An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

5.1 Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC)
This school, in Melbourne, is a large independent girls’ school (N=1200) with both
primary and secondary departments. It offers six languages at secondary (Years
7–12). One foreign language, French, is also offered in the primary school (Hill
et al. 1997).
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Observations by the language teachers had indicated that after two years in the
secondary school girls who had studied French in the primary school appeared to be
performing at the same level in all four skills as those who had begun French in the
secondary school. The only observed advantage for early starters was in pronun -
ciation. Differences of course there were, but these appeared to be individual rather
than group related. 
The primary campus of PLC offers French from pre-Prep (three-year-olds) to
Grade 6 and the senior campus both Beginners’ French and Continuing French in
Years 7 and 8 and then combines the two streams in Years 9–12.
The usual practice at PLC is to separate beginners from continuing learners in
order to maintain and develop the advanced skills of the more experienced learners.
As has been said, by the end of Year 8, in the view of the teachers, there is no longer
any need to keep the two strands separate. Both use the same textbooks in Years 7–8;
both start at the beginning of new texts in Year 7. It is, however, expected that the
continuing learners will treat the earlier parts of the textbooks as revision and move
faster than the beginners.
If the critical period hypothesis is correct, then we might expect those children
who start French early (in the primary school) to be at an advantage when they reach
the secondary school. They appear not to be. Teachers are sceptical (indeed second -
ary teachers are often sceptical of primary school language learning). They may be
wrong to be sceptical but to the applied linguist their scepticism is one factor in the
situation: it contributes to the ‘language problem’ as do the qualifications of teachers
in the primary and secondary department, the teaching materials used in both, the
measures used to determine progress and the aims of the French teaching programme
in the primary and the secondary schools, whether they are in harmony or not. It is
possible that what counts as doing well at French in the primary school (being
communicative in the spoken language for example) differs from doing well in the
secondary school (accuracy in the grammar of the written language, perhaps). 
The situation of a private girls’ school, with its own primary and secondary
departments, where there is keenness to learn French and resources are ample is
on the face of it an ideal setting for the critical period to operate. It appears not to.
For the applied linguist this is a problem that invites explanation and that neatly
combines theoretical interest and practical involvement.