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

6.3 Observed Outcomes - School Two

As was stated in Chapter Five, a small case study cannot match large-scale
projects on a national level and a formal evaluation of learning outcomes was
not feasible due to the many variables involved. As in School One, only those
aspects which could be observed, analysed and interpreted without 'strict
scientific control' will be discussed under headings similar to those in Case
Study One, such as children's French, enthusiasm and willingness 'to have a
go', attention spans, social learning outcomes, learning strategies and
guessing, reading and writing. Language awareness amongst children in
School Two will also be briefly discussed as the nature of the learning process
in this school allowed for some ∞mments to be made.

6.3.1 Childrens' French

As in School One, comments will be restricted to those aspects of language
learning which seemed to be recurring patterns and themes. Unsurprisingly
perhaps, given that they only had one lesson a week, as in School One, many
children in School Two also found it very difficult to remember what they had
been taught from lesson to lesson. However, in School Two many children also
found it difficult to remember language material within a lesson from lesson start
to finish. Generally numbers and single words seemed to be remembered more
than sentences although numbers did present problems for some children.
Most children could count in chorus but only few could do so on an individual
basis. On one occasion the number 3 was translated as 11,10 and 6 by three

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