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

often dislike what they find difficult and like what they find easy. This section
will therefore only summarise those comments that were not accommodated
under the above headings. One girl, for example, said that she quite liked the
^,je and the elɪe in it all'. This comment might suggest that this girl enjoyed the
more 'formal' aspects of learning French. One boy said he liked 'filling in
worksheets because they were a revision of what we had learned'. Some
children also said they liked 'getting into groups' because we can 'exchange our
ideas' and one boy said he liked moving around class. Many said they liked
counting and learning the numbers and most, not surprisingly, liked games and
puzzles.

6.5.9 The Things Children Liked Least

Surprisingly, not all children said they liked singing and not all liked drawing, two
activities which have generally been assumed as popular amongst young
children. One girl stated she did not like 'learning the un's and une's because I
didn't know the difference', one said she did not like 'homework because I didn't
have a book or tape to help me'. One boy said that he did not like doing things
that were 'too hard to understand' and that he felt pressurised and 'got it all
wrong’. One said the things he found difficult were the 'bits I had no idea about
because I couldn't pronounce them.' One girl simply stated that she did not like
French. Some of the above ∞mments seem reminiscent of the comments
made by Burstall (1974) that some children wanted to know ^,what they were
learning and why they were learning it'.

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