practices of teaching [that] will always be locally specific” (p. 6). Consequently, a first step of my research involved a questionnaire survey that was sent to all state preschools in the Salzburg area (my context of work) so that I would be able to identify the features of the macro level of the case study (see chapter 5.1 and 6.1 for an overview of the case study levels) that I had in mind. It served two purposes: The first purpose was that I would need to find out if my offer to educate preschool teachers to teach English would be asked for and if the context would be generally supportive of the teacher education project. If it were, what support would I need to provide in the general set-up for the teacher education so that teachers were able to potentially develop the competences I had identified? To do so, the questionnaire addressed the following relevant topics: (a) the general contextual framework of preschool teachers’ contexts of work (including preschools’ size, features of children’s group with a focus on their languages and the availability of German as a second language (GSL) and of English as a foreign language; (b) preschool teachers’ attitudes towards introducing foreign languages in general and English in particular by focusing on their perceived benefits or disadvantages for the children; (c) preschool teachers’ attitudes towards introducing English in preschool in general and at their preschools in particular and their qualification to do so. The second purpose was that I would need to detect a sample preschool for my research project that would qualify as being representative for both teachers’ and children’s educational backgrounds and find a preschool that would be prepared to participate in my research with teachers who would need to qualify as a community of practice and be willing to commit themselves to actively participate, despite the general unfavourable contextual situation I was well aware of. Both purposes could be fulfilled, as will be demonstrated (→ chapter 6.2).
In a next step, the content of the teacher education project will be identified by presenting results of a literature research in the areas that are relevant for the design of my preschool teacher education project. They comprise the knowledge base on professional language teacher education (in general and for early language learning in particular) and the competences that are required for teaching English in preschool. Findings of these topic areas provided the basis of defining the content of my preschool teacher education project and allowed me to draw conclusions for the appropriate research approach (→ chapter 4).
On the basis of the needs-analysis of the preschool teacher context in chapter 3 and the identification of features of appropriate teacher education processes that would have the potential to develop preschool teachers’ required competences in chapter 4, a teacher education model was designed in chapter 5. This model considered the existing knowledge base on language teacher education and at the same time tailored its particular components to meet the needs of participating teachers of the preschool context in question. It emerged that it would be through an approach of participatory action research (PAR) that both the interests of research and teachers participating in the study could be aligned. It was expected that the following general research questions could be answered as a result:
What teacher education model for introducing English into preschool would develop the teachers’ competences needed to teach EFL effectively and accommodate the complexities of the preschool context at the same time?
What evidence is there that they have successfully developed the competences intended?
In an approach of participatory action research, teachers’ action and research of their professional development are closely related. While chapter 5 will focus on the design of the teacher education model, chapter 6 will focus on the research design as multiple case study. It will first describe the three levels of the case study: the macro, meso and micro level (→ diagram 1):
Diagram 1: Multiple case study design
Next, the chapter will outline the sampling strategy and present results of the analysis of the context features of the selected preschool both on the meso and micro levels of the case study. It involves both a survey on teachers’ perception of the contextual constraints and affordances as a community of practise (meso level of the case study) and of individual preschool teachers’ profiles (micro level of the case study). A survey of the action research cycles, and related data collection will conclude this chapter.
Chapter 7 will present case study results. They first include a survey of the implementation process of the research project, which will be related to the action research cycles the project involved (→ chapter 7.1). The next chapter will present individual teachers’ case studies and will summarize developments that may be generalised for participating teachers as a community of practice at the preschool (→ chapter 7.2). The case studies will demonstrate if the purposes the teacher education project had in mind could be achieved and to what extent. Presentation of case study results will be related to the following areas the research project has addressed: teachers’ reassessment of their attitudes towards introducing English in preschool; their motivation to become involved in the process of teaching English to preschool children; the teaching competences they were able to develop in the course of the project and the development of their reflective practice as professional habit. Both the process and the outcome of the research will be documented: teachers’ competence development during the process will be represented in individual teacher portraits which trace their particular individual developments; each individual case will be concluded with a summary which lists these competences in grid format to be able to provide a summative survey of each teachers’ competence development that may be compared to developments of all the teachers that participated in the survey; finally, chapter 7.3 will conclude with an evaluation of the components of the teacher education model. It will be described in what way its components have contributed to teachers’ professional development.
A concluding chapter 8 will finally discuss the results of the study and will structure it following the questions that are related to the research focus of the teacher education study. This includes: the effectiveness of the teacher education model for the sample case including the integration of reflective approaches (→ chapter 8.1); the transfer potential of the teacher education project to other preschool education contexts including a reflection of the required adaptations that a transfer would involve (→ chapter 8.2); a reflection of the research design of the teacher development as participatory action research and presentation of results in the form of a multiple case study (→ chapter 8.3). Reported experiences documented in the literature will be integrated here and future research directions outlined.
2 Relevance of introducing English in preschool
2.1 Research on early language learning
This chapter will argue why it is worthwhile to introduce English at the preschool level. To do so it will clarify who qualifies as a young learner, will reflect on the issue of language choice and will summarize the arguments that have been put forward in favour of an early start in language learning.
Young learners
When reviewing international publications on research related to young learners there is an enormous variation from country to country. Ellis (2014) notes that the term young learner is vague but distinguishes between pre- and post- 11- or 12-year-olds because of the enormous differences in children’s “physical, psychological, social, emotional, conceptual and cognitive development” (pp. 75,76) which result in different approaches to language teaching. Pinter (2011) remarks that it “is hard to fit ‘childhood’ into fixed age brackets. … Typically, children start preschool at around the age of 3 and then they move to primary / elementary school around the age of 5 – 7”. She defines preschool children (age 3 – 5) as follows: “No formal learning experiences, no literacy skills, large differences among children with regard to readiness for school” (p. 2). Copland and Garton (2014) in their introduction to a special issue of a journal that focuses on teaching English to young learners define young learner as follows:
The rapid and comprehensive lowering of the age at which English is introduced to children in many countries, together