Planning for Success : an Investigation into the Management, Organisation and Feasibility of Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Primary School.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate modern foreign language teaching in the primary sector, in order to establish the factors that are critical to successful learning. Overviews of the developing histories of primary education, modern foreign language education and primary modern foreign language teaching are presented, in order to provide a picture of how and why current pedagogy exists. The critical period hypothesis, a claim that argues how young children possess an innate ability to acquire second and subsequent languages effortlessly, has led to assumptions about the success of primary modern foreign language teaching. Theories of language acquisition that have underpinned developments since the 1960s have been included in this study, so that false assumptions may be avoided. The empirical investigation draws on data collected over a period of four academic years, from numerous sources, by means of interview, observation and questionnaire. A set of critical success factors at the managerial and organisational level are established and then tested in the latter phases of the research. It is intended that conclusions about the current state of primary modern foreign language provision in this country may be drawn, and the feasibility of future successful provision may be assessed. It is argued in this research that individual schools and teachers cannot, by themselves, provide effective primary modern foreign language education to the same standard for all pupils, without official inclusion of modern foreign languages in the primary curriculum. The findings support this view. The primacy of a sound and sustainable managerial and organisational framework and the dangers of failure in ad hoc experimentation emerge as key considerations. The Joint Schools Council / Nuffield Foundation Pilot Scheme in primary French of the 1960s and the Nuffield Languages Inquiry of the late 1990s feature as critical moments in the developments under investigation.