ABSTRACT
The learning of multiple “foreign” languages during the school years is typical in European countries (Bergentoft, 1994). Children begin to study their first foreign language somewhere between the ages of 7 and 12, the second between the ages of 12 and 16, the third between the ages of 13 and 16, and they may have an option to study a fourth language (Bergentoft, 1994). For example, in Germany, starting at age 10, every young person begins at least 5 years of English instruction at school. Then, depending on the type of school, students will have foreign language instruction in one or more additional languages. A fairly typical senior high school student in Germany might have started with English at the age of 10, then taken up Latin at the age of 13, begun to learn French at the age of 15, and may have taken Russian or Spanish at the age of 17. German students (like most European students) potentially have a great variety of languages to choose from.
