A Critical Examination of the Beliefs about Learning a Foreign Language at Primary School

resulted where one of the languages was perceived as 'inferior¹. In such a
case, the child's intellectual growth and personal development were said to be
adversely affected. Even in the 'high-status' bilingual context of Canada,
however, the rate Ofattrition amongst pupils on French Immersion Programs
(FIP) in British Columbia has become a major cause for concern:

"The major reasons cited by parents, teachers, and principals in transferring
students from FIP are related to three major issues: academic difficulty, social
and emotional difficulties and the quality of teaching and programs."
(Obadia & Theriault, 1997: 508)

Canadian principals and teachers reported that even young children dropped
out of language learning programmes, that the highest drop-out rate occurred at
the elementary level in grade 7 and that it was higher in early immersion
programs than in late immersion programs. These high drop-out rates would
seem to place doubt on the belief that younger is necessarily better even in
immersion contexts. The language pupils are learning would seem to be of
major importance; would attrition rates be the same if children were studying
English? And what about children in British primary schools 'learning' a
language which might well be of little relevance? These important questions as
well as the special status of English will be discussed again in later chapters.

Quality and quantity of time spent learning as well as language status would
seem to be important in determining success. In a school context, amount of
learning time would have to be counterbalanced with the need for the most

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