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

Almost 30 years ago Carroll was already questioning the common assumption
that younger is better in the special conditions of learning a foreign language in
the classroom:

"One of the most popular ideas is that young children Ieam a foreign language
more readily and easily than older children or adults. This idea stems from
observation of the fact that under certain ∞nditions young children do indeed
be∞me very fluent in a second language. What is often ignored is that the
conditions are rather specialized and not always easily arranged or duplicated
in schools, and that even under these specialized conditions not every child
learns the second language as well as his mother tongue."
(Carroll, in: Stern, 1969: 57/58).

Evidence from literature as well as from experience suggests that learning
outcomes from the foreign language classroom are far from uniform and that
not all children learn a foreign language with either the same degree of ease or
of success. Such variations in learning out∞mes, even amongst young
children, would seem to Suggestthat those innate mechanisms and processes
which govern language development in natural acquisition contexts are likely
to play a much reduced role in the learning of a foreign language under the
artificial constraints of the classroom.

4.3 Demands on the Learner

Lightbown & Spada (1993) provide some insight into how languages might be
learned. How exactly foreign languages are learned in the classroom, however,

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