The impact of early childhood education on language learning in third grade students

Abstract This study aimed to analyze the Early Childhood Education (ECE) impact on third-grade students' language learning outcomes in District Gujranwala public schools, Pakistan. It was a concurrent parallel mix method design. The purpose was to explore the how early childhood education influences the language learning in third grade students and also to compare the language learning outcomes of third-grade students with and without ECE. Semi structured interviews was conducted to 5 teachers and two-stage stratified sampling method was chosen from third grade of public schools. The total number of respondents was 400, 200 from ECE schools and 200 from non-ECE schools. Data from respondents was gathered using an adopted English language achievement test. An adopted English language achievement test was used to assess the language learning outcomes of third grade students. For analysis of descriptive and inferential statistics, SPSS software was used. The reliability of the test was .817. The study found that, it has numerous positive effects on children's academic performance, Phonological awareness, Syllable awareness, Rhyming, Alphabet knowledge, Oral language, Print awareness, and, most importantly, the development of sentence understanding and applying knowledge to real-life actions. It also examined that there is a significant difference in the language achievement of third-grade students with and without early childhood education. That calls attention to the impact of early support.