3.8 Conclusion
Learning outcomes from the Pilot Scheme and the S∞ttish National Pilot seem
to invite important comparisons. Setting aside those aspects which can be
classified as likely 'spin-offs' from foreign language learning and teaching, such
as better social skills and improved cultural awareness, but do not require the
teaching of a foreign language per se, out∞mes from both the Pilot Scheme
and the Scottish National Pilot would seem similar in a number of respects.
From both projects it had been reported that while children readily repeated
chunks of language they showed little improvement in their ability to manipulate
language chunks creatively or in their ability to interact spontaneously to any
degree. From Scotland it is reported that small gains in listening and speaking
skills in the first two years of secondary school soon seem to disappear. This
had also been the case in the Pilot Scheme where at the age of 16 the early
starters showed only small gains in listening skills.
While limited progress might, to some extent, be a reflection of inappropriate
methods, past or present, it also suggests that languages are not 'picked up' in
the primary school classroom but have to be learned and therefore taught.
Both the Pilot Scheme as well as the Scottish National Pilot and the projects in
England are intervention projects. In this sense, they are very different from
natural acquisition contexts. In an interventionist context, rather than a natural
acquisition ∞ntext, learning is brought about through teaching and by
implication places a range of demands on the learner. The concept of 'ability'
recurs across schemes both past and present. This would seem to suggest that
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