Applied linguistics and language learning/teaching
OPTIMUM AGE
Factors relevant to the optimum-age problem
The range of factors taken into account was hinted at above in our discussion of the optimum age for starting a second/foreign language in an Australian secondary school. In relation to that school they include:
1. the educational The project described was school-based, and therefore subject to the relevant institutional constraints of what can be done in the school setting, including what kind of measurement was acceptable, tests, interviews and so on.
2. the social and sociolinguistic It was necessary to consider the status of the school, girls only, middle class, including a large proportion of migrant parents, independent and therefore not constrained by State regulations with regard to textbooks, hours of instruction, teacher qualifications, examinations, size of class, choice of target language, school resources available; attitudes of stakeholders to foreign language instruction, and especially to French which, in the Australian context, is seen as less instrumental than for example Indonesian or Japanese.
3. the psychological and psycho-linguistic At issue was the relevance of the sensitive or critical period, as well as the relevance of the age of starting a foreign language to the mode of learning; at issue also were findings from studies of second-language acquisition research.
4. the anthropological and cultural Two aspects here were particularly relevant, the issue of the language classrooms in the school under study as independent cultural communities and the need to investigate these communities using ethnographic techniques; and the role more generally of culture, in this case French culture, however interpreted, in supporting and facilitating the learning of the language.
5. the political Quite apart from its role in Australia as still the most prestigious foreign language taught in schools and therefore potentially advantaged as against other foreign languages, even those with large numbers of bilingual or ‘background’ speakers, French in Australia has in the last three years been under strain because of the French Government’s insistence on carrying out controlled nuclear explosions on one of its last colonial territories in the South Pacific. As a result, some Australia-based French restaurants and other businesses suffered during this period. It was therefore relevant to investigate whether this negative attitude carried over into school French language learning.
6. the religious Unlike Italian, which has a largely Catholic client base and Hebrew, which is studied largely by Jews, French seems to be neutral with regard to religion.
7. the economic Given the current emphasis in education on marketing products for customers, it was necessary to investigate whether French was seen as instrumental, that is vocationally well placed, and what reasons children and their parents might have in choosing French rather than another language, since the school offered a choice of six languages in its secondary department.
8. the business aspect More relevant perhaps in a private language school which tailors its courses to the fluctuations in student demand and market share.
9. the planning/policy aspect Within the context of a national language policy, it was necessary to consider the school’s overall curriculum in order to determine whether there was indeed a plan which incorporated work in the primary and secondary departments or whether the various components at the two levels had evolved unplanned. It seemed likely that the teachers who raised the problem in the first instance were convinced that there was no single plan which encompassed both primary and secondary departments; the question that needed addressing therefore was whether this was the case and to consider whether it was necessary to bring to bear techniques derived from the planning literature.
10. the linguistic Relevant here were the materials used to teach French in the primary and secondary departments as well as in the two streams, Beginners and Continuers in the first two years of the secondary department. It turned out that both streams used the same textbooks. Relevant also were the models of French, in particular whether native-speaking teachers (and which kinds of native speaker) were used at the two levels and in the two streams. It was also important to examine the judgements made of the children’s spoken French by their teachers, and whether similar judgements were being made at the primary and secondary levels.
