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

5.7.4 Class Composition and the Teacher

The class observed was a year 4 class, composed of 28 pupils, 11 girls and 17
boys aged eight to nine. The teacher was female and the children's class
teacher. She was a primary school specialist and the co-ordinator for French
throughout the school. Although not a language 'specialist' as such, she had
been attending a number of inservice training courses provided by the borough.

5.7.5 Patterns of Provision in French

French teaching generally took place for one hour on one occasion per week
but due to an integrated day approach and a flexible timetable, French was not
always taught on the same day or at the same time. While it was emphasised
by the writer that the natural flow of things should not be disrupted, in order to
accommodate the study it was agreed that French would be taught for
approximately an hour on a fixed day each week at the end of the morning
session to allow for classroom observations to take place on a regular basis.
The school was visited in the third term after the Easter holidays when children
had already learned French for two terms. Lesson observations thus started in
April 1996 and finished at the end of the summer term. Lesson observation
notes can be found in Appendix A.

5.7.6 Learning Context

Although the children were the focus of this study, rather than precise linguistic
outcomes, language input, tasks and activities and interactions between teacher
and pupil or between pupils, it was nevertheless deemed important to provide

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