'Springboard to languages' project evaluation (Phase 5)

This report summarises the findings from the fifth, and final, phase of the evaluation of the ‘Springboard to Languages’ Project (September 2010-September 2011). The evaluation focuses on children in Year 4 who have experienced the longest period of teaching by non-specialist teachers and who have not learned any other languages over the last three years. These factors suggested this cohort as a useful benchmark against which to compare the attitudes and performance of previous groups. The principal methodology adopted was think-aloud interviews. The findings of the evaluation show that pupils appear to be more prepared to engage with other languages than their counterparts learning French and have a different perception of the function of Esperanto as a tool for decoding other languages, rather than being merely a means of transactional communication. To those educationists for whom language awareness programmes would seem to be the way forwards in primary school this is an encouraging discovery.