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

Table of Contents

Title Page 1

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

Terminology 11

The Concept of Primary School Education 13

Introduction 15

CHAPTER ONE

The Historical Background to Early Language Learning Schemes
and the Situation in the United Kingdom in the 1990s

1.1 Introduction 21

1.2 The Background to the Pilot Scheme 22

1.2.1 The Post World War Il Political and Economic Climate 22

1.2.2 The Contribution of UNESCO to Early Language Learning 23

1.2.3 The Annan Report 25

1.2.4 The Kellermann Project 25

1.3 The Pilot Scheme 27

1.3.1 LanguageChoice 30

1.3.2 TeacherTraining 31

1.3.3 Methodology and Materials Used in the Pilot Scheme 32

1.3.4 PatternsofProvision 32

1.4 The NFER Evaluation of the Pilot Scheme 33

1.4.1 AssessmentofOutcomes 34

1.4.2 OtherFindingsonAchievement 39

1.5 Critiques of the NFER's Final Conclusion 40

1.5.1 The 1976 Nuffield Foundation Survey 42

1.5.2 ConditionsforSuccess 43

1.6 The Situation in the 1990s in England, Wales, Northern Ireland 46
and Scotland

1.6.1 ThesituationinEngIand₁WaIesandNorthemIreIand 47