School children in classroom

Dr Rowena Kasprowicz, Lecturer in Second Languages at the University of Reading and NCELP Research/ Subject Specialist, has received a Future Leaders Fellowship from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation). Her Progression in Primary Languages project aims to provide, for the first time, a full and detailed picture of how foreign language knowledge develops in young learners in an instructed setting. 

This will be achieved through a longitudinal study examining language learning throughout Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11) in primary schools in England. The project will identify the individual and contextual factors that influence young learners’ language learning, in particular within classroom settings in English-speaking countries where exposure to the language being learned is limited.

The data collected through the study will provide in-depth information regarding children’s language development during the first four years of language learning at primary school and the findings will transform our understanding of the route and rate of language learning by young learners within the classroom context. 

Rachel Hawkes, Co-Director of NCELP and Director of International Education and Research at The CAM Academy Trust, is a collaborator on the project, and NCELP a project partner. Both will be collaborating on the development of primary languages schemes of work for French, German and Spanish, along with teaching materials, aligned with the research-based principles that underpin NCELP resources. 

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