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

5.5 Questionnaires

It was decided that a questionnaire should be administered to the slightly older
children in School Two, as they were deemed to be capable of handling an
appropriately designed questionnaire. Additionally, interviewing a large number
of children was thought to place too big a demand on limited teaching time and
too disruptive to the timetable. The purpose of this questionnaire, like the
purpose ofthe interview, was to lead to a more in-depth understanding of
children's experiences of learning French, their thoughts and their beliefs.

5.5.1 Question Formation

Subsidiary topics for a questionnaire were identified and specific information
requirements itemised as suggested by Cohen & Manion (1994: 93). As with
interviews, the topics for the questionnaire derived from the theoretical
discussions in Chapter Four, in particular the affective issues which could not
be fully explored through lesson observation. Unlike the content for the
interviews, however, the content for the questionnaire was also partially
informed by questions administered to the children in the Pilot Scheme
by Burstall and her colleagues (Burstall et al., 1974: 249-253). Questions on
the questionnaire were to capture, as far as this was possible, the totality of
children's experiences in their French lessons, in particular their affective
responses to the learning process. The questionnaire was to provide insights
into children's perception ofthe four skills, for example, what they might find
easy or difficult in learning French, what they liked and disliked and their view of
the French language itself. Questions which would give some indication of

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