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



Some children have their hand up before teacher asks a question. Shows that
they're confident but also means that they do not necessarily listen to the
question and might go by body language and just guess.

The class is still attentive after a long time of listening.

Somebody makes a mistake, class laugh. Teacher reprimands: 'ɪt is not funny
to laugh at somebody else's mistake. We all make mistakes.' This seems to
have restored confidence of the child who made the mistake, looking at his
face.

Lesson Two

Teacher practices: 'Qu'est-ce que tu aimes?' with flashcards.

Plenty of hands go up. This week some start to get a full sentence right, e.g.
'J'aime... Pronunciation is weak amongst some, something like 'Chai' or Tschai'
keeps coming up but is accepted and not corrected. Some still don't remember
the genders.

Teacher starts to call on individual children with a child's name first and only few
hands go up. Teacher uses lots of praise. Teachertalks in English about the
Olympic Games and the significance of the five rings.

Pupils go on to practising numbers in preparation for tape. Teacher explains in
English what they need to do. Pupils listen to tape and record numbers. A
couple of boys seem confused about what is going although teacher has
explained several times. One boy is struggling with writing the numbers which
he does in an odd way. Not all recognise numbers given on tape.

Suggest game might be good idea to consolidate numbers. Class finishes with
a number game on board and everybody is involved. Some still don't remember
numbers, recognise or recall.

Lesson Three

Not many notes taken during this lesson as this was a practical lesson with lots
of colouring in and cutting out. Children cut out pictures of famous sports
people from magazines and were asked to write some French to go with the
pictures. Most spent the lesson simply cutting out pictures. Some only put

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