37.356, Reviews: Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts: Stefanie Frisch; Karen Glaser (eds.) (2025)

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Subject: 37.356, Reviews: Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts: Stefanie Frisch; Karen Glaser (eds.) (2025)

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Date: 26-Jan-2026
From: Leyla Mammadova [lema2 at uni-bremen.de]
Subject: Stefanie Frisch; Karen Glaser (eds.) (2025)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/36-2322

Title: Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts
Subtitle: Current issues and empirical insights into teaching and
learning languages in primary school
Series Title: Language Learning & Language Teaching
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: John Benjamins
           http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: https://benjamins.com/catalog/lllt.62

Editor(s): Stefanie Frisch; Karen Glaser

Reviewer: Leyla Mammadova

The previously published version of this review contained several
erroneous authorship attributions. The following is the author's
corrected text. We apologize for the oversight and the inconvenience
caused for the contributors and editors of the volume.
This is the previous one:
https://linguistlist.org/issues/36/3950/
SUMMARY
The edited volume “Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts”
offers a comprehensive, empirically grounded exploration of early
additional-language learning for children aged approximately 5 to 12.
Bringing together fourteen chapters from international scholars, the
book surveys contemporary research on assessment, literacy
development, classroom practices, teaching materials, teacher
cognition, parental views, and transitional experiences between
primary and secondary schooling. The editors frame the volume within a
growing global interest in early foreign language (L2) education,
particularly English, and emphasize the methodological and pedagogical
challenges that characterize low-exposure instructional contexts.
These challenges include limited contact hours, heterogeneous learner
profiles, and the need for purposeful input management and carefully
designed materials to support emergent linguistic and literacy skills.
The volume is structured into four thematic parts. Part I, Assessment
and Teaching Practices, contains three chapters. In Chapter 2,
“Child-centered Assessment Research and Practice,” by Yuko Goto
Butler, the author argues for greater learner agency in assessment
design and processes for young language learners, noting that early
learners benefit when assessment supports motivation rather than
merely measuring achievement (pp. 38-39). The chapter surveys strands
of child-centered assessment, including children’s language assessment
literacy, self-assessment, and technology-enhanced assessment tools.
Chapter 3, “Primary School Learners Benefit from Captioned Video
Viewing,” by Daniela Avello and Carmen Muñoz, presents an experimental
study of captioned animated videos in Chilean primary English
classrooms. The study shows clear gains in written vocabulary recall
and highlights motivational effects of multimodal input, with learners
reporting that captions helped them follow stories and remember words
(pp. 55-57). Chapter 4, “On Teachers’ Use of the L1 in Primary English
Classrooms in Germany,” by Holger Limberg, examines the quantity and
interactional functions of teachers’ first-language (L1) use. Based on
a corpus of 24 lessons, the study identifies both brief and extended
use of German that supports scaffolding, comprehension, classroom
management, and awareness of linguistic differences (pp. 70-73).
Part II, Emerging L2 Literacy in Instructed Contexts, comprises four
chapters. Chapter 5, “Paving the Way for L2 Literacy Skills from the
Start – Raising Phonographic Awareness in the Primary English Language
Classroom,” by Anne Schrader, presents a fine-grained
conversation-analytic study of the introduction of the English split
digraph “Magic E” in a  German Grade 3 classroom. The chapter
demonstrates how teachers adapt L1 phonics methods for L2 contexts and
how such instruction supports phonographic awareness. Chapter 6, “L2
Spelling Predictors of Young German Learners of English,” by Heike
Mlakar, Joanna Hirst-Plein and Martin J. Koch reports a longitudinal
study identifying reading comprehension and reading accuracy as the
strongest predictors of L2 spelling success, with phonological
awareness and grammar showing indirect effects. Chapter 7, “Faktör –
factoure – facteure? The Development of French Vowel Spelling in a
German-French Bilingual Primary School,” by Anne Lorenz and Constanze
Weth, investigates cross-linguistic transfer in biliterate learners
and finds that initial reliance on German graphemic patterns gradually
shifts toward target- language norms. Chapter 8, “Young Learners’
Verbal Reports of Their Writing Strategies when Composing an
Explanatory Text in CLIL Science,” by Yvette Coyle and Julio Roca de
Larios, analyzes planning, formulation, and revision strategies of
young learners, observing heavy reliance on memorized language, L1
translation, and visual recall, with limited metacognitive revision.
Part III, Teaching and Learning Materials, includes three chapters. In
Chapter 9, “Speech Acts in English Language Textbooks for Young
Language Learners in Croatia,” Eva Jakupčević and Mihajla Čavar
Portolan present an analysis of eighteen Croatian EFL textbooks for
Grades 2-4, uncovering a severe imbalance in pragmatic content, with
requests and request responses dominating while apologies and other
everyday speech acts are rare or absent. Chapter 10, “Intercultural
and Citizenship Objectives through Picturebooks in Early Language
Learning,” by Nayr Ibrahim and Sandie Mourão, describes a professional
development course (ICEPro) that trains teachers to use picture-books
as vehicles for intercultural citizenship education. The authors
introduce the Picturebook Selection Guide and the ICEKit template and
document how teachers integrate picture-mediated discussions with
Taking Action projects that involve community participation (pp.
209-212). Chapter 11, “An English Listening Comprehension Learning
Game and Its Effect on Phonological Awareness,” by Emilie Charles and
colleagues, reports two studies evaluating a tablet-based listening
comprehension game used with young French learners of English. The
game consistently improved listening comprehension, though effects on
phonological awareness were inconsistent throughout the two studies.
Part IV, Teacher, Parent and Learner Views of Early Language
Education, contains three chapters. Chapter 12, “Student Teachers’ and
Mentors’ Perceptions of Effective Teaching Techniques in the Primary
L2 English Classroom,” by Kristin Kersten and colleagues, examines
self- and mentor assessments of teaching quality using the Teacher
Input Observation Scheme. The chapter reveals institutional
differences in ratings, mixed patterns of over- and underestimation by
student teachers, and a trend toward stricter judgments with
increasing experience. Chapter 13, “Starting Early or Late? Parental
Perspectives on the Onset of English Language Education at Primary
School in Germany,” by Dominik Rumlich and Raphaela Porsch, presents a
large-scale survey of 2,645 parents. Most favor starting English in
Year 1 or 2, and attitudes correlate strongly with educational
aspirations, positive personal experiences, and expectations for
language outcomes. Chapter 14, “The Transition from Primary School
Bilingual Programs to Regular Foreign Language Lessons in Secondary
School,” by Anja Steinlen, Daniela Schwarz, and Thorsten Piske
provides a longitudinal perspective on 69 former CLIL pupils. The
study finds that CLIL learners maintain positive attitudes and
outperform peers in listening, speaking, and reading up to Year 7, and
shows that differentiated instruction is needed during the transition.
Across its chapters, the work emphasizes the importance of maximizing
high-quality input, professionalizing teachers, integrating L1
strategically, advancing L2 literacy from the earliest stages,
supplementing inadequate publisher-issued materials, fostering
intercultural citizenship, and understanding stakeholder perspectives
in early language education. It also showcases diverse methodologies,
including conversation analysis, corpus linguistics, longitudinal
designs, mixed methods, and practitioner research.
EVALUATION
“Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts” represents a
significant contribution to research on primary-level L2 learning and
teaching. As early language education continues to expand globally,
often driven by policy rather than pedagogy, empirically grounded
resources like this volume are essential for both scholars and
practitioners. The book’s breadth is impressive, covering assessment,
multimodal input, literacy acquisition, biliteracy, classroom
discourse, pedagogical materials, pragmatics, intercultural
citizenship, and teacher and parent perspectives. The editors
successfully assemble contributions that, while diverse in approach
and geographic focus, collectively illuminate the opportunities and
constraints of low-exposure instructional contexts. This thematic
diversity reflects the nature of early L2 learning as highlighted
across several chapters (e.g., Chapter 3, pp. 55-58).
One of the book’s principal strengths is the clear connection between
empirical evidence and pedagogical implications. For instance,
Schrader’s chapter on Magic E (Chapter 5) offers a detailed
micro-analysis of phonics-based instruction in a German primary
classroom, showing  how young learners respond to phonographic
patterns (pp. 95-101). The interactional excerpts (Excerpt 1, lines
1-31) illustrate how learners co-construct literacy knowledge within
teacher- guided sequences (pp. 100-101). Moreover, her longitudinal
intervention demonstrates measurable gains in read-aloud accuracy for
split digraphs over 15 weeks (pp. 98-100), reinforcing arguments for
structured, phonics-informed L2 literacy instruction even in limited
instructional time settings.
Another strength of the volume is its attention to learner agency and
multimodal input. Avello & Muñoz (Chapter 3) contribute longitudinal
evidence of how captioned video viewing supports vocabulary
development (pp. 55-59). Their study demonstrates that multimodal
input, particularly the synchrony of audio, imagery and written text,
helps young learners compensate for vocabulary knowledge gaps (pp.
57-58). Interview data show learners becoming more aware of their
learning processes, consistent with developmental research on
metacognition in middle childhood (pp. 57-58). The chapter also
highlights practical constraints, such as difficulty processing
dynamic captions at early ages (pp. 56-57), reminding educators that
multimodal input must be carefully examined.
Chapter 8 by Coyle & Roca de Larios presents an exploration of 22
A1-level young learners’ writing strategies within a CLIL science
context, and its strength lies in the implementation of the
triangulation of classroom observations, interviews, and text
analysis. Another strength of the chapter is its clear identification
of strategies, namely global (advance) planning and local planning,
implemented though planning questions and writing. Both contributed to
learners’ growing awareness of text organization and genre conventions
(reports and explanations). The emphasis on multimodal practices
(drawings and videos) further enhances the study as it shows how
visual and oral resources support idea development and help learners
express scientific understanding more effectively.
The chapters on L1 use and pragmatic development further enrich the
volume. Jakupčević & Ćavar Portolan’s study of 18 Croatian textbooks
shows profound gaps in the representation of key speech acts essential
for Survival English, such as requests, apologies, greetings, and
suggestions (Chapter 9, pp. 190-207). Their quantitative coding of
textbook pages reveals uneven distribution and frequent
underrepresentation of critical communicative forms (pp. 192- 193).
The authors situate these findings within broader concerns about
authenticity and pragmatic range in young language learner (YLL)
materials (pp. 194-195). This aligns with  global critiques of
commercially driven materials prioritizing visual appeal over
communicative richness.
The section on intercultural citizenship brings a welcome
broad-educational perspective.
Ibrahim & Mourão (Chapter 10) present the ICEPro professional
development model, detailing its theoretically informed, sustained,
and mentoring-supported structure (pp. 209-212). Their analysis of
ICEKit resources demonstrates how picture-books can foster
intercultural dialogue and civic engagement even at early ages. The
Picturebook Selection Guide and ICEKit templates provide teachers with
structured, replicable frameworks, countering the common challenge of
insufficient pedagogical scaffolding in intercultural education.
The final part of the book extends the discussion to teacher, parent,
and learner perspectives, highlighting the sociological and
psychological forces shaping early L2 education. For example, as
Rumlich & Porsch show in Chapter 13, documented parental expectations
influence policy decisions at the primary level and help explore how
pre-service teachers develop reflective competence. The longitudinal
CLIL research presented by Steinlen, Schwarz & Piske in Chapter 14,
showing sustained advantages into Year 7, raises crucial questions
about system coherence, especially given her finding of limited
collaboration between primary and secondary teachers.
Despite these strengths, the volume exhibits some typical limitations
of edited collections.
Methodological variance between chapters can be seen, for instance,
between the detailed CA- for-SLA transcript analyses in Chapter 5 (pp.
100-102) and the more surface-level textbook analyses in Chapter 9.
Furthermore, the geographical focus remains largely European, despite
the book’s applicability to regions such as Asia or Africa, where
early L2 instruction often starts earlier and takes different forms. A
more explicit cross-contextual synthesis in the introduction or
conclusion would have helped mitigate this.
Some chapters would also benefit from stronger integration with
existing scholarship. For example, the study on captioned video
viewing (Chapter 3), although analytically rich, could link more
explicitly to broader multimodal learning theories (e.g., Mayer et
al., 2020, as already cited in Chapter 3, p. 59). Similarly, the
textbook analysis of speech-acts (Chapter 9) could connect its
findings more directly to research on developmental pragmatics in
children.
These limitations, however, do not diminish the book’s overall
contribution. Rather, they reflect the inherently interdisciplinary
nature of early language education research, spanning  linguistics,
psychology, literacy studies, pedagogy, and sociology. The volume is
particularly suited to researchers, teacher educators, and graduate
students working on early L2 literacy, CLIL, assessment, and classroom
discourse. Practitioners will find practical insights, including ways
to manage L1 use strategically (as illustrated in classroom dialogues
in Chapters 4 and 5), how to integrate picture-books meaningfully
(Chapter 10), or how to structure multimodal tasks to serve different
pedagogical goals (Chapters 2, 3, 8, 10).
The volume also points toward important future research directions. As
noted in Chapter 2 (pp. 28-39), child-centered assessment should be
considered within the context of local sociocultural and educational
factors. The ways of making assessment more child-centered should be
explored as this could enhance methodological diversity in assessment.
According to Chapter 3 (p. 60), there was a lack of a delayed posttest
to identify the effects of viewing distribution on learners’ retention
of written word forms, and the sample size in each group was limited.
Therefore, further research on the learning of other word knowledge
dimensions and language aspects is needed. Additionally, it is
essential to support prospective teachers in adapting their classroom
discourse to learners’ language proficiency and in using L1 in an
informed manner. Teacher-initiated L1 use often leads to increased
learner L1 use. Awareness of these dynamics supports reflective
language use, which is indispensable for promoting learners’ L2
development (Chapter 4, p. 87).
Longitudinal studies tracking learners across primary and secondary
schooling, including read- aloud and independent reading development
(as modelled in Chapter 5, pp. 98-100), are urgently needed. Chapter 6
(pp. 134-135) suggests that future research on German young English
learners’ spelling ability could be expanded by analyzing the
effectiveness of spelling interventions, with the aim of establishing
spelling instruction as a recognized component of the L2 English
primary classroom. According to Chapter 7 (p. 157), further research
is needed to identify additional factors that influence vowel spelling
in both writing systems (German and French) and to refine
instructional approaches that support bilingual learners. Chapter 8
(p. 181) emphasizes the importance of the inclusion of parents’ SES as
a variable in future research in order to gain a better understanding
of individual learners’ strategic profiles.
The book also highlights the need for textbook authors and publishers
to systematically address pragmatic language, specifically Survival
English speech acts, to ensure that textbooks provide young learners
with relevant language (Chapter 9, p. 204). Chapter 10 (p. 230)
highlights the importance of research on how teachers use and adapt
the ICEKits in different contexts and  opportunities to collect
transnational data as they would significantly contribute to the
fields of early language learning (due to the lack of research
projects associated with primary learners) and teaching approaches.
Chapter 11 (p. 254) proposes a digital test that pupils can complete
independently; this would allow for a more precise measure of
phonological awareness.
As proposed by Chapter 12 (p. 280), future research with larger
samples of learners and mentors is needed for more generalisability,
which can help improve pre-service primary English teacher education
and preparatory courses for student teaching practicums.
Recognizing and incorporating the parents’ perspectives (making
parents “co-researchers”) can be crucial for enhancing primary English
education, as suggested in Chapter 13 (p. 301), due to the importance
of the role of parents for young learners’ additional language
learning opportunities. Finally, Chapter 14 (p. 323) emphasizes the
necessity to boost EFL teachers’ ability to adapt their teaching
methods to diverse classrooms by implementing measures that support
CLIL pupils in Years 5, 6, and 7 (and beyond), pointing out that a
majority of parents and pupils in the Bavarian study preferred a CLIL
programme over regular EFL lessons in Year 5 and 6.
To sum up, “Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts” succeeds
in presenting a multifaceted, empirically grounded perspective on
early L2 learning. Its contributions are timely and substantive, and
despite minor issues of coherence, the volume stands as a valuable,
field- defining resource.
REFERENCES
Avello, D., & Muñoz, C. (2025). Primary school learners benefit from
captioned video viewing: Vocabulary learning, viewing distribution and
perceptions. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education
in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Charles, E., Magnat, E., Jouannaud, M.-P., Payre-Ficout, C., &
Loiseau, M. (2025). An English listening comprehension learning game
and its effect on phonological awareness. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser
(Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts. John
Benjamins.
Coyle, Y., & Roca de Larios, J. (2025). Young learners’ verbal reports
of their writing strategies when composing an explanatory text in CLIL
science. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in
Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Glaser, K., & Frisch, S. (2025). Early language education in
instructed contexts: An introduction. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.),
Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Goto Butler, Y. (2025). Child-centered assessment research and
practice: Current issues. In S.
Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed
Contexts. John Benjamins.
Ibrahim, N., & Mourão, S. (2025). Intercultural and citizenship
objectives through picturebooks in early language learning:
Teacher-made resources for Taking Action projects. In S. Frisch & K.
Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts. John
Benjamins.
Jakupčević, E., & Ćavar Portolan, M. (2025). Speech acts in English
language textbooks for young learners in Croatia. In S. Frisch & K.
Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts. John
Benjamins.
Kersten, K., Glaser, K., Ruhm, H., Roos, J., Brunsmeier, S., & Koch,
M. J. (2025). Student teachers’ and mentors’ perceptions of effective
teaching techniques in the primary L2 English classroom. In S. Frisch
& K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts.
John Benjamins.
Limberg, H. (2025). On teachers’ use of the L1 in primary English
classrooms in Germany. In S.
Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed
Contexts. John Benjamins.
Lorenz, A., & Weth, C. (2025). Faktör – factoure – facteure? The
development of French vowel spelling in a German-French bilingual
primary school. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language
Education in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Mayer, R., Fiorella, L., & Stull, A. (2020). Five ways to increase the
effectiveness of instructional videos. Educational Technology Research
and Development, 68(3), 837–852.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09749-6 Mlakar, H., Hirst-Plein,
J., & Koch, M. J. (2025). L2 spelling predictors of young German
learners of English. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language
Education in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Rumlich, D., & Porsch, R. (2025). Starting early or late? Parental
perspectives on the onset of English language education at primary
school in Germany. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language
Education in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Schrader, A. (2025). Paving the way for L2 literacy skills from the
start – Raising phonographic awareness in the primary English language
classroom. In S. Frisch & K. Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education
in Instructed Contexts. John Benjamins.
Steinlen, A., Schwarz, D., & Piske, T. (2025). Transitioning from
primary CLIL to regular secondary English programs. In S. Frisch & K.
Glaser (Eds.), Early Language Education in Instructed Contexts. John
Benjamins.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Leyla Mammadova is an aspiring English language teacher and currently
a Master’s student at the University of Bremen. Her research interests
lie in Applied Linguistics, Cultural Linguistics, English Language
Teaching Methodology, and Pedagogy.



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