Impact of early English language teaching on L1 and L2 development in children in Dutch schools

This article reports on the outcomes of a project aimed at the evaluation of early English language teaching (EELT) in Dutch primary education, starting at age 4. Between 2003 and 2008 four cohorts of first- and second-grade children receiving one to three hours of English language teaching per week were tested with standardized Dutch and English versions of the Reynell tests for language development. The outcomes show that all children acquire some basic skills in English leading to a native age equivalent of 2.5 years for comprehension and 2.1 years for language production. First language (L1) development is not affected by the EELT program in the sense that the majority of the children are within the age equivalent range. Furthermore, children with a non-Dutch background do not suffer from EELT in the sense that their L2 Dutch development is within the normal range though significantly lower than that of their Dutch peers. It is concluded that some of the arguments against early foreign language teaching, in particular the problems it might have for L1 development and the additional problems in language acquisition it could pose for non-native children, are not supported by our data. This article reports on the outcomes of a project aimed at the evaluation of early English Language Teaching (EELT) in Dutch primary education, starting at age 4. We start with a short description of the socio-political context of EELT in the European and Dutch context. Then, we discuss the main findings in the literature on the effects of EELT. Finally, we present data from five cohorts on the impact of EELT on first (L1) and second language (L2) development in a number of schools in the Netherlands.