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Pupils’ Perceptions of Foreign LanguageLearning at 12 +: some genderdifferencesRobert C. Powell & Julia D. BattersPublished online: 06 Jul 2006.

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Educational S t u d i e s , vol. 11, no. 1 , 1 9 8 5 1 1

Pupils' Perceptions of ForeignLanguage Learning at 12 +:some gender differencesROBERT C. POWELL & JULIA D. BATTERS

INTRODUCTION

(a) Changing methodology and pupil attitudes

Successful foreign language learning in the formal context of a Secondary school classroom isdependent on many factors. Among the learner variables in empirical research studies offoreign language acquisition, factors such as intelligence (Genesee, 1978), aptitude (Green,1975; Buckby, 1981) and memory (Stevick, 1976; Melvin & Rivers, 1976) have regularly beenunder consideration. Societal factors such as a parental support (Green, 1975) socio-economicgrouping (Burstall et ai, 1974) and teacher-pupil interaction (Wragg, 1970; Bailey, 1975;Partington, 1981; Allwright, 1984) have also, justifiably, been the subject of much study anddebate.

However, discussions on language teaching methodology have tended recently to highlightthe affective variables which advance or constrain learning (Krashen, 1981; Powell & Little-wood, 1982; Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Gregg, 1984; Gardner, Lalonde & Pierson, 1983). Overthe past 10 years or so, language teachers have increasingly disregarded the highly structuredapproaches of audio-visual or audio-lingual methods whose development was underpinned bybehaviourist psychology. With the emphasis now less on formal repetition and pattern practiceof grammatical and syntactical items and more on communicative goals and the comprehen-sion of authentic language, classroom activities are now more likely to make demands onpupils' willingness to absorb the foreign culture and to identify with and emulate the speakersof the target language. The foreign language classroom itself, traditionally a place where atransmission style of teaching predominated (Barnes et ai, 1971), is becoming a base whereindividualised or collaborative learning is less rare an occurrence, where pair-work, role-playand simulations are rapidly becoming standard procedure. It seems timely, therefore, to re-examine learners' attitudes, especially with regard to ethnocentricity, self-image and involve-ment in oral work.

Links between attitudes and proficiency in learning languages are well established in theliterature. However, the bulk of empirical investigations have been carried out among studentsin higher education (Ake, 1982; Gardner et al, 1983), among adult learners (Naiman el al,1978), or under conditions that bear little resemblance to the classrooms of British Secondaryschools; for example, in bilingual socio-cultural settings (Clement et al., 1977) or immersion

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12 Educational Studies

programmes (Tucker, Hamayan & Genesee, 1976). Certainly foreign language education inBritain does not have the support of extensive empirical research studies. Of course, in the late1960s and early 1970s, Burstall's evaluation of the Primary French project (Burstall, 1970;Burstall et al., 1974) did explore many aspects of motivation including integrative andinstrumental attitudes among upper Primary and lower Secondary school pupils. The impor-tance of a successful start to foreign language learning with resultant positive attitudes was oneamong a number of important conclusions. Since then there have been very few major researchstudies conducted at Secondary school level.

(b) Sex differences in take-up and attitude

One pressing reason for reassessing the pupil perspective of foreign languages is the apparentdecline in the popularity of subjects such as French and German. This is particularly noticeableamong male students. A far greater number of boys than girls elect to discontinue the study ofa language beyond the normal option stage at 13 or 14 years of age. The growing imbalancebetween the sexes in terms of candidature for examination at 16+ and 18+ was noted in aDES consultative paper issued in 1983 (DES, 1983). For example, whereas the percentage ofgirls attempting an examination in French at age 16 rose from 29-7% in 1971 to 40-3% of theschool population in 1981, the percentage rise for boys over the same period was minimal:0-3%, and this despite reorganisation of secondary schooling accessing currently about 90% ofpupils to study of a foreign language at the age of 11, and an increasing school population.Figures for examination entries at 18+ show a decline for both sexes: from 4-4 to 41% amongthe girls and from 2-3 to 1-4% for boys over the same 10-year period. This state of affairsprompted HMI to conduct its own survey of schools in order to ascertain and describe thoseconditions which appear to favour the continuation of foreign language learning by both girlsand boys. There is, however, still need for research at school level which focusses on theattitudes, aspirations and attainment of pupils especially during the transition period fromcompulsory to optional language study. Such research as exists is rather limited in scope.Beswick (1976) monitored two cohorts of pupils learning French in seven boys' schools andeight mixed schools in order to ascertain the polarisation of pupils' attitudes and achievementand to compare mixed and single-sex schooling. He concluded that the overall superiority ofthe girls in attitude and performance appeared to be particularly accentuated in the mixedschool. Morris (1978) examined the attitudes to French at the transfer point between middleschool (9-13 years) and high school (13-18 years) of 374 pupils in the north of England.Whereas boys' attitudes were never very positive and declined after transfer, he found that thegenerally favourable attitudes of girls also declined as their ethnocentricity increased with age.Eardley (1984) surveyed the attitudes of 388 sixth form students in Wales in an attempt toidentify the principal reasons for the failure of languages to attract recruits to Advanced levelcourses. For many stated reasons there were noticeable sex differences but no tests for statisticalsignificance were applied. Of course, in many cases, the results of studies at this more advancedlevel merely are governed by and confirm decisions made much earlier in a pupil's schooling. Inhis evaluation of the implementation of teaching French by graded objectives in the north ofEngland, Buckby (1981) focussed particularly on the effects of this form of syllabus design andtesting on the attitudes of pupils in the lower school. The principal successes of the scheme, heclaimed, were the increased positive attitudes generally, and, notably, in the narrowing of thetraditional gap between boys' and girls' attitude scores. Small-scale studies in comprehensiveschools in the south-west of England have also highlighted sex differences in attitudes tolanguages and tended to confirm the belief that by the time young people are asked to choose

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Educational Studies, vol. \\,no. 1, 1985 13

their examination courses for the fourth and fifth years many, especially the boys, have verynegative attitudes and low expectations (Powell & Littlewood, 1982).

THE PROJECT

The research described below is part of a number of studies which aim to monitor curriculumorganisation and pupil attitudes to, and interest in, foreign languages. The two year periodleading to the option choices is considered a crucial phase. The research is proceeding by meansof teacher and pupil questionnaires, classroom observation and structured interviews. Thisarticle reports work being done in mixed comprehensive schools which are operating patterns ofprovision for languages which may be deemed somewhat different from the usual. By far themost common arrangement for languages tends to be a year or less of French in mixed abilityteaching groups followed by some form of fine setting, and the addition of German or Spanishas second foreign language in year 3. The less usual forms of organisation operating in the sixcase-study schools are as follows:

A foreign language is a core curriculum subject for the 11-16 age range.French and German are each designated first foreign language and a free choice is given toeach new intake.French and German both have first language status but each is available to only half theintake every year.German, instead of French, is the first foreign language throughout the school.Broad banding operates throughout the first three years of study.Some pupils are setted by sex for foreign languages.

Here, we report the initial part of this particular research, the attitude survey. Thispreliminary survey fixed attitudes at a common point in each of the schools, namely thebeginning of the second year, with the intention of drawing comparisons at the end of the thirdyear. It was also used as one of a set of means for identifying pupils for further detailed study.From a total raw attitude score obtained for each pupil high and low scores were singled out ineach school, and from the pupils thus isolated subjects for observation in their foreign languageclasses and for interview were selected. As well as being of interest on an individual basis theresponses to the attitude questionnaire were processed globally and subjected to quantitativeanalysis.

SUBJECTS

Six mixed comprehensive schools in the south-west participated in the attitude survey. A totalof 953 pupils (459 boys, 494 girls) were involved in the completion of the attitude questionnairewhich was administered, in all but one school, during October and November of their secondyear of language study. In school D pupils were surveyed in the penultimate week of their firstyear while they were still being taught in mixed classes, prior to being setted by sex from thebeginning of the second year. The average age of the pupils was 12 years nine months.

Details of the six schools involved in the survey are given below. All the schools were locatedwithin a 40 mile radius and displayed a range of similarities and differences relating to theirevolution as comprehensive schools, their catchment area, staffing, size and ethos. For thepurposes of reporting pupil differences in a number of attitudinal constructs, however, theinevitable differences between schools are not considered unduly to influence our conclusionsespecially as regards those findings in the sphere of pupil self-image and ethnocentricity.

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School A

Group 12 11-18 mixed comprehensive on two sites. Location: small town within commuter beltof city.First foreign language: French. Option system designed to support strongly continued studyof the language.Second foreign language: German. Offered to most able year 3.Foreign language classes set from the beginning of the second year.Seven foreign language staff: four female (one part-time), three male.Number of pupils involved in the research: 104 boys, 112 girls.

School B

Group 10 inner-city purpose-built 11-18 mixed comprehensive. Opened 1977.First foreign language: French. Core subject 11-16.Second foreign language: Spanish. Offered to most able year 3.Foreign language classes in broad bands from the beginning of the second year.Six foreign language staff: four female, two male.Number of pupils involved in the research: 84 boys, 91 girls.

School C

Group 9 inner-city 11-18 mixed comprehensive. Previously all girls' school. Mixed since 1981.First foreign language: French. Taught to all pupils year 1.Second foreign language: German. Offered to most able year 3.Foreign language classes streamed from year 2.Three foreign language staff: two female, one male.Number of pupils involved in the research: 40 boys, 55 girls.

School D

Group 12 rural 11-18 mixed comprehensive.First foreign language: French and German equal status. Pupils' choice. Taught to all pupilsyears 1-3.Second foreign language: French or German offered to most able year 2.Foreign language classes set from beginning of year 2. French taught in single sex groups year2 (first foreign language pupils).Nine foreign language staff: six female (two part-time), three male.For the purposes of this research only pupils learning French as their first foreign languageare being monitored.Number of pupils involved in the research: 53 boys, 65 girls.

School E

Group 12 rural 11-18 mixed comprehensive.First foreign language: French and German equal status. Taught to all pupils years 1-3.Second foreign language: French or German offered to most able year 3.Foreign language classes finely set from Christmas in the first year.

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Six foreign language staff: two female, four male (one part-time).Number of pupils involved in the research: 83 boys, 67 girls.

School F

Group 12 inner-city 11-18 mixed comprehensive. Fairly severe problems of falling rolls.First foreign language: German. Taught to all pupils years 1-3.Second foreign language: French. Offered to most able year 2.Seven foreign language staff: four female, three male.Foreign language classes set from the beginning of the second year.Number of pupils involved in the research: 95 boys, 104 girls.

THE INSTRUMENT

The questionnaire was in two sections. The first part elicited general information about thepupils such as name, class, age, and subject preferences. In the light of the strong correlationbetween socio-economic grouping and achievement in French noted by Burstall et al. (1974) aquestion was also included relating to parental occupation. In the event, however, teachers intwo of the schools expressed some reservations about including this variable, thus ruling out thepossibility of inter-school comparability or any overall comment. The work of Smith (1978), inreviewing the effect of school visits abroad on the attitudes towards foreign language learning,led to the inclusion of a question designed to find out if the pupils had ever been abroad and, ifso, whether on a school organised visit. In order to gauge pupil perception of gender differencesin the foreign language classroom, pupils were asked to state the gender of present and pastteachers, and to give their views on the relative achievements of the two sexes in language andthe importance for boys and girls of learning languages.

The second part of the questionnaire contained the attitude scale which consisted of 30statements, to which pupils responded on a three point scale. The five latent constructsrepresented by these randomly distributed items were those first used by Morris (1978), namely:Importance of the Foreign Language (IMPFL), Ethnocentricity (ETHFL), Self-image in theForeign Language (SIMFL), Attitudes towards writing in the Foreign Language (ATTWRI)and Attitudes towards Oral Work in the Foreign Language (ATTORAL).

RESULTS

Pupil preferences

After questions relating to personal details, pupils were asked to provide some informationrelating to their subject preferences. The extent to which a foreign language is a relativelyunpopular subject, even after only one year's study, soon became apparent, for a language wascited as being least favourite subject for 141 pupils (14-8%). If the tallies for the items 'I alsohave a strong disliking for' and 'I also dislike' are added to those for 'least favourite subject'across the school population we find 358 pupils (37-4%) expressing some dislike of a language.Tables I and II summarise the responses in this section of the questionnaire.

The degree to which a foreign language is viewed as unpopular differed from school to schoolbut the fact that so many pupils rated it so poorly after only one year's contact with the 'new'subject must be a matter of real concern to language techers. As expected, girls were more likelyto express a positive preference for a language than boys, 24 of them giving it favourite subjectstatus as opposed to only seven boys.

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TABLE I. Popularity of a foreign language

Favourite subjectNext favouriteLike subject

Total likes

Boys

73650

93

%

1-57-8

10-9

20-2

Girls

246463

151

%

4-812-912-7

30-4

All pupils

31100113

244

%

3-210-511-8

25-5

TABLE II. Unpopularity of a foreign language

Boys % Girls % All pupils %

Least favouritesubjectStrong dislikeDislike subject

Total dislikes

Visits abroad

886044

192

19-213-19-5

41-8

535162

166

10-710-312-5

33-5

141111106

358

14-711-611-1

37-4

A remarkable number of pupils have been abroad by the age of 13; one can only speculate as tothe effects such contacts with a foreign culture may have on the pupil beginning his or herformal foreign language learning. During the first year of Secondary school, many schools makean effort to take their pupils abroad and in the survey schools no fewer than 249 pupils (26-1%)had been on an organised school visit, an event which is usually reserved for older children.

Pupil perception of gender differences

In the event the question relating to the gender of the language teacher produced nonoteworthy results overall. The only surprise was the number of pupils who, after only just 15months in Secondary school, had been taught a language by both female and male staff (519pupils, 54-4%). It is perhaps impossible to ascertain the extent to which a child's perception of aschool subject is influenced by the sex of the subject teacher. It would be foolhardy to suggestthat the predominance of female teachers in language departments increases the 'so-called'femininity of the subject, but that pattern is part of wider social sex-stereotyping of roles whichis bound to influence a child's view of the world. The fact that so many Heads of Departmentare male is another dimension of that social reality. By chance, in the language departments ofthe six schools there is a reasonable balance between female and male staff, with 20 women and16 men. This equal distribution of male and female staff certainly presents pupils with a moreneutral view of adult involvement in the language teaching world.

In the first part of the questionnaire there was also a section in which pupils were askedwhether they thought it made any difference being a girl or boy learning a foreign language,

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both in terms of the relative performance of the sexes ('I think boys/girls are better atlanguages') and in terms of the relative importance for either sex.

TABLE III. Pupil perceptions of relative performance of sexes in languages

Boys better Girls better No difference

Boys 2-2 4-8 40-9Girls 0-4 4-4 46-9All pupils 2-6 9-2 87-8

(0-4 missing values)

TABLE IV. Pupil perceptions of relative importance of languages for boysand girls

More important More important No differencefor boys % for girls % %

Boys 3-3 1-1 43-4Girls 0-5 2-2 49-1All pupils 3-8 3-3 92-5

(0-4 missing values)

The overwhelming rejection among 12-year-old pupils of any idea that one sex is more likelyto be better at languages than the other and, indeed, that it is more important for one sex tostudy languages is a noteworthy result of this enquiry. Where pupils did perceive differences itwas generally in support of their own sex, not unnaturally. There were a kw more boys thangirls (46:42) who considered girls to be better at languages, the bulk of these (31) coming fromschool A (18) and school F (13), the latter, incidentally, having German as first foreignlanguage. Elsewhere results from the six schools were very similar, with pupils at least at thisstage of their schooling not, apparently, recognising major differences between the needs andabilities of the sexes in the area of foreign languages.

PUPIL ATTITUDES

In the following tables results were obtained by means of the SPSS computer programme.Levels of significance are depicted by the following:

* significant at the 0-05 level,** significant at the 0-01 level,

*** significant at the 0-001 level.In this seven-item scale the maximum score of 21 indicates a very positive reaction as to the

importance of the foreign language, whereas the minimum score of 7 indicates a negativeattitude.

Table V shows that girls have a significantly more positive attitude for All schools: 15-7

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TABLE V. Importance of the foreign language

Pupils

Schools

A (French)B (French)C (French)D (French)E (French)E (German)F (German)All schools

Mean

14-514-413-115-715-114-513-714-4

Boys

SD

3-03-34-63-63-63-43-53-5

n

104844053443995

459

Mean

16-0***16-0***14-9*15-615-716-015-4***15-7***

Girls

SD

3-03-23-4302-93-23-23-1

n

1129155653631

104494

Wholepopulation

Mean

15-315-314-115-615-415-214-615-1

SD

303-34-03-33-33-33-33-3

n

21617595

1188070

199953

(£ = 0-0000) and in schools A: 16-0 0=0-0004), B: 16-0 (£ = 0-0012), C: 14-9 (£ = 00306), and F:15-4 (£ = 0-0008).

In school E boys learning French seem to rate French more important as a subject (15-1)than the boys learning German rate German (14-5). Conversely the girls learning German rateGerman as being more important (16-0) than the girls learning French do for French (15-7).Neither result is significant, but for both languages the girls' score is higher than the boys'(French: boys 15*1, girls 15-7) (German: boys 14-5, girls 16-0) depicting a more positive attitudeto the importance of foreign languages generally.

In school D the boys' score (15-7) is marginally higher than the girls' (15-6) from the sameschool, but much higher than the boys from all schools (14-4). It is possible that this resultindicates the enthusiasm we have already mentioned which is shown by the pupils in year 1and which quickly diminishes, especially for boys, throughout years 2 and 3. However, wouldthe decline in interest which we have come to expect manifest itself in such dramaticproportions over such a short time span as the four months separating the time of theadministration of the questionnaire in school D from that in the other schools? It seemsunlikely.

Ethnocentricity was measured (Table VI) on a five-item scale, a score of 15 indicating anoutward-looking pupil and a score of 5 indicating an ethnocentric pupil.

Again, the girls score significantly higher than the boys for all schools: 11-2 (£ = 0-0002) andin schools A: 11-5 (£ = 0-0339), B: 11-4 (£ = 000491), C: 10-3 (£ = 00444) and E (German): 11-8(£ = 0-0193). In schools D, E (French), and F the scores do not reach significance, but in eachcase the girls' score is higher, and therefore indicative of a more outward-looking attitude, thanthe boys.

This shows a greater desire expressed by the girls to meet and communicate with people fromthe country of their target language. It is interesting to note that in both cases of boys studyingGerman (schools E and F) the scores are fairly low (10-6 and 10-5 respectively) throwing intoquestion the popular notion that boys prefer German and Germany to French and France.

In this six-item scale (Table VII) a score of 18 indicates a good self-image related to foreignlanguage learning and a score of 6 indicates a poor self-image.

The All schools result: 12-4 (£ = 00000) and those of schools A: 12-4 (£ = 0-0143), B: 13-3(£ = 0-0001), C: 12-5 (£ = 00115), E (German): 12-6 (£ = 0-0385) and F: 11-8 (£ = 00415) show

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TABLE VI. Ethnocentricity

19

Pupils

Schools

A (French)B (French)C (French)D (French)E (French)E (German)F (German)All schools

TABLE VII.

Pupils

Schools

A (French)B (French)C (French)D (French)E (French)E (German)F (German)All schools

Mean

11-010-79-2

10-811-110-610-510-6

Self-image

Mean

11-711-810-912-611-711-311-111-6

Boys

SD

1-92-32-52-12-02-12-32-2

in the

Boys

SD

2-22-43-62-32-12-52-42-5

n

104844053443995

459

foreign

n

104844053443995

459

Mean

11-5*11-4*10-3*10-911-711-8**10-911-2***

language

Mean

12-4**13-3***12-5**12-012-112-6*11-8*12-4***

Girls

SD

1-71-92-42 01-81-92-12 0

Girls

SD

2-22-42-62-62-22-32-62-5

n

1129155653631

104494

n

1129155653631

104494

Wholepopulation

Mean

11-311-19-8

10-911-411-110-710-9

SD

1-82-12-4

2-11-92-02-22-1

Wholepopulation

Mean

12-012-611-812-311-911-911-512-0

SD

2-22-43-12-52-12-52-52-5

n

21617595

1188070

199953

n

21617595

1188070

199953

that girls' scores are significantly better than those of the boys in terms of self-image and foreignlanguage learning.

In school E (French) the girls score more (12-1) than the boys (11-7), although not to asignificant level. School D is once again the exception. The boys' score (12-6) is higher than thegirls' score from the same school (12-0). We might be tempted to attribute this result to the factthat the pupils in school D were still in their first year when asked to complete thequestionnaire—but again we must ask if the break of six weeks in the summer could bringabout such a change in attitude.

This is a six-item scale (Table VIII) where a score of 18 indicates a positive attitude towritten work and a score of 6 indicates a negative attitude.

The All schools result: 11-9 (£ = 0-0005) and the results of schools B: 12-6 (£ = 00332), C: 11-7(£ = 0-0031) and F: 11-6 (£ = 0-0128) show significantly more positive attitudes from the girlsthan from the boys towards writing in the foreign language.

In school E, the girls have more positive attitudes (French 12-0, German 12*5) than the boys(French 11-1, German 11-9), although neither result reaches any level of significance. Also inschool E there appears to be, on the part of both boys and girls, more positive attitudes towardswriting in German than towards writing in French.

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TABLE VIII. Attitude to writing in the foreign language

Pupils

Schools

A (French)B (French)C (French)D (French)E (French)E (German)F (German)All schools

Mean

11-611-89-9

11-611-111-910-711-3

Boys

SD

2 42-63-12-52-12-52-42-5

n

104844053443995

459

Mean

11-512-6*11-7**11-512012-511-6**11-9***

Girls

SD

2-22-52-72-42-32-52-22-4

n

1129155653631

104494

Wholepopulation

Mean

11-612-211-011-611-512-211-211-6

SD

2-32-52-92-42-22-52-32-5

n

21617595

1188070

199953

However, in schools A and D the boys show a slightly more positive (11-6 in both cases),although not significant, attitude towards writing in the foreign language in comparison withthe girls from both schools (11-5 in both cases).

In this six-item scale (Table IX) a score of 18 indicates a positive attitude to oral work and ascore of 6 indicates a negative attitude.

The only results from this table which show any significant differences are the results from allschools: 13-3 (p = 0-01) and from school C: 12-9 (p = 0-0133) where girls score more positivelythan boys.

In schools A (13-3), B (13-7), E (French 13-6, German 13-6) and F (12-8), girls seem to have aslightly more positive attitude than the boys (A: 13-2, B: 13-2, E (French): 13-1, E (German):13-1, F: 12-5), but none of the cases reaches any level of significance.

In school D the boys have a slightly more positive attitude to oral work than the girls (13-3and 13-2 respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

In general, the results shown by this survey of 953 pupils closely reflect those obtained byMorris in his survey of 374 pupils at 13+ (Morris, 1978).

Despite the very strong rejection expressed by both boys and girls of the idea that one sex isbetter at learning a foreign language than the other, and that learning a foreign language ismore important for one sex than the other, the survey indicated that girls are more likely tofavour languages when asked to rank school subjects in order of preference.

The boys in the sample consistently score less than the girls on each of the sections of theattitude questionnaire, again suggesting that they are less favourably disposed towards foreignlanguage learning than the girls.

Results from the limited number of pupils in a position to comment on German as the firstforeign language suggest that there is no net gain to be had for either boys or girls by simplyteaching German instead of French as the first foreign language.

We recognise the difficulty for researchers in gaining a clear picture of pupils' perceptions ofsubjects taught in school, especially as regards sex differences. Peer group identity should not beunderestimated. Many pupils may be unable to distinguish between their loyalty to their own

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Educational Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 1985

TABLE IX. Attitude to oral work in the foreign language

21

Pupils

Schools

A (French)B (French)C (French)D (French)E (French)E (German)F (German)All schools

Mean

13-213-211-813-313-113-112-512-9

Boys

SD

2 02-22-72-11-72-12 02-2

n

104844053443995

459

Mean

13-313-712-9**13-213-613-612-813-3**

Girls

SD

1-91-71-72-02 02-11-91-9

n

1129155653631

104494

Wholepopulation

Mean

13-313-412-413-213-313-312-613-1

SD

1-92-02-22-01-92-12-02-0

n

21617595

1188070

199953

sex and their true feelings about the performance of the opposite sex. Clearly it is too simplisticto suggest that the language drop-out problem among boys is merely a result of pupils'subconscious labelling of subjects as masculine or feminine.

From the results of the attitude scale we can see that the greatest difference between boys'and girls' scores occurs in 'Importance of the foreign language' (Table V), where boys ratelearning a foreign language as far less important a task than the girls do. However, the leastdifference in scores between the boys and the girls occurs in 'Attitudes to oral work' (Table IX),where the positive attitude expressed by the girls in this case is shared by most of the boys inthe sample.

Equally Table IX seems to demonstrate, of all those results obtained, the most consistentscores between schools. These results must lead us to believe that of all the tasks pupils areasked to do in a foreign language class, anything involving oral work is to be encouraged, as itis in this area that all pupils are likely to respond most favourably, at least during the earlystages of language learning.

The assertion that boys are reacting as positively as girls to oral work, and much morepositively than they do to other aspects of foreign language learning seems strongly tocontradict evidence put forward in the past. This suggested that boys were reluctant toparticipate in oral work due to resentment of exposure to possible ridicule in the classroom(Powell & Littlewood, 1982). However, our results concern pupils early on in their second year,whereas previous studies concerned third year pupils. It is plausible that with the onset ofpuberty attitudes to participation in group work will change rapidly—all the more reason,therefore, why the areas likely to prove troublesome or demotivating from year 3 should beexploited to the full during years 1 and 2, in order to provide a much stronger base for futurework.

We have noted that second year pupils are positive towards oral work in the foreign languageand that this attitude is likely to be short-lived. Yet, despite the present emphasis oncommunicative competence and the attempt to 'decentralise' from the teacher to pupil groupor paired work, it tends still to be the teacher who is doing most of the talking most of the time.

Observational studies now under way in the six schools should be able to shed some light onthe way the pupils in this survey are participating in oral work and whether other attitudinalfeatures remain constant or vary significantly over the course of the two year pre-option period.

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22 Educational Studies

SUMMARY

In the light of recent changes in language teaching methodology which emphasise communicative goals, itis appropriate to re-examine some of the affective variables likely to influence a pupil's progress in foreignlanguage acquisition. Another pressing reason for reassessing the pupil perspective of foreign languagelearning is the apparent increase in the numbers of pupils, notably boys, who are opting out of languagesat the earliest opportunity.

The two year period leading to option choices is considered a crucial stage for the formation of pupilattitudes towards languages. This article reports the first stage of research being conducted in six mixedcomprehensive schools all of which operate different patterns of provision and organisation for languages.An attitude survey was conducted involving 953 12-year-old pupils at the beginning of their second yearof French or German. More girls than boys expressed a positive preference for foreign languages. Themajority of pupils, however, rejected any idea that one sex is more likely to be better at languages thanthe other. The five constructs measured by the attitude scale were the Importance of languages,Ethnocentricity, Self-image, Attitudes to writing, and Attitudes to oral work. Boys consistently scored lessthan girls in each of these sections, the greatest difference being in Importance of languages, the leastdifference, surprisingly perhaps, being in Attitudes to oral work.

Correspondence: R. C. Powell, School of Education, University of Bath, Claverton Down, BathBA2 7AY, England.

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