“English is a language that almost everybody will know or should know:”

Children's perceptions of global English

Abstract

The present study explores young children’s experiences with and perceptions of English in their personal lives in a traditional EFL context. Twenty-one Danish children (between the age of 8-12) participated in the study. A multimodal emic approach was employed using language portraits and interviews. As the only language besides Danish (L1), English figured in all portraits thus illustrating the great importance placed on English by all children, recognizing its status as a global language. However, the participating children experienced and viewed English very differently. Findings of the present study ranged from perspectives where learning and using English was found to be frustrating and difficult, to bilingual perspectives where English was engaged with more or just as much as the first language (Danish). This confirmed arguments that to some English is still a foreign language in traditional EFL contexts. Some implications were connected to this.  It seems key that teachers become familiar with the extramural English interest of their students as well as their learning trajectories. This way they will be better able to differentiate their teaching (Sylvén, 2022). Moreover, more longitudinal research is needed to provide insights into children's perceptions of global English and the factors that affect this.