Our main hypothesis is that the history of language teaching to young
learners has been marked by two questions: (1) Which is the optimal age for starting to
learn a language? (2) Is the effort and expense used worth the results?
Our objective, then, is to review the history of language teaching to young
learners. To trace its history an international approach will be assumed, as mutual
influences are quite frequent in this field among several countries. Furthermore, we will
also try to encompass the teaching practice concerning young learners as well as the
theories and researches on the question on the optimal starting age, as both theory
and practice has been closely tied together in this occasion