Les langues vivantes dans l’enseignement primaire au Royaume-Uni

This chapter presents an overview of foreign language teaching in primary schools. The research explores the nature of teacher expertise through two contrasting approaches to teaching languages. The data for the study was gathered using observation and interview techniques in an ethnographic comparative case study. The findings suggest that the teacher’s subject knowledge has a powerful effect on the teaching processes and is a key factor in determining the nature of provision. There are advantages to both the specialist and the generalist approaches. The expertise of the specialist teachers derives from years of commitment to linguistic excellence and personal involvement with the target country which affects their beliefs and attitudes to the subject and informs the way they teach. The specialists tend to be much more preoccupied with pupils’ performance and measurable outcomes in the language in comparison with the generalist teachers. The generalist teachers have a wealth of knowledge to teach a range of complex processes and concepts in other subjects so that pupils across a wide ability range can readily access the foreign language and engage in the learning activities. The generalist teacher is also well placed to integrate the foreign language throughout the day and link it to other curriculum subjects as a consequence language learning takes place outside of the timetabled slots, which increases the time spent on learning.