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

6.7.5 Affective Considerations

It became apparent during interviews that enthusiasm is not as widespread as
one would have assumed from simply observing children in lessons. While
observations seemed to suggest that most children showed a degree of
enthusiasm in learning French, it became apparent during interviews and from
findings on the questionnaires that there were a number of children who were
simply not too sure about the whole experience and who did not seem to enjoy
learning French. Children in both schools thus displayed a range of attitudes
from the very enthusiastic to the disaffected. However, as was argued earlier, it
is difficult to evaluate whether the less 'enthusiastic' children would be more
enthusiastic if they were experiencing a different language or a variety of
languages. The more 'able' children, as identified by the class teacher, were
also not necessarily those with the more positive attitudes. A number of
'high-ability' girls, for example, who did manage relatively well, were not keen to
continue with French, simply because they perceived the language as
irrelevant. Nor did enthusiasm necessarily relate to children's background.
It has already been argued that children's affective responses cannot be
separated from their experiences and that enthusiasm might be the result of
'fun' experiences. However, it also seems worth noting that a number of
children in School Two quite clearly enjoyed what was a more 'formal'
experience of learning French. While some found dealing with genders difficult,
for example, others saw this as a challenge they enjoyed.

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