What sort of environment and practices best ensure acquisition of a second language at the preschool and early elementary levels?

摘要

This in-depth review of second language acquisition (SLA) includes differences between "learning a Foreign Language" and "second language acquisition." Need/motivation, transfer, and brain function in language processing are important factors in studies of both L1 and L2 acquisition.; Studies of L1 acquisition involve controversy over an innate capacity for language vs. the influence of environment. Prelinguistic development is explored to determine how thoughts are converted into words for communication. Socialization of patterns of children who are autistic, deaf, and lacking normal language experiences are included, as well as those of normally developing children.; The shift from traditional foreign language to SLA in Europe and the United States is discussed briefly with descriptions of different types of SLA immersion programs. Suggestions for preschool and early elementary SLA methods attempt to (re)create a classroom environment resembling that of natural L1 acquisition of a young child.