Current Research into Young Foreign Language Learners‘ Literacy Skills

The main reason for the general adoption of literacy in foreign language classes at primary level is probably its role in the transition from primary to secondary school level. A survey on how practitioners, researchers, teacher educators, and school administrators involved in early foreign language learning view a range of such issues as the transition from primary to secondary school, early literacy, assessment etc., revealed broad acceptance (more than 75 % of the participants) of a high aspiration level in early writing. This strong showing was accompanied by the desire to be allowed to grade the students’ free writing at the end of primary school. It was argued that while there is undoubtedly the primacy of oracy, an exclusive focus on oral skills would result in too wide a gap between the two school levels (Hempel, Kötter & Rymarczyk 2017: 46).

The fact that early FLL is accorded little importance at a political level holds true not only for Germany; in his survey report “Language teaching in primary and secondary schools in England” for 2020, Collen remarks as one of his “headline findings for 2020”: “[P]‌rimary languages are embedded in policy, but not in practice” (Collen 2020: 3).

Indeed, there are some uncomfortable parallels between England and Germany as far as early foreign language classes are concerned: “[…] almost 40 % of schools state that, in practice, pupils do not always receive language teaching according to the time allocated each week throughout the year” (Collen 2020: 6). In numerous German schools it is foreign language classes which are rededicated as soon as some organizational class matters have to be discussed. It also seems to be a standard procedure, in both England and Germany, to withdraw students from the foreign language classroom in order to support them in the language of schooling, especially in the respective reading and spelling skills, or in Mathematics (ibid., p. 12); (Rymarczyk, oral communication). These approaches, however, should be viewed in a very critical light, as the relegation / demotion of foreign language classes aggravates general social inequity. Foreign language learning is, after all, considered a basic skill in today’s society, allowing as it does for participation, equal opportunities and empowerment for interaction in a globalized world (cf. Rymarczyk 2021). As early as 2002, the European Council emphasized the importance of improving “the mastery of basic skills, in particular by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age” (European Council 2019). And today it is stressed that “literacy competence and multilingual competence are defined among the eight key competences in the Council Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning” (ibid.).

With these language policy issues in mind, the situation primary schools face in terms of untrained foreign language teachers seems inexplicable. Yet, again, in both Germany and England the picture is deplorable. In Germany today at least half of the English teachers at primary level are not trained for foreign language teaching (the BIG-Study reported 50 % in Börner et al. 2016). Their competence profile as outlined by Rymarczyk (2018: 160) shows shortcomings in several areas:

One question that demands address is whether the existing pedagogical knowledge and skills are sufficient to meet the requirements of a professional foreign language classroom. Even if the teachers’ dispositions allow them to add competency components like affect and motivation, compensation for deficits in competence cannot be expected, as psychologists hold the competence dimensions to be of a multiplicative rather than an additive character (ibid.).

Another issue which needs to be considered in this connection is that most teachers deployed in the primary foreign language classroom without appropriate training are not in their situation out of choice. While complying with the schools’ needs, they show distanced attitudes towards the roles imposed upon them. The situation in England elucidates this point: “Where the highest language qualification of school staff is a GCSE, the figure for those who have not availed of subject specific CPD [Continuing Professional Development, S.F./J.R.] increases to 86 %” (Collen 2020: 7).

This attitude of reluctance towards one’s teaching and the deficits untrained teachers cannot easily redress is manifested in the results of the educational monitoring IQB-Bildungstrend 2015. It was shown that the achievements of students taught by untrained teachers were lower than those of students whose teachers possessed a teaching degree in English as a foreign language (Hoffmann & Richter 2016: 504). These results coincide with former insights about learner perception and teacher cognition. They are known as the factors that govern classrooms processes and practices (Kumaravadivelu 2006: 165).

The challenges outlined above constitute the matter for consideration throughout the whole of this publication. The chapters of the volume are divided into two parts: I – “Assessing Reading, Spelling, and Writing” and II – “Fostering Reading, Spelling, and Writing”.