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

4.3.8 Past Experience and World Knowledge

Larsen-Freeman (1985: 434) states that the more we know about the learner
the more we will know about about the nature of the language input he is likely
to receive. A learner's age, socio-economic background, target language
proficiency, gender, opportunities for interaction with target language speakers
and the conditions under which learning takes place are all deemed important.

Knowledge of the world would seem equally important. The interpretation of
language material, spoken and written, demands both schematic knowledge of
the world and systemic knowledge of the language (Widdowson, 1978,1990).
Greater extra-linguistic knowledge helps to make input comprehensible
(Krashen & Terrell, 1988: 47). What a child already knows affects what he can
learn and what he can remember and past experience and world knowledge
also allow for purposeful and goal-orientated learning. Past experience and
knowledge therefore determine to some extent success in foreign language
learning. A child's prior experience and knowledge, be it in the form of
language awareness, literacy skills, knowledge of another language or world
knowledge will affect the way the child interprets and converts language data
into input. Young children often do not bring much previous knowledge to the
language learning process. Knowledge of the world of those at the pre-literate
stage, of those at the concrete stage who can only function in the here and now
and who need 'concrete' learning experiences, can be limited. These children
generally do not have the schematic knowledge to recognise similarities
between contexts, for example, important in successful foreign language

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