Is Earlier Really Better?——A Report of a Study Investigating the Effects of Earlier English Education in China

Although age has been considered to be a major factor determines success in learning asecond or foreign language by many scholars, we are unclear whether it is the learning contextor the biological capacity to learn that matters most. This study attempts to gain new insightsby investigating the effects of early English learning in China, a language learning contextoften marked by a lack of sufficient input in English. About 800 participants from twoschools in two geographic locations (Beijing and Tunxi) completed a survey, and took botha pre-test (September 2003) and a post-test (April 2004) with instruments developedspecifically for the study. The results obtained by a series of skill-specific, grade-specific,and school-specific two-way and three-way ANOVAs, and post-hoc contrasts indicate thatearly starters in Beijing outperformed late starters while there was hardly any advantage ofearly learning of English among school students in Anhui. This suggests that differences inteaching quality, and overall English environment, as well as possible the English exposureoutside urban and rural schools play a more significant role in learner success.

<正> Although age has been considered to be a major factor determines success in learning asecond or foreign language by many scholars, we are unclear whether it is the learning contextor the biological capacity to learn that matters most. This study attempts to gain new insightsby investigating the effects of early English learning in China, a language learning contextoften marked by a lack of sufficient input in English. About 800 participants from twoschools in two geographic locations (Beijing and Tunxi) completed a survey, and took botha pre-test (September 2003) and a post-test (April 2004) with instruments developedspecifically for the study. The results obtained by a series of skill-specific, grade-specific,and school-specific two-way and three-way ANOVAs, and post-hoc contrasts indicate thatearly starters in Beijing outperformed late starters while there was hardly any advantage ofearly learning of English among school students in Anhui. This suggests that differences inteaching quality, and overall English environment, as well as possible the English exposureoutside urban and rural schools play a more significant role in learner success.