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

finds difficult and he prefers reading in English. He lħinks French sounds dull.
On the questionnaire Lee ticked everything as 'difficult' with the exception of
'saying words'. What he looks forward to least in secondary school is speaking
in French 'because I keep forgetting the words'. Lee would like to Ieam Italian
because 'I like the way they pronounce their words'.

Martin

Martin is a boy of high ability who speaks English. He is enthusiastic and
enjoys learning French. He thinks it is a good language to know because 'we
go there a lot'. Martin likes speaking in French, because it allows him to
practise and is good fun. He would have liked to do more reading, writing and
homework because 'I could have learned more'. Martin says he did not like
doing things that were too hard to understand and that he felt pressurised and
'got it all wrong'. He says that the things he found difficult were 'the bits I had
no idea about because I couldn't pronounce them'. Martin would like to
continue learning French because he hopes to 'go there a lot in the future'.

Matthew

Matthew is a boy of average ability whose first language is Portuguese.

He is very enthusiastic and thinks learning French is fun. He finds writing
difficult 'I cannot spell and the letters are confusing' and he does not like reading
because he 'does not know how to'. Matthew says he does not like singing
because he does not know 'how to sing in French'. He would like to speak
French 'completely¹ and looks forward to 'righting' [sic] at secondary school

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