Attitudinal Aspects of Early EFL Learning

The contribution discusses the results of a study into young EFL learners’ attitudes to classroom activities, language learning, language teaching and to themselves as language learners. Longitudinal investigations were carried out with first graders (6-7 years of age) as part of the Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) project. The authors followed for two years (Year 1 and Year 2 of primary school) a total of 91 learners in two country contexts: Italy and Croatia. Participants were drawn from a total of 15 schools. The schools were situated in big cities, small towns as well as villages in both countries. A multi-method research approach was applied. Data on participants’ attitudes were gathered by means of semi-structured interviews, smiley questionnaires and through observation of young learners’ reactions to classroom activities. These were considered against teacher assessment of young learners’ language learning ability and their language achievement. Linguistic achievement was measured by means of listening, vocabulary and oral production tasks