Longitudinal research: The ELLiC project

Abstract

This chapter starts with a description of the story behind the ELLiC project (English Language Learning in Catalonia): from the initial goal of examining young language learners during their first years of foreign language instruction at school to following up with some of those learners through the end of secondary school. The next section is devoted to longitudinal research. We first introduce the reader to SLA (second language acquisition) research with a focus on change over time and highlight the suitability of this temporal focus to answer fundamental problems in SLA. Some of the challenges of longitudinal research such as “study length” are also discussed. A description of six exceptionally long studies follows to illustrate the affordances of long-term longitudinal research. The chapter’s subsequent section is devoted to the ELLiC project by first situating it in the context of Catalonia (Spain) and the region’s school system and then presenting the project’s design. The main methodological elements of ELLIC follow including a description of the multiple instruments that characterise the project. In sum, this first chapter provides the reader with the necessary context to get a full understanding of the next five chapters in this book.