Background and Method Implementation School B The anonymous public school in the Basque Country is now being referred to as B form. It is situated in the town of Erandio, which has around 25.000 residents. Erandio, a suburb of the city of Bilbao (500.000 residents), was renowned for its industries and large working class until the early 1980s, when the entire area began a reconversion into the services sector as a result of an economic crisis. As a result, Erandio's socioeconomic background is primarily working class and lower middle class today. Although B is a school where Basque is the medium of teaching in all courses independent of the student's home tongue, the entire metropolitan region is primarily Spanish-speaking (80%) as a result of a massive immigration from Spain between 1900 and 1970. B is the typical example of a language immersion school for Spanish-speakers to achieve a minimum command of the Basque language. They have 650 students from age 3 to 15 and students start studying English at the age of 6-7 years old which means that the class in this study, 4A, has been studying English for 8-9 years (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades in Sweden correspond to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades in the Basque school system). 4A (see appendix A) consists of 21 pupils, 12 girls and 9 boys. They have English as a subject three times a week (165 minutes), each lesson being 55 minutes long. In two of these lessons the class is split into two halves so they have English in small groups of 10-12. In addition, 8 pupils in the class attend private lessons in their free time in order to improve their English skills.
School S A private or independent school named School S is situated in Stockholm's historic district. Stockholm is Sweden's capital and home to roughly 1.000.000 people. In order to maintain and pass on their language to future generations, one of Stockholm's linguistic groups established and operates this school in the 1940s. 180 pupils from the ages of 6 to 15 attend this little school. At home, they frequently use their minority language, while Swedish is also acceptable. The ability to speak Swedish like a native is made feasible by the language's limited usage at home, overwhelming use in daily life, and use as the language of teaching. The children come to the school from many various places and familial situations, where their minority language and culture are the only things they have in common. As a result, their socioeconomic backgrounds range from poverty to upper middle class. However, the middle and upper middle classes are the most common.
There are 19 students in the study's class 9A, 10 of them are females and 9 of whom are guys. There is no dividing as there is in School B, and they have English three times a week for a total of 135 minutes. 9A have spent eight to nine years studying English.
School B and school S were randomly chosen as representatives of their respective national school systems but 4A and 9A were not. These two classes were picked on the following basis:
- They are the end of compulsory education.
- National test: having an essay test ready and designed by professionals facilitated
assessment
- Years of English: both 4A and 9A have been studying English for 8-9 years.
- Size: both classes are approximately the same size.
- Gender: both classes have a balanced distribution of boys and girls