Modern languages are offered to young learners at an increasingly early age in many countries; yet few publications have focused on what is available to children in different contexts. This volume fills this gap by documenting the state-of-the-art in researching young language learners using a variety of research methods. It demonstrates how young children progress and benefit from an early exposure to modern languages in different educational contexts, and how affective, cognitive, social, linguistic and classroom-related factors interact in the processes. A special strength is the range of languages: although English is the most widely learnt language, chapters focus on various target languages: Croatian, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian and the contexts include China, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Poland, the Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

This volume documents international, national, and small-scale testing and assessment projects of English language education for young learners, across a range of educational contexts. It covers three main areas: age-appropriate 'can do statements' and task types for teaching and testing learners between the ages of 6 to 13; innovative approaches to self-assessment, diagnostic testing, self- perception, and computer-based testing; and findings on how young learners perform on vocabulary, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and reading comprehension tests in European and Asian contexts. Early language learning has become a major trend in English language education around the globe. As a result of the spread of teaching English to a growing number of young children, assessment of and for learning have emerged as key issues. In line with this development, there is a clear and emerging need to make early language programs accountable and to assess both the progress children make over time and to quantify their achievement at various stages of development. This volume informs stakeholders about the realistic goals of early language learning, their efficiency, and how much progress children make over time.

This edited volume documents the state of the art in research into how the age factor interacts with other factors in a variety of educational contexts. The book comprises 17 chapters examining early language learning and teaching in a range of countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Authors discuss main themes in research methodology, curricular and assessment issues, short- and long-term outcomes, the role of individual differences, innovation in teacher education, classroom processes, as well as the impact of the target language. The first two chapters (Nikolov; Edelenbos and Kubanek) overview the main trends in research. Four papers (Curtain;Ofra Inbar-Lourie and Elana Shohamy; Jalkannen; Haenni Hoti, Heinzmann, and Muller) focus on the assessment of young learners; two authors examine how age impacts on language learning over time (Munoz; Kasai). Individual differences (motivation, anxiety, aptitude, and socio-economic status) are explored byMihaljevi? Djigunovi?, Mattheoudakis and Alexiou, and Kiss. Innovation is the common theme in chapters written by Wang, Moon, and Peng and Zhang. The last three papers analyze the status of languages (Harris, Enever, Carmel). The book is a must have for teacher educators of pre- and in-service teachers of modern languages to young learners, MA and PhD students in TEFL/TESOL and other languages, researchers and policy makers.

Modern languages are offered to young learners at an increasingly early age in many countries; yet few publications have focused on what is available to children in different contexts. This volume fills this gap by documenting the state-of-the-art in researching young language learners using a variety of research methods. It demonstrates how young children progress and benefit from an early exposure to modern languages in different educational contexts, and how affective, cognitive, social, linguistic and classroom-related factors interact in the processes. A special strength is the range of languages: although English is the most widely learnt language, chapters focus on various target languages: Croatian, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Ukrainian and the contexts include China, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Poland, the Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

This volume documents international, national, and small-scale testing and assessment projects of English language education for young learners, across a range of educational contexts. It covers three main areas: age-appropriate 'can do statements' and task types for teaching and testing learners between the ages of 6 to 13; innovative approaches to self-assessment, diagnostic testing, self- perception, and computer-based testing; and findings on how young learners perform on vocabulary, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and reading comprehension tests in European and Asian contexts. Early language learning has become a major trend in English language education around the globe. As a result of the spread of teaching English to a growing number of young children, assessment of and for learning have emerged as key issues. In line with this development, there is a clear and emerging need to make early language programs accountable and to assess both the progress children make over time and to quantify their achievement at various stages of development. This volume informs stakeholders about the realistic goals of early language learning, their efficiency, and how much progress children make over time.

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