Teaching Modern Languages at Primary School.pdf

Teaching Modern Languages at Primary School

Approaches and Implications

Richard Johnstone

SCRE Publication 121

Practitioner MiniPaper 14

First published 1994

Series Editors:

Wynne Harlen

Rosemary Wake

ISBN 0 947833 97 8

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed and bound for the Scottish Council for Research in Education, 15 St John Street, Edinburgh EH8

8JR by Nevisprint, Fort William.

Contents

page

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1

What does ‘modern languages’ mean? .................................................................................................... 1

Moving from trial schemes to wider provision ................................................................................... 2

Foreign and second languages .................................................................................................................. 2

Is there a problem? ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Learning your neighbour’s language ......................................................................................................... 4

From foreign to second language? ............................................................................................................ 4

2 Developments Past and Present ........................................................................................................ 5

Models of teaching approach ................................................................................................................... 5

Awareness ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

Encounter ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

Subject-teaching ............................................................................................................................................ 7

Embedding ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

Immersion ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Foreign language initiatives in Scotland ............................................................................................ 11

Foreign language initiatives elsewhere in the UK ......................................................................... 11

The movement towards early introduction elsewhere in Europe ............................................ 12

France ........................................................................................................................................................... 12

Italy ................................................................................................................................................................ 13

Spain .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Germany ...................................................................................................................................................... 15

The Netherlands ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Luxembourg ................................................................................................................................................ 16

Other European countries ...................................................................................................................... 16

Examples from outside Europe .............................................................................................................. 17

Discussion ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Diversity and commonality of aims in teaching languages ................................................................ 18

Underlying problems in extending provision ......................................................................................18

3 Learning Another Language ................................................................................................................ 21

Using language for real communication ............................................................................................. 21

A dynamic system of rules and strategies ........................................................................................... 22

Communicative Competence .................................................................................................................. 23

Acquisition and learning ........................................................................................................................... 24

Natural acquisition .................................................................................................................................... 25

Learning (and acquisition) ........................................................................................................................ 27

Evidence in support of formal learning ................................................................................................. 29

Knowledge of grammar at primary school ..........................................................................................29

Using the right and left sides of the brain ............................................................................................ 29

Learning to learn and learning to acquire ............................................................................................ 30

iii

Social-psychological distance ................................................................................................................... 32

Progression .................................................................................................................................................. 33

Progression in communicative competence ........................................................................................ 33

Interlanguage development ...................................................................................................................... 34

L1—L2/FL interdependence .................................................................................................................... 36

Proficiency ....................................................................................................................................................... 37

4 Evidence on Outcomes ........................................................................................................................... 40

Evidence from UK primary schools ....................................................................................................... 40

England and Wales..................................................................................................................................... 40

Scotland ........................................................................................................................................................ 42

Evidence from immersion research ..................................................................................................... 44

Immersion in Canada ................................................................................................................................ 44

Partial immersion in Australia ................................................................................................................. 45

Evidence from research on particular aspects ................................................................................ 46

Intensive teaching ....................................................................................................................................... 46

Literacy in the first language.................................................................................................................... 46

Impact of learning a foreign language on command of first language ............................................ 46

Evidence favouring older learners ....................................................................................................... 48

Research findings ....................................................................................................................................... 48

Arguments favouring older beginners ................................................................................................... 48

Evidence favouring younger learners ................................................................................................... 50

Research findings ....................................................................................................................................... 50

5 Conclusions and Implications ............................................................................................................ 55

Starting age .................................................................................................................................................. 55

Possible outcomes of a languages policy ........................................................................................... 56

In the Scottish context ............................................................................................................................. 57

In the foreseeable future ......................................................................................................................... 57

Which approach? ....................................................................................................................................... 58

Who should do the teaching? ................................................................................................................. 59

Implications for foreign languages pedagogy at primary school .............................................. 61

Going beyond the basic model ............................................................................................................... 65

Implications for the secondary school ................................................................................................. 66

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................ 67

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The present publication is based on various research and development

initiatives that have taken place in Scotland and elsewhere in the world in

relation to modern languages at primary school. My own involvement allows

me to offer four perspectives. As a member of the team in the Education

Department of Stirling University conducting the evaluation of the national

pilot projects in Scotland, I can offer the perspective of someone who has been

conducting research in the area. As a reviewer of research published in

international journals, I can comment on research findings from other

countries. As a participant in Council of Europe networks, I can comment on

developments elsewhere in Europe. Finally, as part of the team working at the

Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, I have

become aware of the sorts of enquiry that teachers, student-teachers,

journalists, broadcasters and others have addressed to us and to which we

have attempted to respond. It is my intention to bring these different sources

of information together in such a way as to set current developments in

Scotland in a historical and international context.

In drawing on these sources, I have benefited greatly from interaction with

various friends and colleagues. Particular thanks go to Tony Giovanazzi for

providing background information on developments in France, Italy and Spain

that supplemented what I myself had been able to obtain. Ian Boyes HMCI, Pat

Dobson, Alison Hurrell, Isobel McGregor HMI, Sandy Wilson and several

others have regularly kept me abreast of current developments in policy and

on the ground, not only in Scotland but elsewhere also. Talking of ‘elsewhere’,

let me also offer thanks to friends and colleagues in other countries, including

those who have collaborated in Council of Europe networks, and particularly

Peter Edelenbos (Holland) and Ulrich Bliesener (Germany). I would also like

to express my indebtedness to my various colleagues at Stirling—Sally Brown,

Lesley Low, Jill Duffield and Anne Pirrie of the Education Department, and

Lottie Gregory and Val Hamilton of Scottish CILT. Finally, I am grateful to the

staff in Information Services at SCRE for their skilled and patient support in

editing and presenting the text.

They have all helped to stimulate the personal reflections contained in

these pages for which I alone, of course, accept full responsibility.

Richard Johnstone

October 1994

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