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

previous discussions it also has to be kept in mind that their comments,
favourable or unfavourable, relate to the learning of French. One can only
speculate how children would have responded to learning a different language.

5.11.3 Self-concept

A positive self-concept is regarded an important ingredient in all learning, not
just foreign language learning. Naiman et al. (1978), for example, reported that
poor learners lacked 'self-confidence' and Oller, Hudson & Liu reported that 'the
more positive a subject's self-concept, the higher the subject's achievement
in ESL' (Olleret al., 1977: 14). More recently, Clement, Dornyei & Noels (1994)
suggested that a positive self-concept was a major motivational subsystem in
foreign language learning 'where there is little direct contact with the target
culture' such as is the case with children learning French in Britain.

With few exceptions, the great majority of children, boys and girls, were
confident in their ability to Ieam French and thought that they were 'good' at it
although lesson observations had shown that some children clearly struggled to
manage even the most basic learning material. A number of children who knew
some words in another language also claimed, for example, that they could
'speak' that language and one boy claimed that he could speak 6 or 7
languages altogether. These findings indicate that young children are generally
very confident in their abilities, rightly or wrongly. Studies from child
development (Harris, 1993) suggest that up to the age of around seven children

300

<<   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   >>

More intriguing information