[The European child and mastery of the language. Structure and vocabulary in the first 4 primary classes].

Abstract

Generally speaking, there is considerable similarity among European nations with regard to the capacity of children to acquire the ability to express themselves coherently in a second language in spite of individual variations. The established facts should help understand how children acquire the ability to express themselves in the language of the country in which they live and which is not their mother tongue. They also help to situate the child with respect to the school class and age averages. In addition, they permit to evaluate the children's ability to express themselves in their mother tongues and to judge their ability to learn a second language. Consequently, it would be interesting to pursue this investigation at other levels, in particular at the beginning of the European secondary school level with the intent of assisting in determining an adequation of languages in Europe of the ninety threes.