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

3.7.6 Assessment Issues

A number of problems surrounding the assessment of learning outcomes during
the Pilot Scheme have already been discussed in Chapter One. An important
lesson from experiences past and present would seem to be that without clear
aims and objectives and methodologies to suit, any valid evaluation of a project
will be problematic and any potential benefits of an early start will be difficult to
establish. A crucial consideration in assessing and evaluating learning
outcomes therefore would seem to be the question of the aims of a project.
A wide range of aims in the Pilot Scheme, to identify 'on what conditions it
would be feasible to contemplate the general introduction of a modern language
into the primary school curriculum' (Schools Council, 1966: 3), to ascertain
'whether or not an earlier start provided identifiable advantages over starting at
11' (Schools Council, 1966: 5) and to find out 'whether it was educationally
desirable to teach a modern foreign language to pupils of a wider range of age
and ability' (Burstall et al., 1974:11) must be held partially responsible for the
'failure' of the Pilot Scheme. The identification Offavourable conditions cannot
be equated with what is educationally desirable and what might be
educationally desirable does often take place under less than favourable
conditions.

The evaluation of the S∞ttish National Pilot focused on two case studies or
project clusters only, and while these were not considered а-typical they
nevertheless represented only a small sample of the large number of schools
involved on a national scale. Consequently, the number of pupils and teachers

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