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

It would also seem worth noting that simply liking something does not
necessarily make one good at it.

Surprisingly, many children in School One said that they liked writing in French.
These positive responses to the more 'demanding' aspects of language learning
could well be a reflection of the generally high levels of literacy in this class.
Only a few children said that they found writing 'difficult'. One boy said, for
example, that reading and writing were boring, one said that writing was hard
and one claimed that writing 'made your hands get tired'. When concerns were
expressed these usually had to do with spelling, getting accents right or
being able to copy correctly from the board. Interestingly, some of the 'less
able' children said that they liked reading and writing. This would re-emphasise
the importance of written language in supporting learning discussed in Chapter
Four both from a cognitive and affective viewpoint. Whether all children clearly
differentiated in their responses between writing generally and writing in French,
however, is difficult to establish. In any case, early exposure to a foreign
language which is based on listening and speaking only would seem neither
necessary nor desirable with a large number of children in this class.

Many children said they preferred it when the teacher 'spoke' English.
However, these responses need to be taken with a degree of caution as it is not
Clearwhether children distinguished between the teacher 'speaking' in French
and the teacher 'explaining' in French. These are clearly different issues.
Nevertheless, the possibility remains that children generally feel more

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