ABSTRACT
The primary school curriculum itself, however, is in process of development. This chapter first considers the question in terms of the general development of the junior school curriculum, and secondly with reference to the role of children's interests and teachers' attitudes as factors which have particular relevance to the position of French. Success, or at least a positive attitude, depended upon the way the teacher allowed the learning within one activity to interact with other aspects of his learning. The chapter highlights the danger of adhering too narrowly to a limited range of procedures for presenting and exploiting the language, particularly if these are somewhat mechanical and repetitious, such as careful imitation of a recorded French voice. The implication for French teaching is not moonstudy in French but the time-honoured educational aspiration of harnessing the quality, intensity and productive power of children's interests to a particular activity or purpose.
