The Early Bird Gets The Word Games and Play: Creating a Context For Authentic Language Learning

Abstract

Early foreign language teaching has recently been made compulsory in Finland, making this an area open to development and innovation where policy - makers and teachers play a significant role in creating new kinds of learning environments, operating cultures, and pedagogy for foreign language learning. This article discusses the early foreign language learning landscape in the context of early foreign language learning theory, initial education pedagogy as well as functional foreign language learning. The cornerstone of this study is the Contextual Pedagogical approach to Learning, which creates a bridge between the theory and practice of early foreign language learning, creating an inspiring and stimulating basis for later language learning. Language is a precondition for learning and thinking. Language is involved in all the activities presented in school and every teacher is a language teacher “(the Finnish National Board of Education 2014, 127). In this article we focus on this idea, presented in the core national curriculum. We attempt to explain the learning environments of language teaching, operational culture, and pedagogical solutions within the theoretical frame of reference of learning another language. The challenges of creating learning environments that support authentic learning experiences, have become still more demanding in today's rapidly changing world.