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

The quality of work in schools that did continue with the teaching of French was
deemed good, possibly because these schools represented the 'survival of the
fittest'. The teaching of French in these schools was not investigated closely
enough, however, to establish exactly what it was that was deemed 'good' in
relation to the aims and objectives these schools had set themselves and their
pupils, in relation to methodology or in relation to teacher competence.

1.5.2 Conditions for Success

What exactly the aims and objectives of an early start might be, what might
constitute adequate methods or adequate teacher training was not made clear
nor was any relationship between these individual aspects established and what
would seem a rather 'vague' list of conditions for success was put forward:

- clear short and long term aims and objectives

- a sufficient supply of adequately trained teachers

- adequate methodologies

- the integration of French into the whole primary school curriculum

- continuity of provision between primary and secondary school

- contact with the target culture
- the assessment of progress

The conditions identified during the Nuffield survey were not completely new
either. In 1972 the then Department of Education and Science (DES) had
already published the following statement:

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