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

Issues surrounding the Conceptofability' in learning a foreign language in the
classroom will be raised again in Chapters Three and Four.

Question Three: Is any substantial gain in mastery achieved by beginning to
learn French at the age of eight?

This question was the Schools Council's main concern and was answered
'unequivocally in the negative'. It was reported that those children who had
started to learn French at 11 quickly caught up with the early starters. The
initial headstart which the cohort pupils had when they started secondary school
soon began to disappear and by the age of 16 the project pupils only had a
si ght advantage in listening skills. Such a small advantage, Burstall et al.
concluded, did not justify the extra years the project children had spent learning
French (Burstall et al., 1974: 243).

Question Four: What methods, attitudes and incentives are the most effective
in promoting the learning of French?

Burstall et al. found that 'there was no single method equally appropriate for all
children'. High-achieving pupils rejected the audio-visual approach in favour of
more traditional methods. Burstall et al. and Kellermann previously, reported
that the more 'able' children were not happy with endless repetition and
imitation, asked for explanations of vocabulary and structures and wanted to
know what they were learning and why they were learning it. Low-achieveing
pupils reacted favourably to the audio-visual approach but experienced
difficulties when reading and writing were introduced. Many children disliked
reading aloud in class which they associated with embarrassment and a barrier

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