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

It became clear during the interview that some children had difficulties paying
close attention to questions at the initial stage of the interview and that some,
possibly through the nature of their out of school experiences, displayed a
higher degree of language awareness than others. Two sections headed
'general listening skills' and 'awareness of language and the learning process'
were therefore added. The subsequent pages will present a summary of each
child's interview, a general discussion and analysis of the responses will then
follow.

5.10 IndividuaichiIdren^lSProfiIes

Sareet

Sareet says French is her favourite subject. She thinks French is a different
language because it has lots of apostrophes and things'. She would like to
learn different languages and says she can count to three in Malai. She says
she does not find anything about French difficult and likes reading, listening,
speaking and writing. She likes being asked questions in class and she likes
playing games. Sareetthinks she is doing well in French because before she
could not get the 'days of the week in the right order¹ or the 'drinks'. When
asked: 'Comment t'appelles-tu?' Sareet responded: ^lJe m^,appelle Sareet'.

Donna

Donna seems generally very confused about what she is supposed to do. (This
'confusion' had also been observed during lessons). During the interview she

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