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

In contrast to England, however, this decline has been happening in Scotland
despite a programme of early foreign language learning which started in 1989
and is currently in its tenth year.

Such developments would seem to support the view expressed earlier that
increased numbers of pupils taking the examination might well have been the
result of the languages for all policy introduced during the National Pilot rather
than the outcome of increased levels of motivation and attainment due to an
early start. In any case, it would have been interesting to know how many of
those pupils choosing to study a language post-16 had started to learn that
language at primary school.

3.4.6 Learners of Different 'Abilities'

In a Chomskyan theory of first language development and language universals
the concept of ability, either high or low, clearly has no place. However, the
acceptance of 'ability' or 'aptitude' in the context of foreign language learning
quite clearly implies the rejection of Chomsky's theory of first language
acquisition for second language learning. Both within the Pilot Scheme and the
Scottish National Pilot the concept of ability recurs frequently. One of the
original issues addressed in the Pilot Scheme was the question of whether
there were any levels of ability below which the teaching of French was of
dubious value. Burstall et al. (1974) concluded that learning French was a
profitless experience for a large number of children with special needs.

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