ABSTRACT

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the drivers of English Language Competence (ELC) in a representative sample of European adolescents. School factors – such as English instruction time and English onset – are found to play an important role, especially in countries whose official languages are more distant from English. However, schools do not fully compensate for disparities in ELC. Gender, parental education and parental socioeconomic status are strongly associated with students’ ELC. Particularly, girls and children from more privileged social backgrounds show systematically higher ELC, even net of school factors and reading ability in their own country language. The role of family background is stronger in countries with languages that are more distant from English, suggesting that family resources are needed more when the skills are more difficult to acquire elsewhere. Finally, informal English exposure through media and cultural products is strongly and positively associated with ELC. This holds true in countries with both high and low linguistic distance from English, suggesting that schools should promote more informal English learning to increase overall ELC and reduce social disparities.

摘要

本文对具有代表性的欧洲青少年样本中的英语语言能力 (ELC) 驱动因素进行了比较分析。学校因素——例如英语教学时间和英语学习时间——被发现起着重要作用，尤其是在官方语言与英语相距较远的国家。然而，学校并没有完全弥补 ELC 的差异。性别、父母教育和父母社会经济地位与学生的 ELC 密切相关。特别是，来自更优越社会背景的女孩和儿童表现出系统性更高的 ELC，甚至在扣除学校因素和他们自己国家语言的阅读能力后。在语言与英语相距较远的国家，家庭背景的作用更强，表明当技能在其他地方更难获得时，更需要家庭资源。最后，通过媒体和文化产品进行的非正式英语接触与 ELC 密切且正相关。这在与英语语言距离较高和较低的国家都是如此，这表明学校应该促进更多的非正式英语学习，以提高整体 ELC 并减少社会差距。