Thesis
The pedagogy and implementation of Modern Languages in the Primary School : pupil attitudes and teachers' views
- Creator
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2009
- Thesis identifier
- T12373
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis explores the attitudes of pupils in primary six and primary seven towards Modern Languages in Primary Schools (MLPS, French and German) in ten of the 32 councils in Scotland. It looks at their attitudes to a variety of activities within each of the four skill areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing. It also analyses their overall attitude, their perception of difficulty and their language preferences, as well as their reasons and motivation for wanting to learn a language. Following an analysis of the views of all 974 pupils, further assessments were carried out to ascertain if, where and when there were differences in attitudes between boys and girls at this stage of primary education. Additionally, statistical tests were carried out to identify if there were any differences, taking account of socio-economic factors, as had been identified in previous studies. The thesis also explores a number of areas, identified in the literature review, with the teachers of P6 and P7. It analyses what the forty-three teachers report they are actually doing in the modem language lesson and their reasons, as well as their views of aspects of implementation. The thesis concludes with the identification of positive findings about MLPS but also some concerns, some of which repeat problems of past initiatives. It puts forward possible solutions to some of these problems as well as an alternative approach to teaching languages in the upper stages of the primary school. It identifies areas which need to be addressed by teachers and policy-makers and areas where further research is required.
- Resource Type
- Note
- Scanned copy in 2 volumes.
- DOI
- EThOS ID
- uk.bl.ethos.510692
- Date Created
- 2009
- Former identifier
- 801222