My Master's thesis is focused on the subject of early learning of Spanish language as an additional foreign language, from an average Spanish teacher's point of view. The theory is divided into six content parts. The first part consists of different theoretical aspects about conquering the language, based on the theses of Skinner, Piaget, Vygotski and Chomski. The second part encompasses different language conquering theories, based on behaviorism, nativism, cognitivism, control models, constructivism and connectionism. The third part deals with the early learning of a foreign language and an additional foreign language in the first triad of elementary school. Consequently, I present different definitions of early language studying, the characteristics of cognitive and emotionally-motivational development of students, the hypothesis on critical stages of early foreign language learning and arguments for and against early foreign language learning. The most visible advantage of early foreign language learning is the ability to acquire an accent comparable to that of a native speaker, however, the basic advantage is seen in the faster learning of foreign language grammar in the following student years. The fourth part presents the goals of early foreign and additional foreign language learning as well as the standards for the basic four language skills used in foreign language learning, as seen by various authors who focus on the equal development of those four language skills in early foreign language learning, but with a greater emphasis on communication skills and listening skills (listening comprehension). The fifth part deals with early language learning approaches where I put an emphasis on the communicative approach. The last part of the theory demonstrates the features of foreign language teaching in Slovenian elementary schools. The basic research questions I focused on, are: what are the Spanish teachers' standpoints on early foreign language learning, also on early learning of Spanish language, in particular. I also wanted to know, when they thought was the best time to start learning a foreign language, and how they felt about achieving specific goals and the development of the four basic language skills in early foreign language learning. Mostly, the Spanish teachers' opinions coincide with the basic theses of different experts and authors with teachers offering similar thoughts and dilemmas as afore mentioned experts.
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