Abstract:
The World has recently witnessed a growing interest in young
learner EFL programs. Research results regarding the value of such
programs are not conclusive. This brings to the foreground the
importance of conducting research studies that evaluate the practical
achievements of such early start programs in various contexts. This paper
attempts to shed some light on the controversial issues related to the
influence of early start English programs on children’s achievement of
English as a foreign language. Two age groups were compared: Eleven
year olds who have started learning English from the First Grade and
thirteen year olds who have started learning English from the fifth grade.
A comprehensive test was designed to compare the two age groups in
terms of their achievement in reading comprehension, vocabulary and
structure. Results show that fifth grade starters achieved better results in
reading comprehension and vocabulary; however, there were no
statistically significant differences between the two age groups in terms
of structure.
