive bilingual program at the Muhliusschule in Kiel (Steinlen & Gerdes, 2015; Steinlen, 2018a) and with an intensive partial immersion program at the Platanus Schule in Berlin (Steinlen & Piske, 2018c), where 20% and 70% of the teaching time, respectively, was conducted in English. Focusing on reading and writing, the results of these projects will be presented below.
2.3.10 L1 reading and writing in bilingual programs
In studies on reading comprehension and reading fluency skills in the majority language German at the end of grade 4, children in elementary schools in Germany with partial IM programs (one-way and two-way) have been compared to those in mainstream programs. No significant differences between the two groups were reported, and the immersion groups achieved age-appropriate values (e.g., Baumert et al., 2017; Gebauer et al. 2012, 2013; Möller et al., 2018; Steinlen, 2016; Steinlen & Piske, 2013, 2015, 2016a, 2018a; Zaunbauer et al., 2005, 2013, Zaunbauer & Möller, 2006, 2007, 2010, see also Baumert et al., 2012 for sixth grade students).
Similar results regarding majority language children’s literacy skills in their L1 have been reported for the Canadian French IM context. L1 English children in IM programs generally obtained the same results in L1 English reading tests as L1 English children in non-IM programs (e.g., Genesee, 1978, 2004; Genesee & Jared, 2008; Genesee, Holobow, Lambert & Chartrand, 1989; Geva & Clifton, 1994; Lambert & Tucker, 1972; Rubin, Turner & Kantor, 1991; Swain & Lapkin, 1982; Turnbull, Lapkin & Hart, 2001, 2003). And again, similar results regarding the development of children’s respective L1s have also been reported for IM programs in other countries (e.g., Cheng, Kirby, Quiang & Wade-Woolley, 2010 for China; Björklund & Mård-Miettinen, 2011 for Finland; Lasagabaster, 2001 for the Basque Country; Jenniskens, Leest, Wolbers, Krikhaar, Teunissen de Graaff, Unsworth, & Coppens, 2018 for the Netherlands). As students’ reading performance is also affected by their basic cognitive abilities, their social status and the level of their parents’ education (e.g., Baumert et al., 2017), these factors have been controlled for in many studies. The results of the studies generally indicate that attending IM programs does not seem to negatively affect the development of L1 reading skills of majority language children.
In studies on German writing skills (which mainly relate to spelling skills), elementary school students in partial IM programs and in less-intensive bilingual programs have been found to perform equally well as their peers in mainstream schools at the end of grade 4 (e.g., Böttger & Müller, 2020; Gebauer et al., 2012; Möller et al., 2018; Steinlen, 2018b; Steinlen & Piske, 2013, 2018a, 2020; Zaunbauer et al., 2005, 2013, Zaunbauer & Möller, 2006, 2007, 2010; to avoid possible selection effects many of these studies used basic cognitive abilities and socio-economic status as covariates). Similarly, in Canadian French IM programs, L1 English students’ English writing skills did not differ from their peers in regular programs (e.g., Genesee, 1987, 2004; Rubin et al., 1991; Turnbull et al., 2001). However, available evidence indicates that deficits initially appear in early full IM (Barik & Swain, 1976, but see Yadollahi, Steinlen & Piske, 2020) although these seem to balance out in one or two years after writing lessons in the L1 English have been introduced (Genesee, 2007; Rubin et al., 1991). In general, L1 literacy skills (be it reading or writing) of majority language children appear to develop age-appropriately in IM programs as well as in bilingual programs with lesser FL intensity.
2.3.11 FL skills in regular vs. bilingual programs
There is an abundance of studies which compare FL reading and writing skills in IM and mainstream foreign language programs. The results are unambiguous: IM students (independent of the type of IM program, i.e., early or late, full or partial) outperform comparable non-IM peers in regular programs in any kind of FL language test (e.g., Genesee, 2004; Pérez-Cañado, 2012; Wesche, 2002).
Regarding the development of FL reading skills by majority language children in IM programs in Germany, Zaunbauer et al. (2012) reported that at the end of grade 4, immersion students obtained higher scores in tests on English reading fluency and comprehension than their peers in mainstream programs. Steinlen & Piske (2018a), who examined 136 fourth graders in a regular and a partial IM program, reported similar results. Not surprisingly, the two groups differed with respect to their English reading and writing skills, with the partial IM students being at level A2/B1 for English reading, and the students in the regular program at level A1. Some students in Zaunbauer et al. (2012) even scored within the range of native-speaker norms (see also Nold et al., 2008 for ninth graders in bilingual programs in Germany). Such native-like reading skills may emerge during the fourth year of immersion teaching but, as other authors noted, not earlier than that (e.g., Cashion & Eagan, 1990; Geva & Clifton 1994; Malicky, Fagan & Norman, 1988; Möller et al., 2017; see also Genesee & Jared, 2008 for more details). In general, the results for IM programs in Germany agree well with findings reported for French IM programs in Canada (e.g., Genesee, 1978; Genesee & Jared, 2008; Lambert & Tucker, 1972; Swain & Lapkin, 1982).
FL reading and writing skills in less intensive bilingual elementary