This ethnographic case study is set within a collaborative research project in which teachers and researchers investigate early English as a Foreign Language (eEFL) tasks in theory and practice in German primary schools. Results are obtained through an interpretation of multiple sources within an interdiscursive, multi-perspectived research agenda. The results suggest that eEFL tasks can emerge during an interplay of four key teaching practices: 'doing school', 'providing space for learners to communicate', 'building a vocabulary' and 'teaching the spoken language'.