This book shines a light on novel and less familiar domains of early English language education for children aged 3 to 12, in mainstream and out-of-school settings. Enveloping the volume is the making of creative connections to wider educational philosophies which extend beyond the confines of a narrow linguistic lens. In reconciling the theory-practice divide in English language education, each chapter presents a synthesis of research issues leading to a practical showcase of ideas. Organised in two main parts, the first focuses on innovations within classroom practice, curriculum development, and child-centred assessment, exploring areas which have either received insufficient attention and/or have been reimagined through fresh perspectives. The second part explores innovations in pre- and in-service teacher education contexts and focuses on lesser-known and/or underexplored topics, including bridging general and language education, multilingualism, in-depth learning, metacognition,and pragmatics. This is a timely publication for teacher educators and practitioners alike. 

David Valente is a PhD research fellow in English teacher education at Nord University, Norway. His research explores intercultural citizenship through childrens literature.

Daniel Xerri is Senior Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Malta. His research and publications focus mainly on teacher education and global skills. 

 

1. Introduction: confluence, connections and a call to action in early English education.- 2. Integrating language learning into education in the primary English classroom.- 3. Implementing agency-based approaches in upper-primary English language education.- 4. Developing intercultural competence in early years and primary ELT.- 5. Enriching early years English language education with translanguaging.- 6. Developing primary English learners visual literacy for a multimodal world.- 7. Fostering digital literacies in primary English language education.- 8. Reimagining picturebook pedagogy for online primary English language education.- 9. Building in assessment for learning to existing primary ELT practice.- 10. Expanding the role of self-assessment: From assessing to learning English.- 11. Embedding ELT within early childhood teacher education.- 12. Educating early years and primary English language teachers multilingually.- 13. Scaffolding in-depth learning: picturebooks for intercultural citizenship in primary English teacher education.- 14. Mainstreaming metacognitive practices in primary English teacher education programmes.- 15. Incorporating pragmatics into primary English language teacher education.