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

The 'time factor* in Foreign Languages in Primary Schools (FLPS) had also
been stressed by Low et al. in the 1993 interim report on the Scottish National
Pilot:

"One factor that undoubtedly counts is time allocated to FL learning. In school
conditions, real fluency, accuracy and ∞nfidence do not grow overnight. With
most pupils they take a lot of time to develop. A potential advantage of FLPS is
that it offers time in addition to what is allocated in secondary schools."
(Lowet al., 1993: 2)

References to children's 'receptiveness' and 'intuitive acquisition mechanisms'
combined with a focus on language learning rather than language
'sensibilisation' as well as references to time thus seem to suggest a dual
rationale for the National Pilot: one, to increase 'the overall time spent on
learning the language' and two, to exploit the 'receptiveness' of young children.

It was later stated that the purpose of the evaluation of the National Pilot by a
team from the University of Stirling was essentially to establish whether there
were any 'clear gains in pupils' foreign-language competence arising from the
pilot experience' and 'trying to find out whether (and if so, why and how) the
time spent learning a foreign language at primary school made a difference'
(Johnstone et al., 1996: 61/2) as 'the initial years were intended as a period of
exploration that would lead in due course to a more explicit rationale'
(Johnstone et al., 1996: 60). Earlier it had been stated that although certain
terms were absent from the SOED's aims for the evaluation such as attitude,
motivation, language awareness and cultural awareness, these were not to be

56

<<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   >>

More intriguing information