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

clearly have to take into account a child's developmental stage rather than his
age. Focus on cognates, for example, 'would need to take account of apparent
maturational factors in the ability to analyze words' (Harley, 1996: 8). In order to
'decontextualise' language and to apply structures across contexts, for example,
children would need to have developed the ability to re∞gnise similarities in
contexts and make connections between these and if they are at a stage in their
development where they are still context-embedded in their first language, it is
unlikely that they will be able to do this in a foreign language, especially within
the constraints of the classroom.

What remains of questionable value are 'language free' activities and materials
such as colouring, drawing and 'making' things. These are not inherently
objectionable as they have 'affective' value and are inevitable with pre-literate
foreign language 'learners'. However, they would appear to have little value in
facilitating linguistic progression and their educational value for older and
literate children remains therefore questionable. In the context of the
Basingstoke Language Awareness Project in the early 1990s Mitchell et al.
(1992: 17) state that 'the potential of practical activities for developing "usable"
classroom language is obvious'. This is likely to be the case if activities are
carefully designed and ac∞mpanied by appropriate use of the target language.
However, Rapaport & Westgate also comment on the 'making of French dolls'
which might serve as a 'smokescreen behind which "repeating from the tape"
constitutes the major so-called learning':

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