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

French and remembering the words is easy because it's not much different to
my language' or 'French is Similarto Portuguese'. Forthe children who spoke
French Patois or Portuguese similarity between languages seems to help rather
than interfere at least in the early stages of the learning process.

Many children said that they found French difficult, that they did not remember
things easily and that they tended to forget. One girl, for example, stated that
she found learning French confusing 'because I keep forgetting the words' and
another simply claimed that 'she was not very good at French'. When asked
about what it was that they found easy or difficult, children seemed to find
numbers relatively easy to remember but remembering words and sentences,
especially, many found difficult. 'Saying' things in French was deemed easier
than 'remembering' words or sentences. Boys, especially, said that they found
saying and remembering sentences difficult and that saying and remembering
words only was easier. One boy said he found sentences difficult, because 'we
had to say some dSffacult [sic] words'. The girls generally found copying things
down easy but reading in French, understanding people on the tape and
understanding the teacher was generally found difficult by both boys and girls.
There were a number of children who said they found it hard to pronounce new
words. Specific reasons why French was difficult were given as 'French words
are hard to say^,, French is 'hard to remember and pronounce', The words are
different', 'I keep getting mixed up with words and sentences', it is 'hard to
understand', 'I don't remember anything' or 'French is not my language'.

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