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



3.7.1 Methods

What if methods had been different? The issue of methods is of course of
prime importance when discussing learning outcomes. What children can or
cannot do depends very much on appropriate aims and objectives as well as
appropriate methods and materials. As was stated in Chapter One the
audio-visual methodology took a good proportion of the blame for the failure of
the Pilot Scheme as well as the American FLES programmes.

3.7.1.1 Audio-visual Methodology

One of the questions addressed in the Pilot Scheme was what methods,
attitudes and incentives were the most effective in promoting the learning of
French and Burstall et al. (1974) had found that 'there was no single method
that suited all children'. At the time, this finding must have come as a surprise
to many; after all the audio-visual method had been heralded as suitable for all
young children of all abilities. It was assumed at the time, that these did not
require any higher- level cognitive operations and would turn language learning
into 'child's play':

"To chatter in French we can say frankly, carries no cachet of intellectual
respectability. With adequate opportunities for hearing the language, for
reproducing the sounds and for associating these sounds with objects and
activities they ∞nvey, children with an I.Q. of 80 can acquire this
accomplishment." (Taylor, in: Libbish, 1964: 155/6)

Based on a behaviorist theory of language learning (Skinner, 1957) and on the
assumption that foreign languages can be learned as 'effortlessly' as a first

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