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

be claimed beyond doubt as the outcome of an early start. These points might
seem rather petty on the surface but would appear crucial, in the writer’s view,
in a debate over whether an early start does make a difference to long-term
attainment. Moreover, if one of the original aims of the evaluation was to
compare the performance of the early starters with those children who started at
secondary school, one would have expected at least a partial ∞mparison at the
age of 16. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary it would not seem
unreasonable to assume that those pupils who did not start early did just as well
as the early starters and that an early start did not raise average performance
levels anyhow.

Additionally, from a motivational point of view rather than one of achievement, if
more pupils were entered for the Standard Grade Exam than in previous years,
one would expect more to continue studying a foreign language beyond the age
of 16. A steady decline in the take up of foreign languages post-16 and a loss
ofground for foreign languages at 16+ by both boys and girls is a current
problem in Scotland as much as in England:

"A striking similarity, however, between Scotland and the rest of the UK, is the
extent of drop-out from foreign languages post-16. It is significant that Circular
11/89, making foreign language study obligatory up to sixteen in S∞tland,
does not seem to have arrested the incidence of drop-out post-16, when the
study ceases to be compulsory." (Hawkins, 1996b: 158)

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