The early bird catches the worm? Rethinking the primary-junior high school transition in EFL learning

Abstract

This article addresses the need to solve problems of primary-junior high school transition and ensure continuity in pedagogical practice between the two social settings. It draws from a one-year socio-cultural study in Taiwan which aims to explore differences in students’ access to EFL learning in four Taiwanese junior high schools. Classroom observations were conducted in two classrooms in each school and semi-structured interviews were carried out with students and teachers. Findings reveal overt grammar-oriented classroom pedagogy and consequent heightened classroom control in junior high, as opposed to communicative-based classroom learning in primary schools. Students’ access to English followed complex trajectories of identity formation that reflected tensions between their primary school learning histories and subsequent pedagogical experiences in junior high. Learning English was found to be a value-laden practice whose difficulties were exacerbated by the degree of disconnected progression between primary and junior high schools in Taiwan. The study challenges the collective myth of “the earlier the better in learning foreign languages” without consideration of issues of transition between primary and junior high. Implications pertaining to primary-junior high progression in pedagogical practice are discussed which may inform practitioners and policy makers in Taiwan who are concerned with the gap in EFL learning and teaching.