1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；2. The University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；3. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University，Hong Kong，China；4. City University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；
Abstract：This is a condensed report on a pioneering，multidisciplinary study on language acquisition. The neuroscience for language education project was sponsored by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Participants in this study were specialists in medicine，education，arts and sciences，the social sciences，and engineer-ing from the Chinese University of Hong Kong，the University of Hong Kong，City University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University；and teachers and students from local schools. This intensive three?蛳year project began in 2000 and has branched out into related，special inquiries，generating new results and information. The cooperative effort used pertinent findings from the neurosciences relating to prenatal，postnatal and subsequent development of the human brain-physiologically，functionally and cognitively-to answer fundamental questions about language education：（a）At what points in a child’s mental development would carefully designed educa-tional interventions be most effective in facilitating the acquisition and mastery of a language？ （b）What interventions are the most useful and effective for acquisition of a language？（c）What does current neuroscience and cognitive science data indicate as the best age at which children should begin formal training in their first and second languages？（d）What approaches to acquiring proficiency in the first and second languages in different instructional settings yield the best results，qualitatively and quantitatively？（f）What practical guidelines for effective language teaching and learning can be recommended to policy makers，teachers，learners，and curriculum designers？Do these guidelines differ for the first（Chinese）and second（English）languages？
2013, Vol. 1 
