ABSTRACT
With the advent of increasingly multilingual and multicultural societies, educational systems are faced with new challenges that require the development of more flexible, appropriate and inclusive forms of education. Awakening to languages (AtL) is a plurilingual approach that promotes contact with and reflection on the diversity of languages and cultures. The possibility to explore other languages in pre-primary education is related to European language policies encouraging the development of a plurilingual and intercultural competence from a very young age. A curriculum for linguistic diversity should be flexible, both in terms of its principles and intentions, and in the processes and criteria for its organization. During the nineteenth century, formal institutions were set up in practically every European country with a view to educating children under 6 years old. In Portugal early years education started with a significant delay in comparison to other European countries, as a result of a later and less prominent industrialization.
