the respondents’ answers to the questions which follow as 57% of respondents stated
that they have never been aware of the existence of the curriculum document (see
appendix IV, p. 116, table 27), while only 16% stated that the curriculum booklet is
available to them for consultation (see appendix IV, p. 116, table 28). Therefore, it
could be assumed that respondents have a rather intuitive knowledge of what the aims
and objectives of the language programme they have been implementing might be.
Moreover, as according to Richards (2001: 256), in the cases where a curriculum is
not well defined, the objectives of a language programme are determined by the
textbook which is used, there is the possibility that the respondents’ beliefs
concerning the aims and objectives of the curriculum have been influenced by the
official teaching material they have been using.
3.1.1.1.3.Beliefs concerning learning in general and language learning in particular
(answers to questions 29-57)
There is a great majority of respondents (70%) who believe that children need
to be taught in order to learn (see appendix IV, p. 116, table 29), while 54% see
learning as the pouring of information from teacher to learner (see appendix IV, p.
117, table 30), what Littlejohn and Windeatt (1989: 169) refer to as a ‘bucket theory’
of learning, which reflects behaviouristic assumptions about learning (see section
1.1.1). However, quite inconsistently, 62% of respondents agree with the statement
that children need to be given the chance to discover things for themselves (see
appendix IV, p. 117, table 31), this time adopting a creative construction model (see
section 1.2.2.1). Concerning the view that children are different to adults in certain
respects, 84% of respondents agree that they cannot understand abstract concepts,
such as grammatical rules, as adults do (see appendix IV, p. 117, table 32), 77% agree
that the children’s perception of the world around them is limited and, therefore, they
need to be engaged in here-and-now events (see appendix IV, p. 117, table 33), while
almost half of them (46%) adopt the view that children need more time to think than
adults (see appendix IV, p. 118 table 34). Moreover, 94% of respondents believe that
teachers should modify their language when talking to Young Learners in order to
make it more comprehensible (see appendix IV, p. 123, table 55). Concerning whether
children can take responsibility for their own learning, 41% of respondents believe
that children are too young to decide what to learn and how to learn it (see appendix
IV, p. 119, table 38). Where almost all respondents (89%) seem to agree is that
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