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

discourse as well as other outcomes such as affective. The following sections
will discuss findings for these different aspects of language development in
more detail. However, this is by no means to suggest that the aim of
communicative competence in a particular language and native-speaker
'likeness' are either necessary or desirable within the British primary school
context. (The validity of such an aim at primary school was questioned by
Poole, 1996b).

3.4.1 Phonological Development

Issues in the area of phonological development have already been extensively
discussed in Chapter Two and it would seem that it is in this area that findings
are most in line with other early language learning schemes. It was reported
that children in the Scottish Pilot had better pronunciation than the pupils who
started at the age of 12 (Johnstone, 1996:173). However, Whetherthis finding
applies only to those children who started at an earlier age such as eight or nine
or also includes those children who started at eleven (the majority) and how it
relates to composite classes, does not seem clear. Such considerations would
seem important in deciding on a possible rationale and aims for an early start as
well as on a starting age. The importance or 'unimportance' of native-speaker
standards of pronunciation in foreign language learning will be discussed later.

It would also seem important to state that the acquisition of a phonological
system of a language is only a part of the total task facing the Ieamer and that
mastering the phonological system cannot be equated with mastering the

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