Theme: Responding to different learning styles when teaching foreign languages to young learners content introduction chapter general issues of communicative teaching foreign language communication of younger students

1.2 Prerequisites for the successful acquisition of a foreign language by younger students
Both in domestic (L. S. Vygotsky, S. I. Rubinshten) and in foreign psychology (B. White, J. Bruner, V. Penfield, R. Roberts, T. Eliot) there is evidence that the child learns a foreign language more easily than an adult. The duration of the sensitive period is characterized by different authors differently: V. Penfield and R. Roberts define it from 4 to 8 years, T. Eliot - from 1.5 to 7 years. Physiologists believe that there is a biological clock in the brain. A child up to nine years old is a specialist in mastering speech. After this period, the brain mechanisms of speech become less flexible and cannot easily adapt to new conditions. After the age of 10, there are many obstacles to overcome.
The child's brain has a specialized foreign language ability that decreases with age.
Most researchers agree that special foreign language classes can be carried out with children aged 3-10, up to 3 - it's pointless, after 10 - it's useless to hope for a positive result, which is possible only for a small part of students, those who have communicative and linguistic characteristics above average. It is best to learn a foreign language at the age of 5 - 8, when the system of the native language is already quite well mastered by the child, and he is conscious of the new language. It is at this age that there are still few clichés of speech behavior, it is easy to "code" one's thoughts in a new way, there are no great difficulties when making contact in a foreign language. Children absorb new information like a sponge indirectly and subconsciously. They understand the situation faster than speaking in a foreign language on the topic.
If the methodological system is built quite competently from a linguodidactic and psycholinguistic point of view, then success in mastering the proposed limited language material and creating the necessary prerequisites for further assimilation of any foreign language is ensured. Early age is the most favorable for mastering a foreign language due to a number of psychological characteristics characteristic of a child.
The most prominent Soviet psychologists, such as L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, A.A. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, V.S. Mukhina, believe that when organizing training, one should rely on the features, qualities and properties that are already mature traits of the child's personality. Only with a clear definition of the psychological capabilities of the child and the difficulties that he may encounter in the learning process, it is possible to create a methodology that carries a developing and educational potential.