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

of language awareness in a comprehensive programme of language education
for school ch Idren (Hawkins, 1984). Donsidson¹S work suggests that 'language
awareness' has to be learned and that a child's ablity to analyse language is
Iikdy to be the resultof a relationship between both age and background. In
some homes an awareness Ctflarguage is more explicitly fostered through
rhymes, language play, games and Storiesandthequality Ofthedialogue
between the child and an ad lit, as discussed in ChapterTwo, seems crucial.

Wong-Fillmore (1979) found ttιat syntactical play was indicative of children's
awareness of structural nratters and that those Whoengaged in experimental
syntactic play with the English language made most progress. One child in
Particularseemedquick inanalysng Ianguiagefornulae, for example, and in
working out which parts could be varied:

"Nora's rapid analyes Offornnulas had a correlate in her disposition to figure
out how toys, games, and gadgets were put together, and how they worked.

She was Constantlyplayng with Ihingsandtaking them apart and her doing so
with linguistic Siructureswasconsistentwith herovera I approach to whatever
she came across " (Wong-Filmcre, 1979:225)

Another child seemed especially good at mimicry, att remembering and precsely
reproducing formulas but this child did not make as much progress’

"...he had a talent for re∞gnizιng and picking ιp memorable and
usefu expressions. Buttheseabiltiesalonewere insufficient for rapid
progress in learning the new language." (Wong-Fillmore 1979: 226)

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