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

If individual differences amongst children are deemed important in natural
second language acquisition environments, how much more important are they
likely to be in the classroom? In trying to answer this question this chapter will
address the issue of age in foreign language learning from a different
perspective. It will start with a contextual framework for learning a foreign
language in the classroom. The question of what is required of the learner in
such a context will be addressed. It will be argued that Chomsky's ideal
speaker-listener who forms the subject of much of the debate on natural first
and second language acquisition, does not often exist as a construct in the
formal classroom, where a whole host Ofvariables affect the learning process
and where age cannot easily be isolated from other factors. It will be suggested
that even if Chomsky is right in postulating innate language learning
mechanisms for the acquisition of a first language and even if innate
mechanisms and age-related factors play a role in the acquisition of a second
language in natural contexts, they are unlikely to be Sufficientforthe successful
learning of a foreign language within the constraints of formal learning situations
where, as Chomsky stated, 'learning mechanisms other than the language
faculty play a role' (1983: 110, cited in Botha, 1991).

4.2 Learning a Foreign Language in the Classroom

Much has been written about possible similarities and differences between
contexts in first and se∞nd language acquisition and in foreign language
learning (Lightbown 1985, Chaudron 1988, Andersen 1989, Van Patten 1989,
Bems 1989, Gass 1989, Kramsch 1995, Widdowson 1990).

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