The study of relationship between bilingualism and private speech with English learning in elementary school students

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between gender and bilingualism with English learning among 7-11 years old students. Methodology: 261 students (124 girls and 157 boys) were selected through multi-stage sampling method from elementary school. Employing check list the level of English scores was obtained .The children's private speech obtained from listening to them when they were solving a puzzle in group. Findings: An independent t test showed that there was no significant relationship between bilingualism and English scores (p<05/0). Furthermore an ANOVA test indicated that there was a significant relationship between the type of private speech and English scores (p<0/01). A Sheffe post hoc showed that the solving private speech had the significant relationship with high performance in English scores among four types of private speech: Solving speech, Task relevant speech, non- facilitative Coping/ reinforcing speech and task- irrelevant speech. Discussion: considering the nature of the "solving private speech" indicates that this kind of private speech had a more meta-cognitive nature which leads to better cognitive function such as learning English.