Teaching Modern Languages at ...

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Teaching Modern Languages at Primary School
Approaches and Implications
Richard Johnstone
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SCRE Publication 121
Practitioner MiniPaper 14
First published 1994
Series Editors:
Wynne Harlen
Rosemary Wake
ISBN 0 947833 97 8
© The Scottish Council for Research in Education 1994
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
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.
ii
 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
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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
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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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