How early can we efficiently start teaching a foreign language?

Abstract

The appropriateness of early childhood foreign language education is occasionally a debatable subject among parents, educators, public education administrators and policymakers. A large body of research has been done on this subject and conclusions sometimes appear contradictory. This article first reviews briefly the importance of learning a foreign language, and the advantages of bilingualism. Second, it compiles empirical evidence that concerns early foreign language education of children living in a native language speaking environment and suggests answers to questions regarding the developmentally appropriate timing to start providing foreign language education services.

Keywords:

• early childhood
• foreign language education
• bilingualism advantage
• critical period hypothesis
• immersion language programme

Acknowledgements

The author likes to thank Markus Rheindorf for proofreading the final draft of this article, and to the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier version of this article.

Funding

This work was made possible by the financial support of the Sectorial Operational Program for Human Resources Development 2007–2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project number POSDRU/107/1.5/S/76841 with the title ‘Modern Doctoral Studies: Internationalization and Interdisciplinarity'.