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

writer has decided to adopt a holistic approach. No claim is made, however,
that all the possible variables affecting successful foreign language learning will
be treated or that those that will be treated will be dealt with in equal depth.
Rather an attempt is made to analyse those substrates which would seem
important for successful foreign language learning in the primary school, those
that would facilitate learning as well as those which may form an impediment to
learning and thus challenge the belief that younger is necessarily better for all
ch Idren, in all ∞ntexts and under all circumstances.

It will be suggested that a number of factors necessary for successful learning
are more likely to be present in older children than in younger children while
others might be more a question of experience rather than one of age. The
following sections should therefore be read as an attempt at identifying those
areas where increased levels of maturity, awareness or experience are likely to
lead to better results. It will be argued that the concept of age, stemming
largely from first language acquisition processes, might be of much less
relevance in the primary school foreign language classroom where the concept
ofstage might be more important and where ∞nsiderations such as Whethera
child is literate or not, whether he possesses a degree of language awareness,
whether he is able to listen and pay attention to formal instruction, whether he
has positive attitudes towards the target language and the learning process,
would seem to play a crucial role and where other factors such as the language
being learned, teacher personality and competences, aims and objectives and a
consideration of what children are learning a language for, cannot be ignored.

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