This article could not have been written without the expert advice and knowledge passed on by Mandy Welburn and Fiona Wheeler, Early Learning practitioners. My gratitude to both.

In recent years and in many parts of the world, the foreign language teacher at school is increasingly being required to specialise in EFL for younger and younger learners. Very often, this means exploring “unknown territory”, where the FL teacher is finding their own way whilst at the same time leading and guiding their group of young pupils through their initial learning.

This article is aimed at those EFL teachers who are just moving into the area of Early Learning (from 3 to 6 years old) as well as Early Learning practitioners who are starting out in EFL. For this purpose, we have combined the knowledge and experience of an EFL teacher specialising in Young Learners with that of an Early Learning practitioner and psychologist to gain a more global picture of EFL and the role of the EFL teacher in the Early-Learning setting.

We hope that the information and advice offered here, although essentially basic and simplified, will help to make this “unknown territory” more familiar, easier to negotiate and less threatening.