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

Walsh & Diller (1981:16) suggest that'∞gnitive aptitudes continue to raise
markedly after puberty and that grammatical sensitivity and grammatical
reasoning in particular seem to develop into a new stage at puberty’.

It is, however, essential to remember that the development Ofanalytical
procedures will not occur at the same pace in all children. As Elkind (1981)
argued the stage of formal operations, relating to the ability to think abstractly,
to form general rules and to arrive at conclusions on the basis of argument is
not reached at the same time by everyone nor does everyone necessarily attain
it. Studies in child development also suggest that children of the same age
display varying degrees in their ability for 'analytical processing' of spoken
language as well as in their 'metalinguistic awareness' (Donaldson 1978,
Wells 1981,1985). A study by Green (1975), for example, found major
differences amongst 11 year old children in their ability to analyse patterns in a
foreign language, Swedish in this case. It has already been stated that some of
the younger chidren whom Burstall et al. (1974) called the 'more able' wanted
to earn the 'formal aspects' of language, were bored with end ess repetition and
wanted to know 'what they were learning and why they were learning it'. That
children differed widely in their abi ty to deal with the formal aspects of
l⅛mguage was also reported from the Scottish National Pilot.

4.3.4.2 LanguageAwareness

Similanties between 'insight into pattern' and 'language awareness' are
discussed by Hawkins (1981) who provides an extensive discussion of the role

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