Early start on language skills

Language teaching is to be promoted

The British Government has proposed introducing foreign language teaching in all UK primary schools. BBC News Online assesses the situation for children in other European countries.

According to the European Union "the earlier children begin learning foreign languages, the better their progress tends to be.

"The chances of creating a Europe of multilingual citizens will be greatly improved if citizens have access to language learning at primary school or before," it states

In line with this thinking, in France all seven-year-olds currently receive teaching in a foreign language and there are plans to extend this to five-year-olds by 2005.

French children usually learn English, German or Spanish, but this varies according to regions.

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Pupils start a second language at secondary school, and a foreign language remains mandatory through a child's school career.

In Germany most children start to learn English from the age of seven, but there are plans to extend this to cover all five-year olds in the next few years.

Foreign language teaching varies across Germany's 16 regional education authorities. At the age of 12, children start a second language, and at 14 a third.

French, Russian and Spanish are popular choices for German children, and some also opt for Polish.

In Italy a foreign language is compulsory from the age of eight. Pupils concentrate their language studies on English, French, German and Spanish, and in some schools study non-Italian literature as well.

French children start a second foreign language on joining secondary school

During the communist era, children in Poland started learning Russian at age 11, but now English, German and French are more popular options on the curriculum.

Language tuition varies according to school, but most children start learning a second foreign language at age 14.

Poland also has a system of private schools and kindergardens where language tuition may start at an earlier age.

In the Netherlands children start learning English, French and German at age 10-11. This remains compulsary until age 16, when students can drop one language.

Language tuition throughout secondary education is intensive, with children receiving an average three hours tuition per week plus homework.

By age 18, Dutch teenagers also study foreign literature. The syllabus for the final year exams in the Netherlands includes 20 foreign language books

In some schools in Norway,children start learning English at age six, but normally begin language lessons aged 9.

At 12, children start a second foreign language usually German or French. Some in the north of the country opt for Finnish.

In high school, children are given the opportunity to start a third language, and second language lessons remain compulsary until the second year.

The culture and history of foreign countries is also given prominence, and taught alongside language. In addition, Norwegian children must also learn both old and new Norwegian languages.