How 15-Year-Olds Learn English
Case Studies from Finland, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands and Portugal
This report takes the reader into the lives of young people in Finland, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands and Portugal to explore the question: how do 15-year-olds learn English? Gone are the days when learners only encountered English for a couple of hours a week in a classroom. For today's teens, English is often the preferred language of communication in increasingly diverse online and offline communities. Yet relatively little is known internationally about how students learn English inside and outside school, and the resources available to help them. This report presents country findings from interviews with 15-year-olds, English-language teachers and school principals and wider background research, as well as a comparative chapter on key international insights. The report also explores how today’s digital technologies can support learners to develop foreign language proficiency. These findings support the forthcoming PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment through which the OECD will generate comparable data on students’ proficiency in English in different countries and on the factors related to it.
English learning in five countries: Key comparative findings
Despite the widespread policy attention English language teaching and learning has received in recent years, internationally comparable information about the ways in which students in different countries learn English is scarce. To support countries to gain insights from each other, this chapter presents findings from case studies of how 15-year-olds learn English in Finland, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands and Portugal, identifying key similarities and differences within and across countries. It explores the ways in which students in different countries encounter English outside school in both digital and real-world environments. It also considers students’ and teachers’ perspectives on the ways in which they learn and teach English in school, as well as the resources – including digital technologies – that are available to support learning.
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