The impulse to begin the project has come from my work with students at the University of Silesia... more The impulse to begin the project has come from my work with students at the University of Silesia, who are going to teach children, and from my experience of teaching English to young learners. Interest in teaching foreign languages to children has been on the rise for some years in Europe. For example, an explosion of English classes has been observed in the last ten years in both state and private sectors of education. Certain EU Members have a long tradition of early foreign language learning, while others are seeking new solutions after disappointing experiments in the 60 s and 70 s . The experts are trying to define a policy and principles of learning/teaching languages in primary and pre-school education 1 . The main conclusions drawn from the research completed by the European educational institutions are that early language learning can have a very positive effect on children in terms of language skills, positive attitudes to other languages and cultures, and self-confidence. Nevertheless, the early start does not guarantee better results. For success to be certain, the appropriate conditions in terms of pedagogy and resources should be created. Namely, in the review published by ECML and entitled "Foreign Languages in Primary and Pre-school Education: Context and Outcomes" 2 one of the first recommendations 3 refers to research and sufficient support required for innovations, from the planning stage to the post-implementation stage. The results achieved should include the context and direct observation of classroom situations 4 . Then, processes of syllabus design,
recommendations to governments set out policy guidelines on such issues as legal matters, health,... more recommendations to governments set out policy guidelines on such issues as legal matters, health, culture and education, including language policy. In particular, Recommendation No. R. (98) 6 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States Concerning Modern Languages 2 states: Stressing the political importance at the present time and in the future of developing specific fields of action, such as strategies for diversifying and intensifying language learning in order to promote pluriligualism in a pan-Europe context, further developing links and exchanges, and exploiting new communication and information technologies. This Recommendation specifies measures to be implemented concerning the learning and teaching of modern languages. These include general measures and principles plus detailed measures: early language learning (up to age 11); secondary education; vocationally oriented language learning; adult education; bilingual education in bilingual or multilingual areas; specification of objectives and assessment; teacher training. However, Governments of the Member States are asked to draw attention to this Recommendation along with the reference documents to attention in their countries through the national channels and in accordance with their constitutional, national and local circumstances and national education systems. Here, the paper 3 aims to present a selected number of implications and achievements of educational systems in the EU Members that have been launched in the form of recommendations and priorities by the Council of Europe 4 .
A general tendency is to incorporate cultural content into ELT materials to enrich linguistic con... more A general tendency is to incorporate cultural content into ELT materials to enrich linguistic content. The paper focuses on English materials as cultural artefacts used in early language education. The aim is to identify the most important aspects linked with teaching culture offered in English course books for multilingual children. The idea is to find answers to two following questions: What is the nature of cultural content included in materials for young learners? What is the nature of visual content which supports teaching culture? The project involves an analysis of six course books currently used in teaching English to young learners in Polish primary schools. The data will be collected during the evaluation studies and based on a set of universal, content-specific and age-specific criteria. It is hoped that the results from the research project will enrich the process of materials design for children with different language and culture backgrounds.
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