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

became unavoidable as a separation of individual sentences within a quotation
might have led to misinterpretations. The following paragraphs will briefly
discuss learning outcomes from early language learning schemes in England.

3.2 Learning Outcomes from Classrooms in England

Information on specific learning outcomes from early foreign language learning
projects in England seems to be very limited. The 1995 CILT report did not
particularly mention achievement and the author is not aware of any
publications on concrete learning outcomes from those LEAs where French has
been taught in Primary Schools for a number of years such as Kent, for
example, which started to introduce French into the primary school curriculum in
the late 1980s. One 'unnamed' Local Education Authority stated in the CILT
report that, after one year, children who had learnt French at primary school
were joined with children in year 8 'when it is deemed that their peers have
caught up' (CILT, 1995: 8) despite the early starters having been taught in
separate classes during year seven. Similarfmdings had been reported in the
context ofthe Pilot Scheme where those children who had started to learn
French at the age of eleven quickly caught up with those who started at the age
of eight. Much anecdotal evidence from colleagues in a number of schools
lends further support to these findings.

131

<<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   >>

More intriguing information