Individual, Family, and School Correlates of Effective Learning of English as a Foreign Language
DOI 10.24131/3724.260204
Abstract
Purpose: This article examines factors associated with the effectiveness of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) among Polish primary school graduates, using the population of graduates from public primary schools in a medium-sized city as a case study. Based on data from the 2022 eighth-grade examination, a threshold corresponding to A2 proficiency as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Polish: ESOKJ) was established (standard setting procedure). This threshold was then used to estimate the proportion of students completing primary school with English proficiency at the A2 level. The estimated proportion was 32.2% in Poland as a whole and 40.3% in the city under study, pointing to a substantial gap in foreign language attainment.
Method: The analysis drew on data on potential individual, family, and school-related determinants of achievement collected for the entire city population of 8th grade students. A series of logistic regression analyses, culminating in a mixed-effects logistic regression model with multiple imputation and backward elimination, identified several significant correlates of attaining A2 proficiency.
Results: Higher educational aspirations, intrinsic motivation, learning English outside school, playing computer games in English, and reading books in English were positively associated with the likelihood of reaching the A2 level. Direct parental assistance with homework was negatively associated with this outcome (a probable explanation is reverse causality). The two-level model also revealed significant variation between class groups.
Discussion: This variation was largely explained by motivational patterns: teaching pedagogies supporting intrinsic motivation appear to enhance language learning effectiveness, whereas school reinforcement
of parental strategies oriented towards extrinsic motivation may reduce it.