Monitoring and Assessing a Japanese FLES Program: Ambiance and Achievement

This article reports on the third year of an ongoing research project to document and evaluate an innovative foreign language in elementary schools (FLES) program in Japanese for Grades K–5 (N=195). We report 2 strands of research. First, concerned with school and community ambiance, we attempted to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language learning 1996-09, Vol.46 (3), p.497-528
Main Authors: Donato, Richard, Antonek, Janis L., Tucker, G. Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Applied linguistics
Change Strategies
Discourse Analysis
Educational Innovation
Elementary Education
Elementary School Students
FLES
Japanese
Kindergarten Children
Language Proficiency
Language teaching
Linguistics
Oral Language
Parent Attitudes
Program Evaluation
Questionnaires
Reflective Teaching
Second Language Learning
Story Telling
Student Attitudes
Teacher Attitudes
Vocabulary Development
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Summary:This article reports on the third year of an ongoing research project to document and evaluate an innovative foreign language in elementary schools (FLES) program in Japanese for Grades K–5 (N=195). We report 2 strands of research. First, concerned with school and community ambiance, we attempted to describe systematically the attitudes and perceptions of various constituents of this curricular innovation. Second, we investigated the language achievement of children in Grades K–5 for oral proficiency, vocabulary development, and social uses of language. During a 3‐year period, the children, regardless of age, made considerable progress in foreign language proficiency and developed positive attitudes toward language learning. Innovative language programs in the elementary school can move beyond their often marginalized status to become regularized features of the overall school curriculum.
ISSN:0023-8333
1467-9922
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1996.tb01245.x