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

"...for pupils from ethnic minorities the use of at least two other languages
(mother language and Dutch) does not seriously affect learning English as a
third or fourth language." (reported in Edelenbos & Cor J. Suhre₁1996: 56)

Observations in School Two suggested that 'knowing' two languages had at
least some 'affective' advantages for some children.

6.4 Questionnaires

A questionnaire was administered to 3 classes in School Two, a total of 48
children, at the end of the school year 1998. Both the writer and the children's
class teacher were present while the questionnaires were ∞mpleted to give
support to those children who might be in need of help. The following pages will
focus on this questionnaire.

6.4.1 Analysis of Data from Questionnaires

The children in one of the classes did not provide much information possibly
due to the time lapse between learning French and completing the
questionnaire. The responses of these children were subsequently not included
in the analysis of the data. Some children in the other classes did not manage
to respond to all parts of the questionnaire and on some occasions complete
answers or parts of answers were unintelligible. Completion of each and every
question on the questionnaire was not deemed important, however, as the
focus was not on numbers of responses to a particular question but rather on
what the children said. The reader can find the answers each individual child

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