Additional Language Acquisition at Infant School: Integrating MORE than Content and ILanguage

Abstract

English is taught as an additional language in many schools at pre-pri­ mary level. Starting early alone, however, does not guarantee satisfying results in the long run. This is why it is necessary to develop new tea­ ching proposals that are fully appropriate for children this age and that may promote natural language acquisition. And the answer may already be in the system: applying a methodology similar to what we use for Ca­ talan and Spanish to English, that is, implementing CLIL from an early start. The reasoning behind this idea is that it is precisely at this stage where a CLIL proposal becomes more natural and productive: with very young learners, teaching must necessarily be global, content-linked and practica! in order to be successful. lt is here, then, where the L3 can be acquired, rather than learned; lived, rather than practiced. And how can this be done? Sorne practical ideas will be presented and discussed in the session to try and shed sorne light on this question.