Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Initial Stage

As English has long ago become the most well-known foreign language in the world it presupposes a high level of teaching English at schools. In Estonia English is mostly taught as the first foreign language and the studies usually begin from the second or third grade. Often the English learning process starts with the oral preliminary course (OPC) in the first school stage. The research examined how teachers explained the nature of the OPC and which general principles and techniques they considered important and used during the OPC or at the initial phase of English studies.