Some psychological aspects of early second‐language acquisition

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Abstract
In this paper some results of a study of children's acquisition of foreign languages (in this particular case English) at an early school age will be discussed. The study on which the paper is based has been conducted in formal classroom situations with children aged eight being exposed to English for a couple of periods per week and being surrounded by the language and culture of their native country. Consequently, this is a case of foreign language learning rather than second language acquisition. The focus of the analysis is the motivation of the learners and the sources of difficulties during the learning process. The advantages of an early start with a foreign language are discussed: the familiarisation with the linguistic properties of the foreign idiom at an age when it is readily accepted; the beneficial effect upon the cognitive growth of the individual; and the prevention of the development of ethnocentric tendencies in later life. Since 1984 when the first generation of ‘early starters’ reached the final year of their primary school, their attitude to English has been observed and compared to the control groups who started English at a later age. In the paper some findings of the observations are reported.