Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education Edited by David Valente · Daniel Xerri Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education “As plurilingual education continues to expand around the globe, early English language education has gained considerable traction across contexts, yet, it has been scantily researched. This volume is a solid response to this niche as it brings together educators at the potent nexus between research and practice and it interrogates important issues from innovative perspectives. The editors have skil- fully organised the contributions in such a way that children and (future) teach- ers occupy a central position.” —Dr Darío Luis Banegas, Lecturer in Language Education, University of Edinburgh, UK “Publications focusing on early additional language learning are burgeoning, demonstrating that the field continues to grow in importance and dimension. Nevertheless, there are many lacunas. This collection makes a unique contribu- tion by fusing theory with practical implications, by covering topics which are unconventional, and thus advancing the field. It is an exciting collection of chapters and highly relevant for graduate students, teacher educators and researchers across the globe.” —Dr Sandie Mourão, Research Fellow, CETAPS, Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal David Valente • Daniel Xerri Editors Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education Editors David Valente Daniel Xerri Faculty of Education and Arts Centre for English Language Proficiency Nord University University of Malta Bodø, Norway Msida, Malta ISBN 978-3-031-12921-6 ISBN 978-3-031-12922-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12922-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © SolStock / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Jill Turner whose quiet enthusiasm for innovation in early English language education is fondly remembered. Also dedicated to Ros Doyle and Sue Hicks—their innovative practices live on through their colleagues and the children they educated. Foreword As recently as 2014, Fiona Copland and I were writing that teaching young learners (YLs) was seen as something of a neglected area of research and publication (Copland & Garton, 2014). In the intervening eight years, the body of work in this area has increased exponentially, leading Ibrahim (2020) to refer to teaching young language learners as a ‘run- away train’ (p. 203). In spite of the spread of primary English language teaching (PELT) both in schools and in publications, as Littlejohn (this volume) notes, approaches have been based on well-established views of teaching and learning languages that were originally developed for adults. Moreover, in the case of communicative language teaching this was developed for adults learning in small groups and in well-resourced classrooms (Enever & Moon, 2009), a situation that is a far cry from the majority of primary school classrooms around the world. It is therefore very much to the credit of the editors of this volume and to the chapter authors that this book represents a decisive move away from such approaches, bringing new perspectives on PELT. This is a book that stands out from the crowd. The volume is explicitly about Innovative Practices, but it is also about so much more than practices. In particular, it is about intertwinings and connections: connections to other disciplines, to global skills, to the world beyond the language classroom; connections that are rarely made vii viii Foreword in ELT.  The result is a book which is innovative, informative and thought-provoking. All the chapters are based on the fundamentally important connection between theory and practice. This is nothing new: nearly 30 years ago, Mark Clarke was calling for what he called the dysfunctions of the the- ory/practice divide in ELT to be addressed, and many in the field have been trying to do that ever since—the work of the IATEFL Research SIG comes to mind. Here each chapter has a section on Current Issues and Research in which the discussion is situated in a particular area of theory or research. This is followed by a section on Practical Applications, effec- tively demonstrating, not how theory is applied in practice, but how theory informs practice and vice versa. Moreover, a number of chapters also use the theory to present a proposed framework (Chaps. 2, 4, 7 and 8, for example), as well as the practical activities. The framework approach is important in that contexts of English language learning vary greatly around the world so while specific activities may not be feasible, a frame- work can be of practical value to practitioners who can use it to make context-appropriate adaptations, extending the relevance of the proposed innovation beyond its original use. We also find connections to the wider context beyond ELT, with chap- ters drawing on a range of disciplines and theories. These include main- stream education (Chaps. 2, 3 and 11), multimodality (Chaps. 6, 8 and 13), and assessment (Chaps. 9 and 10) to mention just three. Such areas are not often found in books about English language teaching and cer- tainly not about PELT. Making these connections brings new perspec- tives to possibly familiar but under-researched topics, such as intercultural competence (Chap. 4) or peer assessment (Chap. 10), as well as introduc- ing new areas of PELT practice such as multilingual teacher education (Chap. 12). The chapters also link PELT to a variety of concepts and ideas which are addressed in new ways. While there are whole chapters on key areas such as agency (Chap. 3), translanguaging and multilingualism (Chaps. 5 and 12), and visual and digital literacies (Chaps. 6 and 7), these notions are also woven into and underpin other chapters. Notable, for example, is the num- ber of chapters that place children at the heart of the learning process, where they are seen as social agents who can and should be actively involved Foreword ix in their own learning (Chaps. 2 and 3, for example). Notable too is the number of chapters that refer to multilingualism. Whilst the notion of translanguaging is gaining attention, it remains somewhat abstract for practitioners; monolingual approaches tend to prevail outside the narrow confines of academia. It is therefore particularly welcome to see chapters that offer practical suggestions for translanguaging in the classroom as well as promoting positive views of multilingualism and the use of L1. All the chapters in the volume therefore make innovative connections, be they to the wider context of educational goals or diverse linguistic repertoires (Chaps. 2, 3, 4 and 5); to different modalities and educational technologies (Chaps. 6, 7 and 8); to assessment and learning (Chaps. 9 and 10); to mainstream education approaches (Chap. 2) or between classroom practices and teacher education (Chaps. 12, 13, 14 and 15). No matter how long you have been working in the field, you will encoun- ter fresh ideas, be led to think differently, or feel prompted to try out something new. In their introduction, David Valente and Daniel Xerri state that their aim in choosing chapters was driven by ‘a desire to explore areas which have either received insufficient attention in the literature and/or those which have been reimagined by their authors through a fresh and invigo- rating lens’. They have certainly been very successful in achieving their aim, which is to the benefit of all of us working in PELT and which makes this volume a very welcome addition to our field. Aston University Sue Garton Birmingham, UK References Clarke, M. A. (1994). The dysfunctions of the theory/practice discourse. TESOL Quarterly, 28(1), 9–26. Copland, F., & Garton, S. (2014). Key themes and future directions in teaching English to young learners: Introduction to the Special Issue. ELT Journal, 68(3), 223–230. x Foreword Enever, J., & Moon, J. (2009). New global contexts for teaching Primary ELT: Change and challenge. In J. Enever, J. Moon, & U. Raman (Eds.), Young learner English language policy and implementation: International perspectives (pp. 5–21). Garnet Education. Ibrahim, N. (2020). The qualitative and quantitative rise of literature on teach- ing English to young learners. ELT Journal, 74(2), 202–225. Foreword It is my greatest of pleasures to write this short preface and recommend this book to all who are passionate about teaching and researching young children as language learners. I remember that when I was first contacted by the publisher to review the proposal for this volume, I was struck by the ambition and the enthusiasm of the editors, who were keen to bring together work that they considered innovative, and wanted the book to appeal to teachers, teacher educators, student teachers, as well as research- ers, by linking both theory and practice in an accessible way. And this is exactly what they have achieved here. Although child L2 education has become a vibrant field of research over the last two decades with more and more books, book chapters and journal articles focusing on young language learners, this body of research is often criticised as heavily adult-oriented because traditionally all research methods, approaches and questions had been inherited from the adult literature. My search through a decade of research in key journals in our field suggests that a large majority of published articles (on young learners) discuss vocabulary learning, grammar and focus on form, task- based learning, motivation, and strategy use, often comparing children of different ages. For me, what makes this volume stand out is that it explic- itly opens up opportunities for new, innovative practice in children’s lan- guage classrooms, by moving away from a focus on the more traditional questions of learning the L2 language system, to themes that are more xi