a youth hostel was. Suggestions were la city', ,a lost property office' and 'a
mental home'. These responses reflect the very limited schematic knowledge
that these children could have used in dealing with the activity.
However, the number of children pretending that they 'knew' when they did not
know seemed much smaller in School Two. Ifthey did not know what to do, the
older children either owned up and asked for help, looked puzzled or simply
opted out of an activity. Some of the older children also 'practised' language
material, for example pronunciation, without the teacher necessarily asking
them to do so. Practise is something which according to Rubin (1975) and
Naiman et al. (1978) the 'good' language learners do.
6.3.6 Reading and Writing
Reading and writing activities in School Two were rather limited possibly due to
the fact that children only experienced French for one term and the teacher
thought that, generally, this time should be spent on speaking and listening
activities. When children did engage in writing, copying correctly presented a
problem for a number of children and, as in School One, while some needed
basic support with copywriting others could have moved at a much faster pace.
Both affective and cognitive factors regarding the written language in foreign
language development have already been discussed and it has already been
stated that the role of reading and writing deserves serious consideration in any
early scheme.
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