TV versus Classroom Instruction in Foreign Language

Abstract

SOME RATHER unexpected finding s were re ported in a study which sought to determine whether different learning conditions influence children's feelings about foreign language l. The findings sug gested that studying FLES (foreign language in ele mentary school) by TV had produced negative atti tudes in pupils toward foreign language, while a classroom experience had developed more positive reactions. It was also found that pupils who did not study a foreign language had better at titudes than TV students. Briefly summarizing this study, the attitudes of several groups of elementary-school pupils toward foreign language were compared0 Three groups were involved: 1) the TV'groupwas composed of fifth-grade classes which studied French three times a week by TV and had follow-up sessions with their classroom teacher; 2) the two-language group, located in the same schools, consisted of sixth graders who took French by TV and Spanish from a language teacher; 3) the no-lan guage' ' group contained fifthand sixth-grade classes in different schools where no foreign lan guage was studied. Questionnaires were administered to the three groups to determine the pupils' attitudes toward foreign language. Results showed that the two lan guage group had the most favorable attitudes toward foreign language, the no-language group was next, followed by the TV group, which had very negative attitudes and differed significantly from the other two groups. Because children who had not studied foreign language had better attitudes than TV stu dents, it seemed that TV lessons were contributing to negative attitudes toward foreign language. Fur ther support for this conclusion was that the two language group held such favorable attitudes, mak ing it appear that the live language lessons had off set negative feelings which might otherwise have developed because of the TV lessons.