“Icelandic children learn English before they are formally trained in it,” says Samúel Lefever, Associate Professor in Pedagogy for foreign languages. Lefever studied English knowledge in eight year olds; i.e. before their formal training began. The listening and conversational skills of the children were studied. “I wanted to examine how the children’s knowledge of English is constituted and what factors influence how they learn English outside school,” Lefever explains. Older surveys have shown that many children have considerable knowledge of English when teaching starts in primary school. This knowledge, however, varies widely causing problems for teachers in choosing curriculum suited to different needs and abilities.
“The conclusions show that many children have started to understand simple spoken English and a substantial proportion of them can participate in simple conversations in English, despite not having received any teaching in the language.“ The children are very interested in learning the language and they have good access to English in their daily environment. These two things are named as the main reasons by parents for how their children have learned English.
According to Lefever this study increases knowledge of how children learn languages and how important access to language through the media is for language acquisition. “Furthermore the study highlights the changing position of English in Icelandic society. English is increasingly used in daily life, especially by young people, in work or at school and for communication and leisure activities,” Lefever points out.
