Creating and evaluating a foreign language area in an early childhood setting

Despite the growing tendency to introduce a foreign language in early years settings, little guidance is provided for practitioners in government steering documents or in the published literature. This article aims to bridge this gap by presenting a study which considers the importance of deploying...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Waddington, Julie, Coto Bernal, Sandra, Siqués, Carina
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/17723
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/17723
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Llenguatge i llengües -- Educació primària
Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Primary)
Llengua segona -- Adquisició -- Educació primària
Second language acquisition -- Study and teaching (Primary)
Llengües modernes -- Educació primària
Languages, Modern -- Study and teaching (Primary)
Descripción
Sumario:Despite the growing tendency to introduce a foreign language in early years settings, little guidance is provided for practitioners in government steering documents or in the published literature. This article aims to bridge this gap by presenting a study which considers the importance of deploying the holistic approaches used in early years settings when introducing a foreign language. It focuses particularly on the creation and evaluation of a foreign language area as a strategy to help strike a balance between structured teacher-led instruction and the free play and interaction essential at this stage. The results of an interpretative qualitative study with a group of 4-year-olds show a positive correlation between the language used in the teacher-led sessions and children's interactions during free play in the newly created learning area. The results will be of interest to all practitioners aiming to introduce a foreign language in early years settings