Introduction

At the 2014 International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) conference the ELT Journal sponsored a debate on the position ‘Teaching English to children in primary schools does more harm than good’. Fiona proposed the topic, which might surprise readers given the focus of this volume. Like many contributors to this book, however, Fiona and Sue (who helped Fiona prepare for the debate) have often felt that the implementation of early English language learning can be flawed and that the evidence base for the early introduction to English is weak.