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

English is the language of international business, science and technology and
dominates advertising and youth culture. Economies and trade relations across
the world depend on English and the need for English is widely recognised in
countries where the local language has limited currency. Knowledge of English
is often crucial for securing employment or for entry into post-16 education and
knowledge of English provides for social mobility. English is not only dominant
in the areas above, however, but is also frequently used as the language for
communication across nations.

Comparisons of learning outcomes with other countries would therefore seem
flawed and the high international status OfEngIish as a lingua franca seems to
render any simplistic comparisons invalid. As Berns (1989) argued, in many
countries English is a second and often officially recognised language rather
than a foreign language and the learning of English takes place in a context
Closerto natural second language acquisition contexts than a foreign language
context. Even in Europe, where the status of English can be regarded as a
'half-way house' between a foreign language and a second language, pupils are
exposed to a great amount of the language outside school. This is not to argue
that all young children across the world are equally keen to Ieam English as this
is quite clearly not the case. Observing a number of lessons in primary school
classrooms abroad has shown that some children can be just as inattentive, for
example, as they are in this country. Nevertheless, teachers can generally build
on higher levels of motivation, extrinsic or intrinsic, and on language children
bring with them from experiences outside school hours. At the age of 10 or 11

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