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

Jermaine

Jermaine is a boy of low ability. He says he liked learning French and that it
was easy and fun. He also says that he liked the France 98 World Cup best.
As it happened, Jermaine had to be moved during most lessons as he kept
disrupting the work of others. The World Cup 98 (although it was staged while
he was learning French) was never dealt with by the teacher during lessons.

These very different profiles of children suggest the need for very different
'baits' if one were to 'catch them young'. If one were to offer a particular foreign
language from a specific age in a school system in which classes are based on
chronological ages rather than on stages of development how would one
accommodate all these children? How does one cater for the needs and
interests of the 'high ability' girl for whom things simply went too fast, who found
most things difficult, who thought that French was not important as she does not
live there and who would prefer to Ieam Punjabi or a bit of several languages?
The 'high ability' girl who loves French, has no problems with pronunciation as
she speaks French Patois but sees herself as shy and would like to do more
reading and writing? The 'high ability* girl who managed to do quite well in class
but who simply dislikes French and says she does not want to Ieam it any more
as it 'sounds weird' and because her 'character is simply not focused on it'?

The 'average ability¹ girl who was generally quite weak in French but who wants
to Ieam five languages and wants to know why French is 'a hard language to
speak'? The 'average ability¹ boy who finds French dull, boring and difficult and
would much rather Ieam Italian because he 'likes the way they pronounce

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