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…

In the United States, research on reading difficulties is predominantly carried out by scholars who project findings on L1 English reading difficulty to generalized difficulty in learning a second language (L2; e.g., Galuschka et al., 2020; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020; cf. Sparks, 2023). This research extrapolation creates a negative feedback…

With the growing popularity of early foreign language learning (EFLL) programmes in elementary schools, the transition to secondary school constitutes a crucial bridge. Ensuring a smooth transition that builds on students' L2 language proficiency and gradually shifts pedagogical approaches is key for long-term success. The present study examines…

Individual differences (IDs) play an important role in the second language learning process and explain the varied experiences of the L2 learner. The two major IDs, language aptitude and motivation, can be primary factors in one's ultimate proficiency. While language aptitude is largely fixed, motivation is malleable and can aid in overcoming…

Narrative and story play a central role in cognitive and cultural development of children. In this article, I explore a narrative-centred pedagogy used to address the teaching and learning concerns of my pupils from Helena infant school, Zimbabwe. I document how, as a novice teacher, I deployed narrative learning in my teaching of English as a…

This study was undertaken to discover how fourth-and fifth-grade teachers implemented the systematic Focused English Language Development (FELD) program with English Language Learners (ELL) students. ELL students are not reaching proficiency at a higher rate because of the gap in teachers' understanding of effective teaching practices and…

Recent changes in Turkish educational system have increased the importance of teaching English, following a global trend to introduce foreign languages at earlier stages of the language teaching program. However, putting the new language program successfully into practice can be challenging. In this regard, this study attempts to investigate…

Bilingual language education in Canada comprises Bilingual Programs in minority languages and programs in official languages (e.g., French immersion). However, pedagogy in Bilingual Programs has not been studied to the same depth as it has been in French Immersion, so little is known about the teaching practices within them. Immersion pedagogy,…

This article briefly reviews the social, political, and economic context that explains the present status of elementary language education in the United States and addresses the challenges identified by recent reports on the state of language education in the United States. Different curricular models of world language education--exploratory,…

This action research was conducted to improve the students' English vocabulary mastery by using picture. To achieve the objective, data were collected through the test, questionnaire and observation from 21 students in third graders of SDN Karawang Kulon II. The outcomes of the research showed that students' vocabulary mastery got improved. This…

This essay offers a candid overview of the past one hundred years of preK-fifth grade Spanish language teaching and learning in the United States. Among the topics addressed are numbers of programs, program models, and factors that impact the success of learners and programs.

A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group design was used to examine the effect of a mobile gamification application on third and fourth grade students' Spanish language achievement and student academic self-efficacy. In this study, the treatment group's Spanish language instruction was through the use of…

In this mixed methods action research study, the teacher-researcher designed a blended learning model for a fifth grade class of Spanish in an independent private school in Northern New Jersey. The need for the study was to update the Spanish curricula, allocate resources to promote Spanish outside the classroom by providing a cost-effective…

Teachers and students can have ambitious educational goals, including critical reflection on the world around them, both that which is "home" and that which is "foreign." The environmental questions which face us all can be part of the elementary school curriculum, and the Foreign Language Elementary School (FLES) contribution…

In response to the growing interest in evaluating young learners' foreign language (FL) performance, this study aims to deepen our understanding of young learners' developmental differences in interaction during task-based paired-language assessments. To examine age effects separately from the effect of general language proficiency, we analysed…