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

learning French as well as why some did not. Some children said they looked
forward to simply speaking more French 'because French is a lovely language
to Ieam' and some said that they would like to continue learning French
because they wanted to speak it 'fluently'. One child wanted to learn 'to
pronounce words because I want to learn properly' while another wanted to
learn 'how to talk French on the phone because it is very useful'. Some wanted
to learn more words because they found words easy while others said they
looked forward to more reading or writing. Some children said that they would
like to learn more French because when 'I go to France I can speak it' and one
boy said he wanted to learn more French because he hopes to 'go there a lot in
the future'. One boy said he would like to be able 'to work up a Conversaion'
[sic] and one girl said she wanted to Ieam 'at least 5 languages'. One girl
simply said she hoped to improve and one said she looked forward to 'doing my
best because Γm not very good at French'.

Some children, however, also expressed concerns about learning French at
secondary school such as being asked questions in French 'because I can't
answer them fluently', 'answering questions because I get nervous', 'learning
sentences because I find them contusing' and 'getting homework wrong'.
One girl simply stated that she did not want to Ieam any more French. It would
seem important that secondary schools should try and identify possible
∞ncems amongst children as much as find out what they might be able 'to do'
(or not do) in the four language skills.

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