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

listening skills, the skills on which children had mainly focused at primary
schools. Original plans of separate classes for cohort children when they
moved to secondary school did not materialise and cohort pupils were taught
alongside the 11+ starters. The effect this might have had on initially high levels
of motivation amongst the early starters seemingly made meaningful
comparisons of achievement levels difficult. Lee (1977) suggested that in the
absence of any detailed knowledge of the teaching processes that took place in
secondary schools it was difficult to establish why the original headstart of the
cohort children had not been maintained. The use Ofterminologywould also
seem a decisive factor in the evaluation of any project. Just how exactly both
researchers and evaluators of the Pilot Scheme had interpreted terms such as
'balance of opinion', 'success', 'substantial' and 'profitless' remains unclear.

One of the most important points, however, was made by Hawkins who stated
that the teaching of French to primary school children represented an extension
both vertically and horizontally:

"...vertically down the age-range to pupils below the age of 11+ and
horizontally across the 'ability' range to pupils who would not previously have
been offered a language because they failed to secure entry to a selective,
academic school or stream." (Hawkins, 1981:11)

Hawkins' statement and the critique summarised above raise a number of
important points which will be taken up again in Chapters Three and Four.

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