Product details
- ISBN 9781350413238
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 26 Nov 2026
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book challenges traditional ideologies, pedagogies, and methodologies for learning about languages in early childhood. It examines language awareness as a critical component of early schooling for English monolinguals and includes a systematic review of language planning policies in ten English-speaking nations.
Martine Jago advances a case for teaching children under the age of seven about language: how language evolved; how language functions; how meanings are constructed; and how linguistic otherness is encountered and interpreted. This research is based on a longitudinal study of child development, literacy education, and teaching about languages other than English. Jago argues that early attention to language as a social and cultural practice supports linguistic skills and emotional responses – effect and affect. The book presents a new paradigm and a new framework for embedding language awareness within early years policies, classroom practices, and language learning processes as a foundation for building reflective, inclusive, and informed educational environments. This is reading for school leaders, regional directors, and national policymakers.
