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

According to the Schools Council the main aim of the Pilot Scheme was to
ascertain:

"...on what conditions it would be feasible to ∞ntemplate the
general introduction of a modern language into the primary school
curriculum in terms of the consequences for the pupil, the school and the
teacher." (Schools Council, 1966: 3)

The Schools Council stressed that the Ministry of Education 'was anxious to
structure any experiment in such a way as to yield useful information about the
feasibility of introducing French into the primary curriculum'. It was not the aim
of the Pilot Scheme 'to establish whether or not it is possible to teach French
successfully in primary schools'. The Schools Council claimed that 'this was
obviously possible' and referred to 'Primary Education', published in 1959 for
the Ministry of Education, which had stated that 'the teaching of a modern
language was possible with abler pupils in primary schools (basing its opinion
on the sporadic teaching that had already taken place), but that conditions were
rarely suitable' (Schools Council, 1966: 3). The Schools Council stated further
that it was the purpose of the Pilot Scheme to ascertain 'whether or not an
earlier start provided identifiable advantages over starting at 11' (Schools
Council, 1966: 5) and listed the main issues to be addressed as follows:

1. Is any substantial gain in mastery of a foreign language achieved by
beginning to teach it at 8 instead of 11?

2. Do other aspects of educational and general intellectual development gain or
suffer from the introduction of a foreign language in the primary school?

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