Young Learners' Oracy Acquisition and Development in International Foreign Language Learning Contexts

by Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki (Editor), Lucilla Lopriore (Editor)

Overview

This volume presents research on oracy development in early language learning, with a particular focus on the pedagogical implications for growingly plurilingual classrooms. The chapters offer empirical results from diverse international contexts which reveal common and differing experiences of teaching methodologies and assessment practices, learners’ attitudes and motivation, and young learners’ skill development processes. Together they explore the effects of language policy, collaborative learning and teacher intervention on the development of children’s listening and speaking skills in a second or foreign language. The book will be of interest to researchers in early second language acquisition as well as students on EFL, TESOL and ESL courses. It will be particularly useful to pre-primary and primary teachers in multilingual classrooms and can be used in teacher education and professional development programmes to promote reflection on current teaching practices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800413689
Publisher:	Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Publication date:	02/11/2025
Series:	Early Language Learning in School Contexts , #10
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki is Associate Professor of Linguistics at European University Cyprus. Her research investigates language policy and planning, English as a medium of instruction in higher education, early foreign language learning, government translation and interpretation, and the linguistic landscape in Cyprus.

Lucilla Lopriore is a teacher and teacher educator and was Professor of English Linguistics at Roma Tre University, Italy until 2022. She has led Italian research teams in international projects including ELLiE, ENRICH and the 1999 Italian National Survey of young learners’ FL achievement. Her research includes CLIL, early foreign language acquisition, ELF, language policy and plurilingualism.

Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki is Associate Professor of Linguistics at European University Cyprus. Her research investigates language policy and planning, English as a medium of instruction in higher education, government translation and interpretation, and the linguistic landscape in Cyprus.

Lucilla Lopriore has recently retired from her role as Professor of English Linguistics at Roma Tre University, Italy. Her research interests include teacher education, early language learning, multilingualism and plurilingual literacies, educational linguistics and language policy.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki and Lucilla Lopriore: Introduction 

Chapter 1. Lucilla Lopriore: Young Foreign Language Learners’ Oracy Development in Multilingual Contexts

Part 1: Language Policy and Oracy   

Chapter 2. Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki and Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou: EFL Oracy Acquisition and Language-In-Education Policy at Pre-Primary and Early Primary Stages: The Case of Cyprus

Chapter 3. Sandie Mourão, Carolyn E. Leslie, Maria Alfredo Moreira and Estela Monteiro: From (Mis)Perceptions to (Mis)Practices: The Assessment of Oral Skills in Primary English Education in Portugal  

Part 2: Oracy Acquisition Through Learners’ Collaborative Learning and Learning Strategies

Chapter 4. María Ángeles Hidalgo and Amparo Lázaro-Ibarrola: Talking to Write: Insights into the Oral Interactions of Young EFL Writers Repeating a Collaborative Task

Chapter 5. Hatice Ergul and Hacer Hande Uysal: Negotiation of Errors in Form-Focused Oral Interaction Sequences in Young Learner Classrooms

Chapter 6. Carolyn E. Leslie: Comparing Primary and Lower Secondary EFL Learners’ Oral Collaboration  

Chapter 7. Areti-Maria Sougari and Sophia Batsari: Motivation and Learning Strategies in the Development of Primary School Learners’ Oral Skills across an EFL Context in Greece  

Part 3: Oracy Promotion Through Teacher Intervention 

Chapter 8. Jasenka Čengić: Young FL Learners’ Oral Production Skills: Does Vocabulary Learning Ability Count?

Chapter 9. Anastasia Georgountzou and Natasha Tsantila: Prioritizing Young Learners’ Pronunciation Needs in the Greek Multicultural Classroom  

Chapter 10. Eleni Griva and Eleni Korosidou: A Multimodal Approach in an Early FL Classroom for Oracy Skills Development: Insights from a Longitudinal Study  

Chapter 11. Yuko Goto Butler, Yeting Liu, Heejin Kim and Katherine I. Kang: The Development of the Use of Articles in Oral Narratives among Young English Learners in China

Chapter 12. Nayr Correia Ibrahim: Translanguaging as Inclusive Pedagogy and Multilingual Oracy

Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki and Lucilla Lopriore: Concluding Thoughts

Index

Editorial Reviews

This timely volume addresses the development of oracy in young learners, emphasizing the need to support speaking and listening skills in the classroom. Insightful and informative, it provides practical strategies and valuable guidance for educators aiming to enhance students' communication skills, while also offering implications for teacher training and suggestions for future research.

Carmen Muñoz

Oral language skills are a crucial predictor of children’s success in language and literacy, ultimately leading to academic achievement. Therefore, it is with great enthusiasm that we welcome this new edited volume, which offers a wealth of compelling discussions on the development of speaking skills in children learning a foreign language, making it an indispensable resource.

Victoria A. Murphy

This volume considers FL oracy development of YLs from several novel perspectives. It also offers insights into how different teaching approaches may cater for the new needs of YLs in today’s increasingly multilingual classrooms, and how teachers can best face the emerging new challenges. Innovative research methodologies and thought-provoking theoretical discussions add extra value to the included chapters.

Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović