What is the rationale of this project, in terms of objectives pursued and needs to be

addressed?
There are so many reasons that justify the need for children to learn a foreign
language at an early age. The initial factor is that the fact of learning a foreign language
brings to a successful conclusionin case of the intellectual development upon a child
and regulates the mental development of a child. Teaching foreign languages at an
early age for children improves the agility, flexibility of thinking, listening skills and
sensitivity.At the same time this improves the ability to understand in their mother
language. Foreign language education at an early age is actually a project that has
been adopted by the Ministry of National Education.When we talk about the
benefits of starting a foreign language at an early age under some items: *It is
an innate abilitiy for children to learn something new in a very short time. For them ,
learning English will be a profitable saving starting from a playful game.
*Children are far from the today's biggest problems and their celebral structures are
open individuals. Thus learning a foreign language for them occurs less time and more
permanent than adults.
* Language
education that starts at an early age increases the interest in your child for coming
years and at the same time this shows us that they may speak at least two or more
other foreign languages.
*In fact language training that
starts at an early age leads many hidden personal developments which we cannot
count.
.
In the scientific research it has been proved that starting learning foreign
languages at a young age improves the foreign language skills. Foreign language
teaching is aprocess that should be taken very seriously and can be applied at any
levels and ages. Teaching foreign languages at a young age is gaining a great
importance in our country recently. Today when our world has become a small village ,
the age of learning foreign languages goes down 5 or 6 years of age. It is an undeniable
fact that it would be possible to remove the language problem that is the biggest
obstacle in Europe where the borders become closer, in communities and different
cultures interacting each other not to know a foreign language but to know at least a
foregin language in a very fluent way. According to the preface of the
recommmendations R(82) 18 that have been prepared by committe of ministers of the
council of Europe, three essential principles have been indicated. Two of them are: it
would be possible to know modern European languages better to make it easy the
communication and interaction among Europeans whose mother languages are
different , to increase the mobilities in Europe, to promote mutual undestanding and
cooperation, to overcome prejudice and discrimination. Member States, by detecting
and developing their national policies in their mother language teaching and learning
they can provide more intimacy with a for continuous cooperation and coordination in
terms of policy across Europe. The promotion of language learning and linguistic
diversity is one of the specific objectives of the program.
.
Within the context of Key Action 2, a strategic partnership in the field of
language teaching and learning will be encouraged. In some countries, with reforms the
case of learning a foreign language is changing very rapidly. In Bulgaria (2003/04) ,in
Hungary it is obligatory to teach a foreign language at the first grade of Primary
School. With the consent of the families in Poland from the pre-school English teaching
activities are scheduled. In Romania in pre-school grades a foreign language is a
volunteer, at first and second levels, it is optional, and from the third grades learning a
foreign language is obligatory. The 2nd grade level English courses in Turkey are started
to be given from 2013 (Eurydice, 2005).
All
European countries, have changed the fact of teaching foreign language by making
education a compulsory part of the program and starting to teach the first foreign
language at an early age.
The aim of the project; for students
at the primary level (7-8 age group) to develop innovative approaches in language
teaching and to promote language learning at an early age. We believe that our project

plays a very important role because of the fact that it sheds light revealing similarities
and differences of applied language programmes at the first education level both for
Turkey that is in the process of accession the EU and for EU countries' current situation.
The aims of our project: 1.To promote the use of English as the language of
communication in daily school life.2.To promote the active learning. 3.To promote the
language learning at an early age. 4. To encourage the parents to participate in the
learning process of their children by preparing special photo books of their children.5.To
inform parents about the benefits of learning a foreign language at an early age. 6.To
improve innovative teaching methods. 7.To create a photo book for using in teaching in
English.