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

The Pilot Scheme thus received encouragement from a number of sources.
For the purpose of this Chapter a bπef summary of the Pilot Scheme, its main
findings and the effects on the teaching of French in primary schools during the
1970s and 1980s will follow.

1.3 The Pilot Scheme

The Pilot Scheme was widely reported on by the Schools Council (1966),
Burstall (1968, 1970, 1977, 1978), Burstall, Jamieson, Cohen and Hargreaves
(Burstall etal., 1974) and Hawkins (1981, 1996b). The PiIotSchemewas
launched on 13 March 1963 by then Minister of Education, Sir Edward Boyle,
and sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Nuffield Foundation
and Iaterthe Schools Council, established in 1964 (Schools Council Working
Papers No 8,1966: iii). Thirteen pilot areas had been chosen across England
and Wales with a total of 125 schools thought to be representative of the
country as a whole (Schools Council, 1966: 9). The selection of pupils was
based on their date of birth alone, thus leading to a representative sample of
pupils from all socio-economic backgrounds and of all abilities.

Teaching started in September 1964 involving approximately 6000 children
aged eight. A second cohort of a similar number of pupils started in 1965 but a
third cohort had to be introduced in 1968, due to 'unforeseen staffing and
organisational problems'.

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