This paper argues that the continuing expansion of teaching English to young learners (TEYL) brings challenges to the wider ELT field. It discusses why starting younger may not bring automatic improvement to language standards unless teacher education and secondary language teaching both rise to the challenges of the new situation. Young learners will need to be motivated to continue learning for ten or so years, and will bring very mixed levels of language to the secondary classroom. Responses from other sectors of ELT, as well as the development of effective TEYL, can benefit from deeper understanding of how children approach language learning. Two key features of child foreign language learning are summarized: children's search for meaning in language use, and the demands of initial literacy. Implications include rethinking the construct ‘language’, developing appropriate assessment, a change in approach at the switch to secondary level, and making realistic decisions about training teachers.
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