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

French words sound weird. Rachel writes that reading is 'not exactly 'EASY'
and that it is 'just as bad with accent’. Writing is 'alright' and has a 'very
powerful attraction’. Rachel also likes working with the tape which she finds
easy. She finds understanding and listening to the teacher difficult because he
'spoke it pretty fast'. She also says she finds it difficult to remember things.
Rachel does not want to Ieam any more French. She reckons that her
'character is not focused on it^, and that she 'just wants to speak another
language'. Given a choice she would rather Ieam Italian but will be learning
Spanish and German at secondary school.

Corinne

Corinne is a girl of average ability who speaks English. She thinks French is a
brilliant and fascinating language. She is very enthusiastic and thinks she is
very good at French although she also says she finds it difficult to remember
things. On the questionnaire she states that she has learned how to say 'hello'
and 'good-bye' in French. She says she likes writing but does not like drawing
things. Corinne would like to speak French fluently and would like to find out
from the French whether 'French is a hard language to speak'. Corinne says
she wants to learn at least 5 languages but to begin with she will choose
French, then 'Germen, Australian, Arabic and Somalon and Spainish etc.'.

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