CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN FOREIGN LANGAUGE SPEECH ACQUISITION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Abstract
This article examines the challenges and opportunities involved in acquiring foreign language speech during the preschool years, synthesizes evidence from phonological development, attention and memory, social–pragmatic interaction, and educational practice to explain why young learners excel at accent perception yet struggle with articulation, prosodic control, and stable word retrieval; discusses typical difficulties limited phonemic discrimination for nonnative contrasts, transfer from the first language (L1), immature motor planning, and variability in input quality and set them against developmental strengths such as heightened neural plasticity, sensitivity to prosody, play-driven motivation, and responsiveness to rich interactional feedback. Then outline practical strategies for caregivers and educators, including multisensory input, interactive routines, and targeted phonological awareness games, with considerations for bilingual and multilingual contexts.
Keywords
preschool, foreign language, speech acquisition, phonology, pronunciation, input quality, play-based learning, multisensory instruction, bilingualism, prosody.
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