Relationship between Learning English as a Foreign Language and the Executive Attention Profile in Spanish Schoolchildren

Abstract

Executive functions are established as vital in learning, as well as in the development of psycholinguistic skills crucial to learning a second language. The present study analyzes relationships between variables linked to executive functioning and to academic achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants were 519 primary school students between the ages of 10 and 12. The results show a tendency to greater sustained and selective attention and consequently better attention control and concentration on task when academic achievement in English was higher. Our discriminant analysis verifies that sustained and selective attention, attention deficit, and concentration on task explain and predict group membership in EFL achievement groups (low, medium, and high achievement). It is important to plan activities to develop executive functioning, alongside the regular curriculum content, in order to improve learning and acquisition of psycholinguistic skills, the foundation for bilingualism or second-language learning.