Are we on the right track?... A clue…

Here is the up to date eclectic data:

37 students

7 to 16

Grade 1 to grade 10

Real Beginners + some with 3 years of English study

1 Program of English only

1 class only

All students involved

All students acquiring “something”

One question:

Why are all the students involved and acquiring something despite of their huge differences?

One possible answer:

The program is basically for beginners but we can see that non beginners benefit from it too. The reason is that, in their previous studies of English, these students didn’t get the right foundation. They are missing something essential to build on. They are enable to use their somehow real knowledge because they don’t have the good basics.

The next, and fundamental, question is:

What are these missing basics?

At this stage of our research, we reckon that they are made of confidence, listening, speaking, phonics, grammar and vocabulary.

The confidence part can be related to the “affective filter” developed by Stephen Krashen, a Doctor in Linguistics. Here are some information about it:

“The Affective Filter hypothesis embodies Krashen's view that a number of 'affective variables' play a facilitative, but non-causal, role in second language acquisition. These variables include: motivation, self-confidence, anxiety and personality traits. Krashen claims that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, low level of anxiety and extroversion are better equipped for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low self-esteem, anxiety, introversion and inhibition can raise the affective filter and form a 'mental block' that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition. In other words, when the filter is 'up' it impedes language acquisition. On the other hand, positive affect is necessary, but not sufficient on its own, for acquisition to take place.”

(From: https://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html )

Cambodian people probably have a high level of affective filter!

We can state that we are on the right track at this stage of our research.