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

The children questionned in their first year at se∞ndary school seemed to
express as much enthusiasm for learning a foreign language as did the younger
ones. However, a number of children who had experienced a foreign language
at primary school expressed negative attitudes and thought that language
learning was a 'waste of time'. These unintended consequences of an early
start cannot be ignored and avoiding failure would seem to be preferable to
dealing with its ∞nsequences.

The validity of the aim Ofdeveloping communicative competence in a particular
language, of language 'learning' rather than language 'sensibilisation' thus
remains questionable and would seem to reflect a confusion between the
ultimate aim and the means, for while the ultimate aim might well be
'communicative competence' in a particular language, making children walk
before they can stand would seem to be a futile exercise.

If profitless experiences are to be avoided, the logic of the situation would seem
to demand that 'learning how to learn', 'education through a foreign language'
rather than 'learning a foreign language' should be the major concern of any
programme. 'Foreign language education' in the primary school could be seen
as an opportunity to do a number of things, for example to help children towards
increasing their awareness of language and to arouse their curiosity about
languages, to provide them with fundamental, generic and transferable learning
skills, to foster positive attitudes towards different cultures and speakers of
other languages, to develop their thinking skills and to develop personal and

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