After entering 21 st century,our country has started an incomparable huge English teaching revolution. English has been taught in more and more universities,colleges,high schools,and even primary schools since the early 1990 s. After the decision,which made by China` s Ministry of Education,of offering English courses from Grade 3 in primary schools nationwide in China from county-level in the fall of 2001 was carried out step by step,the starting age of foreign language learning for children have been discussed in China. Many experts and scholars in foreign language teaching and research fields paid close attention to it and held different opinions about offering English courses in primary schools. This study aims to do some research in theory to query the feasibility of offering English courses to the primary school students in China. The mainly underlying theoretical framework in this thesis is the critical period hypothesis discussed by Rod Ellis in Understanding Second Language Acquisition. By referring to his argument about age,the thesis seeks other two theories to support the idea that it is inappropriate to offer English courses in primary schools.
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