Series | SAIL
Review | Languages in Italy, Languages in Europe: Where We Are, Where We Are Going
Chapter | Verso l’insegnamento precoce
Verso l’insegnamento precoce
Abstract
Children seem to acquire a language better, faster and easier than adults. Studies in Developmental Neuroscience redefined the well-known concept of a ‘critical period for language acquisition’ extending it to the acquisition of a foreign language: children show a special ability in accurately imitating the sounds, rhythms, intonation and syntax also of a language other than their mother tongue. This hypothesis, if founded, makes ‘scuola dell’infanzia’ one of the most favourable contexts for the early learning of a foreign language. We will see that this is true not only because the age of the learner seems to be the most fruitful, but also for the presence of other important factors. Then, we will briefly describe the current situation in Italy and possible future scenarios for ‘early’ foreign language learning in our country.
Language: it
Keywords Early foreing language learning • Italy
Copyright © 2016 Luciana Favaro. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-072-3/SAIL-7-6
