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

Such behaviour might suggest that some children are more prepared for formal
learning than others.

On a number of occasions the body language of some children showed that
they were quite clearly using target language they did not understand and a
smile, for example, would ac∞mpany a negative response. It also seemed the
case that some children reacted to the body language of the teacher more than
to what was being said. The first thing they seemed to 'read' was the teacher's
body language rather than the verbal message. While some aspects of body
language, such as smiles, would seem universal, others are culturally
determined (see Bialystok & Hakuta, 1994, for example). In the multicultural
and multilingual classroom this might lead to conflicts between the body
language of a child's first language, the body language of the teacher and the
body language of the target language. The importance of avoiding ambiguous
and conflicting messages would have implications for teacher training and
education. Whether those children who tend to rely on body language in
decoding messages are also those who find it generally difficult to 'dis-embed'
language from its immediate ∞ntext leaves much s∞pe for further research.

6.3.2 Enthusiasm and Willingness 'to have a Go'

In the affective domain of learning there seemed to be much difference between
individual children in School Two and between those who were prepared to
have a go and those who did not bother whatever the reasons. Some children
were very responsive and almost always put their hands up in response to the

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