teaching foreign languages at an early age

[anne marie devlin]

Just to add to the debate on teaching foreign languages at an early age. The Munoz article mentioned earlier is part of a much larger project entitled the Barcelona Age Factor (BAF).  Although Munoz did suggest that early foreign language teaching produced no long term results, she did say that intense exposure to a foreign language at an early age does have a long term impact.  So the question is not necessarily whether to introduce foreign languages at an early stage, but how much exposure is necessary to have a long term impact.  As an interesting aside re: monolinguals and their resistance to their 1st FL, it's worth pointing out that Munoz's informants are bilingual Catalan/Spanish speakers, so the resistance towards a first foreign language may also be common to bilinguals. 
AMD