He is unlikely to be able to take pupils beyond such behaviour and provide them
with the input needed to develop discourse skills, for example. In 1992
Adamson ran an in-service course for Scottish primary school teachers and
wrote that:
"The type of language training teachers receive seems at present to be a hit
and miss affair, with little research being done into the precise linguistic ∞ntent
ofthe course." (Adamson, 1992: 9)
A large-scale teacher training programme for primary teachers has since been
implemented in Scotland, where teachers are trained on a 27- day programme
or 160 hours over one year. The aim of the training courses is to give the
primary teachers:
"...sufficient linguistic competence within specific areas..." and to "...increase
teachers' awareness of appropriate methodology for teaching a language to
primary age children." (Tierney, 1995: 9)
Whether the wide range of competences and skills necessary to teach a foreign
language to young children can be achieved on a 27-day training ∞urse
remains questionable, especially in the light of the linguistic background of
some of the teachers on the training programmes:
"...43 teachers had no prior knowledge ofthe language, 104 had a limited
amount - perhaps an 'O' grade or its equivalent, 185 had perhaps a Higher or
current tourist language (a Higher is the post-16 examination in S∞tland) and
19 teachers had a knowledge beyond Higher level of the language which they
Werestudying." (Tierney, 1995:11)
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