Globalization and market integration have made languages an essential tool for worldwide communication. Nowadays, English knowledge is spread internationally, its importance is growing, and educational systems introduce students to English learning at an increasingly early age. However, until now, very little was known about the determinants of English competences, which dierences are linked to country specic factors and which policy educational measures can be taken to improve the English level of students at the end of compulsory education. This paper uses data from the European Survey of Language Competences (ESLC), which allows to make the rst study that addresses these queries. By making use of an educational production function, where the `outcome' is the level of English acquired in the evaluated competences, we can infer which are the determinants of English performance at the end of compulsory education. English class size is a particularly important feature of the educational systems because it can be quite easily modied by policy makers. Following Woessmann (EP, 2005) class size European study in sciences cognitive skills, and implementing similar techniques, previously developed by Angrist and Lavy (QJE, 1999), we obtain a statistically signicant causal result: bigger English classes perform better on average than smaller ones in Reading and Writing competences.

1. Excuse me, do you speak English?
An International Evaluation using ESLC
Ester N´u˜nez de Miguel
CEMFI
March 23rd, 2015
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2. Outline
1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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3. 1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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4. Introduction
Economists are interested in educational topics since we consider
Education is an Investment
of society in today youngs
in terms of the youngs’ personal effort
This Investment ends up with individuals with greater and more
diverse skills, whose final reward are better employment opportunities
once they finish their studies.
Nowadays, English knowledge has become a very valuable skill in the
labor market. International trade and globalization have made English
an essential tool for worldwide communication.
Due to its importance, countries allocate a great amount of public
expenditure in education, making special emphasis on English as a
foreign language.
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5. Differences in the educational systems on the English onset and the
importance given to foreign languages varies greatly across countries,
and this creates huge differences in World English levels.
From a quantitative point of view, economists search which teaching
methods are more effective in terms of results.
In terms of educational policy, economists search which policy
changes can improve educative results with a given amount of
available resources.
Until now, the lack of comparative English test and teaching data
prevented an exhaustive applied analysis to be done.
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6. European Survey of Language Competences (ESLC) 2011 its the first
database of its kind, and allows to evaluate
Which are the main determinants of English proficiency at the end of
compulsory education?
Explore which factors effect differ from previous research in other
skills previously evaluated.
Use Instrumental Variables techniques to address the identification of
the effect of English Class size on outcomes.
“If custom and law define what is educationally allowable within a nation,
educational systems beyond one’s national boundaries suggest what is
educationally possible.”
W. Foshay (1962), first pilot study of international student achievement.
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7. 1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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8. The ESLC
The European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC) 2011:
14 countries participated and were evaluated in their 2 first target
languages (among English, French, German, Spanish and Italian):
Tested Educational level: Last year of lower secondary education.
Ages: 14-16 years old
English was the first target language for 13 educational systems.
The test evaluates 3 skills: Reading, Listening and Writing
Each student was evaluated in 2 skills and completed a student
questionnaire (SQ): 23,358 students
Teacher Questionnaire (TQ)
Principal Questionnaire (PQ): 1047 schools
National Information
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9. The ESLC
The sample was designed to satisfy the technical requirements for
international testing, ex: PISA, TIMSS.
A routine test previous to the skill evaluation assigned each student
to a test level: A1-A2, A2-B1 and B1-B2.
Each student did 5 tasks per skill: each task measures only within a
limited range; results are not comparable across students.
Results of the test are reported in terms of the Common European
Framework of Reference (CEFR) which has 6 levels of functional
competence: A1 (lowest) - C2 (highest).
ESLC Level CEFR Level Definition
Independent User Advanced B2 Can express herself clearly and effectively
Beginner B1 Can deal with straightforward familiar matters
Basic User Advanced A2 Can use simple language to communicate on everyday topics
Beginner A1 Can use very simple language
Beginner Pre-A1 Have not achieved the A1 level
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10. Mean Test Results by Country
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11. 1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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12. Education Production Function
Economic literature has made use of international test of educational
achievement to analyze the determinants and impacts on cognitive skills.
Our purpose has been the estimation of an education production
function using ESLC:
Sisc = β0 + β1Fi + β2Ris + β3Ic + β4Ai + isc
Sisc Listening, Reading and Writing.
Fi captures student and family background characteristics
Ris school resources, I institutional features
Ai individual ability
The cross-sectional nature of this estimation allows only for a descriptive
interpretation of which are the determinants of English performance
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13. Specification
Student and Family background characteristics
Studenti : age, gender, immigrant, repetition;
Familyi : Father and Mother English level, education, books at home,
profession, English use at home, early onset at home;
School Resources
Studentis: number of years of English at school, early onset at school,
English lesson time per week, English class size, ancient languages,
number of foreign languages;
Institutional Information
School: External Exit Exams
Country: GDP 2010, Educational Expenditure 2010, TV in English is
subtitled, Multilingual region
Family Language Controls
Germanic: Netherlands, Sweden
Romance: French Belgium, France, Malta, Portugal, Spain
Slavic: Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia
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14. Available Data
Original sample size: 23,358 students
Following the Main Sample
Remove 4 schools where no SQ was reported
5,228 observations are lost due to missing values in the SQ
40% of the sample is lost due to missing values in PQ and TQ
Final available data: 14,964 students.
S Listening observations: 11,116
S Reading observations: 11,225
S Writing observations: 10,951
Estimation Method
Least Squares Regression weighted by students sampling probability
⇒ Population Effects
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15. Environmental Factors
Mean Mean Mean
STUDENT BACKGROUND Listening Reading Writing
Age -0.14*** -0.09*** -0.18**
(0.028) (0.03) (0.085)
Female 0.02 0.01 0.48***
(0.03) (0.03) (0.08)
Repetition -0.18*** -0.35*** -1.26***
(0.058) (0.056) (0.13)
Immigrant 0.23*** 0.10 0.27
(0.08) (0.08) (0.21)
ESCS index 0.13*** 0.15*** 0.26***
(0.03) (0.03) (0.10)
Observations 11,116 11,225 10,951
R-squared 0.502 0.442 0.439
Clustered robust standard errors by school
in parentheses, *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
In line with PIRLS studies, Girls perform better in writing skills.
Immigrant is a positive and significant determinant of Listening skills.
Repetition effect is negative and significant for all skills.
ESCS index is a positive and significant predictor of student
performance.
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16. Environmental Factors
Mean Mean Mean
FAMILY BACKGROUND Listening Reading Writing
Father University 0.085** 0.09* 0.28**
(0.04) (0.047) (0.121)
Mother University 0.113*** 0.11** 0.35***
(0.043) (0.05) (0.106)
White Collar Father 0.02 0.04 -0.12
(0.039) (0.047) (0.117)
White Collar Mother 0.18*** 0.21*** 0.57***
(0.049) (0.049) (0.14)
Blue Collar Father -0.09** -0.12*** -0.42***
(0.039) (0.04) (0.13)
Pink Collar Mother 0.10*** 0.08* 0.48***
(0.036) (0.046) (0.129)
Father English Well 0.16*** 0.15*** 0.48***
(0.035) (0.035) (0.098)
Mother English Well 0.04 0.05 0.13
(0.032) (0.04) (0.099)
English use at home 0.41*** 0.35*** 0.98***
(0.04) (0.05) (0.13)
Early Onset at home 0.23*** 0.23*** 0.41**
(0.074) (0.08) (0.18)
Clustered robust standard errors by school
in parentheses, *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
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17. Environmental Factors
Family Background
Mother and Father University have a positive and significant impact.
Blue Collar and White Collar have a negative and a positive effect
respectively in all the skills.
The fact that only one of the parents affects the kid could be driven by
relative impact or by collinearity due to assortative mating.
Correlation between parents education expressed in years: 62,4%.
Father’s English knowledge is a positive and significant determinant.
Early onset at home: English knowledge at home before 5 years old.
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18. Environmental Factors
Mean Mean Mean
NATIONAL INFORMATION Listening Reading Writing
GDP ppa 2010 per capita -0.07*** -0.06*** -0.18***
(0.02) (0.02) (0.05)
Educational Expenditure 2010 0.16*** 0.15** 0.62***
(0.06) (0.06) (0.14)
Un-dubbed English TV 0.16 0.20* 0.47*
(0.10) (0.12) (0.27)
Population 2011 -0.11*** -0.06*** -0.20***
(0.02) (0.017) (0.04)
Multilingual Region 0.28** 0.08 0.65
(0.13) (0.16) (0.42)
External Exit Exams -0.11 -0.35*** -0.67***
(0.08) (0.09) (0.2)
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Educational Expenditure in 2010 at secondary is positive and signif.
Un-dubbed English TV is positive and significant.
Multilingual regions perform positive and significantly in Listening.
External Exit Exams are negative and signif: teaching-to-the-test?
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19. What happens in the School?
Which educational policies can significantly change the results in English
performance at the end of compulsory education?
Mean Mean Mean
SCHOOL INFORMATION Listening Reading Writing
English Hours per Week 0.08*** 0.1*** 0.27***
(0.026) (0.031) (0.067)
Years English School >5 years 0.03*** 0.05*** 0.08***
(0.006) (0.006) (0.02)
Early Onset at School <5 years 0.17*** 0.17*** 0.51***
(0.06) (0.06) (0.13)
Number of Foreign Languages 0.11*** 0.11*** 0.21***
(0.024) (0.026) (0.06)
Ancient Languages 0.07 0.13** 0.39***
(0.054) (0.058) (0.14)
English Class Size logarithms 0.16*** 0.19*** 0.75***
(0.05) (0.057) (0.17)
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
The English class size effect is positive and significant: bigger
classes perform better on average.
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20. 1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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21. English Class Size
English Class size is a positive and significant determinant in the 3 skills
analyzed ⇒ Bigger classes perform better on average than smaller ones.
Class sizes depend on choices by politicians, administrators and
parents which may be related to the level of performance achieved ⇒
A more accurate estimation method is needed to get the effect of
English Class Sizes on Results.
Economics is a social science, therefore we can not experiment with
students to estimate the effect of class size changes.
Regulation induces changes in the class size ”treatment”
Angrist and Lavy (1999) Maimonides’ rule exploiting maximum
class size regulation is the best known example.
Maximum Class size induces nonlinear and non monotonic relationship
between grade enrollment and class size ⇒ Creates exogenous variation
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22. English Class Size
A simple example
Country with Regulation Maximum Class Size (25)
Treatment: English Class Size
Number of Number of
School Cohort Size Classes Students per Class
A 25 1 25
B 26 2 13
C 50 2 25
D 51 3 17
E 75 3 25
School A has 25 students in the course ⇒ 1 class ⇒
Treatment: English Class Size = 25
School B has 26 students in the course ⇒ 2 classes ⇒
Treatment: English Class Size = 13
English Class Size Treatment differs only due to the regulation that affects
maximum class size (25 in the example)
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23. English Class Size
According to Eurydice, 9/13 countries in ESLC sample have
maximum class size regulations.
Principals of each school report the number of English students per
grade (Cohort size).
The dynamics of the previous example can be modeled to create the
Predicted Class Size function.
Predicted Class Size can be used as an instrument of the actual
class size, therefore, it allows to create exogenous variation and infer
causality from class size.
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24. Example: Portugal
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25. English Class Size
Mean Listening Mean Reading Mean Writing
English Class Size logs OLS IV OLS IV OLS IV
Bulgaria 1.01** 0.41 0.59** -3.57* 0.8 -1.65
Estonia 0.46*** 0.531 0.164 0.565 0.329 1.258
Greece 0.10 0.057 0.17 -0.005 0.67*** 1.3
Spain 0.16 0.23 0.31*** 1.979* 0.47 1.35
France 0.29 -0.25 0.27 1.06** 1.23* 4.27**
Portugal 0.16 0.06 -0.14 0.16 0.002 -0.72
Slovenia 0.34** 4.81 0.077 0.87 -0.16 -0.82
Sweden 0.42*** 0.05 0.70*** 2.08** 1.39*** 4.46**
Previous Estimation [13] 0.16*** 0.19*** 0.75***
Countries with Regulation [8] 0.19** -0.029 0.28*** 1.01*** 0.65** 1.84**
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Method 1 (OLS) estimates by country present the same positive
pattern in English Class Size effect previously shown.
Method 2 (IV) coefficients are no longer statistically significant for all
but for Reading and Writing in Spain, France and Sweden.
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26. English Class Size
What previous results have shown, after using IV estimation of Class
Size effects, was that IV coefficient were negative or no longer
significant.
The Writing skill IV Class Size coefficient results in Spain, France and
Sweden are positive and even greater than the OLS coefficients.
Since English is a multi-skill ability, teachers that face bigger classes can
make special emphasis on one skill versus some other. If the teacher has a
bigger class, he/she could dedicate greater part of the class to grammar
and exercises correction rather than speaking or listening activities. This
focus on grammar can make bigger classes more effective in English
Reading and Writing skills.
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27. 1 Introduction
2 The European Survey of Language Competences
3 The Education Production Function
4 English Class Size
5 Conclusion
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28. Conclusion
During this study we wanted to explore the main determinants of
English outcomes performance using an European sample (ESLC).
Since English class size was a positive and significant determinant of
all skills we explore the causality using IV Maimonides’ rule.
The positive and significant result obtained by IV in Reading and
Writing skill in 3 countries has a clear policy implication: The fact
that bigger classes performed on average better in Writing indicates
that bigger classes emphasize more grammar and writing activities at
a cost of reducing the relative time allocated to other English skills.
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29. Thank you very much!
Questions? Suggestions?
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