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

CHAPTER ONE

The Historical Background to Early Language Learning Schemes and the
Situation in the United Kingdom in the 1990s

1.1 Introduction

Chapter One provides a framework for the thesis. It introduces what came to
be known as the 'Pilot Scheme for the teaching of French in primary schools'
(Burstall, Jamieson, Cohen and Hargreaves, 1974:11) and presents the
background to the Scheme as well as its main outcomes. It was decided that
the Pilot Scheme should be introduced in the first chapter for a number of
reasons. One, it had a major influence on developments in the 1970s and
1980s and still informs much of current thinking. Two, it remains the only major
and completed investigation into young children of the same age and of all
abilities learning a foreign language (French in this case) in state primary
schools in England and Wales. Three, the outcomes of the Pilot Scheme were
not what was generally expected at the time and challenged many of the
assumptions underlying an early start.

The second half of the chapter summarises the situation in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland in the mid 1990s and introduces the Scottish National Pilot
which started in 1989. A more detailed discussion of both the outcomes of the
Pilot Scheme as well as the Scottish National Pilot will form the focus of
Chapter Three.

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