ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of student grouping in modern foreign languages (MFL) teaching and learning framed by findings from educational research.
The political context
The question about the most effective organisational, i.e. grouping, arrangements for students1 for educational purposes has been a key concern for some time now, but particularly since the comprehensivisation of the education system in Britain from the mid 1960s. Whilst the 1944 Butler Act put in place an organisational structure characterised by streaming into different types of secondary schools, i.e. the grouping of students by age, aptitude and ability into grammar schools, secondary modern or technical schools, the so-called Crossland Circular encouraged Local Education Authorities to set up a comprehensive system bringing together students from different social strata, with students with special educational needs being educated in special schools. This move was motivated by ideological as well as social considerations, ‘using bright middle-class children as an asset for the educational system, to be distributed like fertiliser to help the poorer children grow’ (Davies, 1999b).
