HOW EUROPEAN CHILDREN MASTER THEIR MOTHER TONGUES - STRUCTURE AND VOCABULARY AMONG 4TH-GRADERS

Generally speaking, there is considerable similarity among European na tions with regard to the capacity of children to acquire the ability t o express themselves coherently in a second language in spite of indiv idual variations. The established facts should help understand how chi ldren 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 a ge averages. In addition, they permit to evaluate the children's abili ty to express themselves in their mother tongues and to judge their ab ility to learn a second language. Consequently, it would be interestin g to persue this investigation at other levels, in particular at the b eginning of the European secondary school level with the intent of ass isting in determining an adequation of languages in Europe of the nine ty threes.