Preliminary findings of a format-based foreign language teaching method for school children in the Basque Country

This article describes the preliminary findings in the Basque Country of a project shared by four European countries to teach a second language or a f oreign language to preschool and school-age children. The method used to te ach the foreign language - in this case, the third language (English) - is based on the use of dramatized formats (Taeschner, 1992). Here, we examine (1) the level of proficiency attained by the experimental groups (50 pupils ) at the end of the first year and at the end of the second year of working with the method and (2) the level of proficiency attained by the experimen tal groups by the end of the second year compared to that attained by the c ontrol groups (20 pupils) working with a different method. Other variables are also considered: specific behavior types (disruptive, withdrawn), intel ligence, sex, language achievement, and sociocultural background. The pupil s were tested at the beginning of the project, at the end of the First year , and at the end of the second year. The linguistic data were transcribed a nd analyzed with the CLAN programs of CHILDES (MacWhinney, 1995), and vario us statistical analyses were carried out. The results indicate significant differences in language proficiency in favor of the experimental group as w ell as some interesting information about children with specific behaviors learning with this method.