Construyendo puentes entre Educación Infantil y Primaria para la enseñanza bilingüe en inglés

Abstract

This article offers an overview of English language teaching in early childhood education contexts in Spain and offers suggestions for good practices. In order to guarantee successful bilingual education in primary school, when content classes are offered in English, it is necessary for students and teachers to possess the tools and skills that will allow them to tackle conceptual and linguistics abilities as soon as possible. In this article, based on previous studies on English learning as well as on teacher reflection and CLIL methodology, and focusing on the Spanish region of Madrid, I present the current state-of-affairs of English language teaching at primary schools and discuss creative pedagogical interventions to bridge pre-K and bilingual primary education. I begin by justifying the need for early English language learning, then describe some useful teaching practices to better prepare pre-K students and help them be successful in bilingual primary education.