A Quantitative and Qualitative Research on the Long-Term Effectiveness of Early English Language Instruction

本研究采用定量和定性相结合的方法，对同一所公立初中的小学英语活动的长期效果进行了为期数年的调查。2012年七年级的学生，从一年级开始接受小学英语教学（共130小时），预计将取得最高的考试成绩。然而，2009年7年级的学生在测试的各个方面都表现出色，他们从四年级开始学习英语（总共90小时）。这一结果表明，由于英语课时有限，降低英语教学的起始年级并不能促进初中生英语技能的提高。至于动机分数，他们没有改变加班。在一次半结构式访谈中，初中生经常提到小学英语活动是有趣的，但他们不记得他们做了什么。

The study was conducted by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods for several years at the same public junior high school to investigate on the long-term effectiveness of primary school English activities. The 2012 grade seven students, who received primary English instruction earliest from their grade one (in total 130hours), were expected to achieve highest test scores. However, they were outperformed by the 2009 grade 7 students, who started English from their grade four (in total 90 hours) in all aspects of the tests. This result suggests given lowering the starting grade of English instruction, it does not contribute the betterment of English skills of junior high school students because of the limited English class hours. As for the motivational scores, they did not change overtime. In a semi-structured interview, junior high students often referred to primary school English activities as fun, however they did not remember well what they did.