Abstract

Abdul Rashid Mohamed1*, Mahani Tumin1 and Hamzah Omar2

This is an investigation into the accelerated acquisition of English among young ESL learners in an International School. It employed an ethnographic case study approach where data were gathered through non-participant observations, unstructured interviews, relevant documents, students’ portfolios, field notes and biographical details. The sample consisted of a small group of five year old ESL learners with no or limited proficiency in English upon entering the nursery school. Miles and Huberman’s general view of qualitative data analysis was used in this study; “consisting of 3 concurrent flows of activity: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing/verification.” (Miles and Huberman, 1994) and Merriam’s (1998) proposal which required field data analysis done in conjunction with data collection. Findings from the study indicate that a supportive linguistic environment which provides opportunities for engagement in the language both inside and outside the classroom where both processes of acquisition and learning take place in a relaxed and meaningful manner is instrumental in boosting learners’ confidence and sustaining their motivation for continual success in language development. Conclusions drawn from the findings of the study imply that the support structure of success for accelerated acquisition of English would necessarily involve the positive interplay of the four basic constructs of language education, namely: the context, the teacher, the learner and the curriculum. These constructs frame the structure of success for both acquisition and learning in the accelerated language development of learners and therefore have to be accounted for in any consideration of effective learning of English as a second or foreign language.