La influencia de la edad temprana en el proceso de adquisición de la lengua extranjera

Abstract

In recent times, the Spanish Education Authorities, both state and local, have opted for an early introduction of the teaching of a foreign language in pre-school and the first years of Primary Education. That is a consequence of growing social demands, the recommendations of the Council of the European Union and relevant findings on the part of the scientific literature, showing that an early acquisition of L2 allows the foreign language to share certain characteristics with the mother tongue, such as its location in the same brain hemisphere, and it is likewise associated with greater metalinguistic and phonologic awareness, important benefits in the development of cognitive abilities and more accurate reproduction of sounds of L2 non-existent in Ll, factors that will enhance the child's capabilities to learn further languages. According to the so-called «critical age theory», every individual undergoes a sensitive period, prior to puberty, during which s/he is endowed with the optimum conditions to acquire a foreign language.