Aim The LANGUAGES SITE FOR CHILDREN has been set up as an educational and informative reference source for anybody interested in the teaching of foreign or second languages to young children: parents, teachers, teacher trainers, researchers, educational managers and administrators. The aim is the development of children's potential, their linguistic, cognitive and social growth, and to achieve the language goals stated in the European Union White Paper art. 4 (that European citizens should speack at least 2 other languages besides their own)within a short and realistic time span. Starting point The LANGUAGE SITE FOR CHILDREN begins with the series of European projects entitled "The adventures of Hocus and Lotus", which grew out of the European Commission's Socrates Lingua programmes that ran between 1992 and 2001. The Hocus and Lotus projects were launched in Italy by the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Faculty of Psychology I, in collaboration with partner countries such as Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, England, Denmark and Sweden. Innovation in Education A new system of education for learning foreign languages during childhood has emerged from this series of European projects. In this integrated and systematic educational programme learning is not confined to school but also takes place in the home environment with the family, television and the Internet, all playing a part. The system is founded on scientific theory and the documented results of psycholinguistic research. Putting the innovative system of language education into practice In order to put the new system into practice, training and teaching models and teaching materials have been developed. The "Narrative format approach" (Taeschner 1995), a model for teaching languages in school, was developed first followed by a teacher training model known as the "Roman training model", and the creation and production of educational materials to support the two models. The materials The teaching and training materials developed to put the new system into practice are: · A series of stories based on the life experience of children aged between 3 and 8 years old, created with the input and advice of 40 teachers from all over Europe. · The stories presented as play acting scripts so that teachers and children play them out physically and as mini musicals so that teachers and children can re-enact them musically. These are accompanied by video training guides for the teacher. · The stories presented in illustrated books where the two main characters, half dinosaur and half crocodile, the little Hocus and Lotus, are seen having adventures together with their friends in a magic park. · A cartoon series of the stories for television and home video in which the children can see the story's heroes move and talk. · A series of Hocus and Lotus activities for children. · Basic and master training courses for teachers and teacher trainers in the field of educational methodology for teaching languages to children. · Publication of the most important research results relating to the Narrative Format approach and the Roman Training Model (Taeschner, 2002). Authors, editors, producers and financiers. The general co-ordination of the series of European projects and the development of educational models and teaching strategies are the remit of Traute Taeschner; Professor of Techniques for Observing Children's Behaviour, Faculty of Psychology I, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy. The stories were created by partners in the European projects: Traute Taeschner, Frans X. Plooij, Feli Etxeberria, Christine O'Hanlon, Jesus Arzamendi and Xavier Garagorri. The characters were created by the Italian illustrator Beatrix. The play acting scripts were edited in the Dutch theatre studio: Werktuig. The music of the mini musicals was composed by Enzo Pietroparli and Lorenzo Paglieli; the cartoon's title music was composed by Lisa Francese and Sebastiano Brusco. The books, educational guides, video guides and music cassettes were published by Dinocroc International in English, German, Italian and French. Portuguese, Spanish, Danish and Dutch versions are under preparation. The cartoon has also been produced on video by Dinocroc International in English and German. French and Italian versions are under preparation. The cartoon was made by Studio Musicartoon and co-produced by Dinocroc International and Rai Fiction with economic subsidies from the European Commission's Socrates Lingua programme and from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, Department of Italian Language and Culture, Office of Bilingualism and Foreign languages.