Early Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Explores how the field of early language teaching has developed and presents a state-of-the-art overview of the field in 2024

The chapters in this book bring together key figures and fresh voices from the field of teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) to young children to present a state-of-the-art volume on the topic. The authors address key questions about young learner MFL development and capture the reality of such development in the context of a globalized world.

Over the past six decades, the field of teaching modern foreign languages to young learners has come a long way, from the early surmises about the advantages of a young start to today’s widespread integration of foreign languages into curricula in public and private schools. The chapters in this book bring together internationally renowned researchers who have been vocal in establishing early language teaching and learning as an independent area of research and novice voices who represent a new generation of devoted researchers to present a state-of-the-art volume on the topic. The authors address key questions about young learner second/foreign language (L2/FL) development, methodological issues when conducting research with young learners, L2/FL teaching pedagogy, language education policy, technology enhanced learning and assessment. Together, the chapters capture the reality of early FL development in the context of a globalized world and will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students of SLA and Applied Linguistics, specifically in the field of early language development and teaching languages to young learners.