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

"In this way play can contribute to the expertise of the player and to his
effectiveness in the nonplay world, whether that be in the area of his social
relationships with other children or in the competencies that facilitate the
development of literacy." (Garvey, 1991: 168)

Games are reassuring through their repetitive nature and children generally like
familiar and repetitive texts and stories as they can see themselves as
successful in understanding these. It is also known from studies in child
development that children generally enjoy making things, that they like to
handle forms and materials. That young children should pursue such 'playful'
activities with initial enthusiasm is therefore to be expected, after all this is what
a large part of childhood learning is about. Games, plays and songs are
activities, however, rather than learning outcomes and it would seem important
to keep in mind that it is the activities that children respond to with enthusiasm.
These activities cannot necessarily be equated with 'learning a foreign
language' per se and, by implication, tell us very little about whether younger is
better.

People might play as important a role as the activities. Enthusiasm and positive
attitudes in the Basingstoke Language Awareness Project, for example, might
have been due to children ^,working' in very small groups outside the classroom
with 'young and enthusiastic' native speakers' (Mitchell et al., 1992: 13). This is
not to deny that enjoyable experiences and enthusiastic teachers are important
ingredients in the overall learning process as they certainly facilitate the task.

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