Exploring linguistic features in young foreign language learners’ speech: The interplay of learner background, educational context, and time in 6 months of development

Abstract The widespread early teaching of English in primary schools has prompted extensive research on young learners’ proficiency and assessment. However, studies exploring young learners’ development in spoken language features—especially in relation to background and contextual factors in EFL settings—are still limited. This longitudinal study examined the development of young foreign language learners (ages 10–12) in various linguistic dimensions of speaking (i.e., fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and content) over 6 months and investigated how these changes related to their educational context and background variables. A total of 102 young foreign language learners from three different educational contexts in Mexico took the speaking section of the TOEFL Primary® test at both the start and end of the 6 months. They also completed background questionnaires at the beginning, midpoint, and end of the study. Results indicated that learners in the advantaged educational contexts outperformed those with limited resources on most linguistic features of speaking, and that learners with lower initial proficiency made greater gains in all spoken linguistic features. These findings offer important insights for school administrators and curriculum developers.