the majority of the preschools either offer no English at all or provide it only as an extra activity to an exclusive group of children.
Statistical data 7: English offered in Salzburg state preschools
Statistical data 8: Preschool teachers offering English regularly to their groups
Statistical data 9: Visiting teachers offering English regularly
As there were only 2 state preschools offering English as a regular component by the preschool teacher, the teacher education project could not expect to build on any routines preschool teachers might have developed. Teaching English to all of the children would therefore be an entirely new experience for participating teachers.
The questionnaire survey that aimed to identify the contextual framework that preschool teachers work in resulted in the following representative state preschool profile: it comprises three groups of children, ranging in size from 19 to 25 children with all three groups being multilingual. The preschool offers extra support to the children to learn German. This is usually done by the head of the preschool who teaches small groups of four children on a daily basis for which the children are taken out of free play. Additionally, a German language teacher visits the preschool a few times a week. English is not offered as a regular curricular component by the preschool.
For my teacher education project this meant that I would have to identify a preschool that represents this contextual framework (→ chapter 6.2, sampling). It would also mean that I could not build on any routines and competences of participating preschool teachers in the area of language teaching. A further factor that would need to be considered before setting up the teacher education project would be their attitudes towards introducing English in the preschool. If they were reluctant to introduce it, they would definitely not be prepared to be qualified for teaching it. Questionnaire results that relate to this aspect are presented in the following two chapters.
3.3 Preschool teachers’ attitudes towards introducing a foreign language generally and English specifically in preschool: perspective of the children
The first prompt in the questionnaire directly aimed at asking teachers to reflect on issues that they related to introducing English by taking the perspective of the children:
How do you judge learning a foreign language in preschool from the perspective of the children? Rather as an advantage or a disadvantage? (Wie beurteilen Sie das Lernen einer Fremdsprache im Kindergarten aus Sicht der Kinder? Eher als Vorteil oder eher als Nachteil?) (question 3a).
This was followed by confronting the preschool teachers with popular ideas which are prevalent and widely heard when the issue of learning English in preschool is discussed both in their social contexts and their contexts of work. The question of introducing another language in preschool (here: English) is an issue as many preschool children need to learn German as their second or third language. In order to remain unbiased, the commonly heard statements were presented in the questionnaire as original statements rather than transformed into questions to mark them clearly as public opinion. Therefore, the next question was asked as follows:
There are a number of personal everyday opinions you come across about introducing English in preschool. What is your attitude in the matter? (Im Alltag hört man immer wieder die folgenden persönlichen Meinungen über Englischunterricht im Kindergarten. Wie stehen Sie dazu?) (question 3b):
Children should learn German first (Die Kinder sollten zuerst Deutsch lernen) (question 3b-1).
Introducing English in preschool is a benefit for other languages as well, including German (Englischlernen im Kindergarten ist eine Bereicherung auch für die anderen Sprachen, einschl. dem Erlernen der deutschen Sprache) (question 3b-2).
An additional language would burden many children, because preschool life is challenging enough for them (Eine Sprache zusätzlich würde viele Kinder überfordern, weil der Alltag des Kindergartens ohnehin schon eine Herausforderung für sie ist) (question 3b-3).
Children learn a language in a playful way. If a further language (e.g., English) is offered in a child-appropriate way, children will experience that learning languages is fun and consequently they will be relaxed and open for the new experience (Kinder lernen eine Sprache auf spielerische Art. Wenn eine weitere Sprache (z. B. Englisch) kindgerecht angeboten wird, erfahren die Kinder Sprachenlernen als Spaß und sind dabei entspannt und offen für die neue Erfahrung) (question 3b-4).
The data shows that just over three quarters of the preschool teachers agreed in principle that it was an advantage to learn a foreign language at this young age (83.2%) (→ statistical data 10). However, the statistic shows that up to two thirds of all the participating teachers believed that the children who speak other languages would need to learn German before a foreign language (in other words English) could be introduced (64.5%) (→ statistical data 11). There is a discrepancy here. While a high percentage of preschool teachers believed that early foreign language learning was an advantage, this percentage was also high due to the belief that German should be learnt first. The data on the one hand demonstrates preschool teachers’ concern that children would need to learn German but at the same time they think that teaching children another foreign language in preschool would generally be a good idea. In other words, preschool teachers found themselves in a dilemma whether to prioritize German over English, but they were not against introducing foreign languages (including English) in preschools in principle. Therefore, I could assume that introducing English would not necessarily be a fundamental, categorical concern to them.
Statistical data 10: A foreign language in preschool: an advantage or a disadvantage for the child?
Statistical data 11: Comment on the public opinion “Children should learn German first before English is introduced”
When reviewing the reasons preschool teachers gave to support their opinion on German first, the predominant arguments were that German is the official language in children’s social environment and therefore learning German would need to have priority over any other foreign language learnt in preschool. While preschool teachers’ attitudes clearly correspond with Austrian early language policies (→ chapter 2.2.2), their idea that consecutive foreign language learning is best for the children (first German – then English) is not in line with early language acquisition research results (→ chapter 2.1). Consequently, this misconception would need to be addressed in the teacher education project for preschool teachers to be able to reassess their initial attitudes accordingly.
The following quotes relate to this role of languages in preschool and are representative of the majority of participating teachers’ attitudes:
“Zuerst Deutsch, weil in diesem Land Deutsch geredet wird. Englisch danach sehe ich als Bereicherung” (qu. 3b-1: yes).
“Wir sind in einem deutschsprechenden Land → entsprechend gute Kenntnisse sind Voraussetzung!” (qu. 3b-1: yes).
“In unserem Betrieb steht das Erlernen von Deutsch eher im Vordergrund, daher wäre Englisch zusätzlich zu viel” (qu. 3a: disadvantage).
“Festigung der Muttersprache und Deutschförderung stehen im Vordergrund” (qu. 3a: disadvantage).
More specifically it could be found that teachers’ attitudes for or against introducing English were closely related to the competence level the children