Journal article
The impact of multi-word units in early foreign language learning and teaching contexts: a systematic review
- Abstract:
- This systematic review reports on research investigating the impact of multi-word unit (MWU) input on young learners' second language (L2) attainment in instructed settings. Recent findings suggest that L2 learners can generalise from MWU input, abstract patterns and employ such schemata productively via slot-filling, indicating that MWUs are key catalysts of learners' L2 development. Simultaneously, primary school L2 instruction is on the rise worldwide and the importance of MWUs is acknowledged in curricula, teacher education and teaching materials. Therefore, the incentive of this review is to systematically report the state of the art of research regarding the impact of MWU instruction in early L2 teaching contexts. The review covers English, German and French research into typically developing monolingual children aged 5–12 learning an L2 in instructed teaching settings. Only two of the total results (n = 2233) met the inclusion criteria. Following quality assessment using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and based on a narrative synthesis of available results, we cannot report trustworthy evidence of the effectiveness of teaching MWUs to young L2 learners. We highlight the lack of research evidence and conclude that existing research lacks robust evidence that MWU input already established in teaching contexts has a measurable effect on specific aspects of students' L2 attainment, such as productive skills. Although we promote MWU's potentially facilitating role in L2 development, we call for more classroom-based intervention research on MWUs in primary school contexts to enable much-needed evidence-based recommendations for L2 teaching to support L2 learning outcomes in primary schools.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 492.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1002/rev3.3413
Authors
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Journal:
- Review of Education More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 2
- Article number:
- e3413
- Publication date:
- 2023-08-02
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-07-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2049-6613
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1493088
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1493088
- Deposit date:
-
2023-07-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Schulz et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © 2023 The Authors. Review of Education published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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