The article actualizes the problem of studying English at primary school. The principles of forming basic listening and speaking skills in English at primary school are considered. It was noticed that initial communicative skills are being formed with a help of enrichment of vocabulary, pronunciational skills and realization of speaking skills in elementary situations of communication in the context of definite thematic minimum. The samples of exercises and game communicative situations that are directed on the forming of basic listening and speaking skills are presented.
Early English learning is one of the priority directions in educational policy of Kazakhstan. At the same time nowadays two stages of early English learning are neatly determined: pre-school education (from 5 till entering the school) and early school education (primary school). On the majority experts’ opinion, the foundation of language and speaking skills of children that are necessary for studying of foreign language is laid exactly at this stage. Investigators made a purposeful analysis of availability of schools to the systematic organization of early English learning that revealed the number of reasons of insufficient efficiency of teaching process of English language at primary school [1]. The mentioned reasons include the following:
- teachers have insufficient knowledge about age-related peculiarities of the students. In this case teachers perform the lesson like the usual one, without sufficient amount of games, songs and etc. As a result children are not interested in learning language;
- low, unsatisfying level of foreign language assimilation by students in accordance with requirements of communication (students don’t have an opportunity to use language as means of communication).
Renovated State obligatory standard of primary education is directed on the forming of basis of communicative competence through the development of 4 types of speech activity (listening, speaking reading and writing). In general educational program of English language that was worked out for pilot schools for approbation of renovated State obligatory standard, the forming of initial communicative skills for exchanging of information, understanding the meaning of phrases and expressing and using them in the definite situations is determined as one of the main goals of English teaching at primary school [2].
For successful solving of communicative problems during the English learning at the initial stage of learning, general educational program performs definite themes for communication in educational aims. Within the limits of communication students acquire skills of listening and speaking with a help of appropriate language materials. Themes for communication reflect the sphere of vital activity and interests of students that predetermine the content and volume of communication on the definite stage of learning. Set of themes, their character and volume depends on the age of junior students, their interests and language possibilities for exposure of the theme. The content of the communicative themes develops in the form of helical progression. For example, the development of one of the communicative themes is constructed in following consequence:
The 1st grade — «Objects around me» The 2nd grade — «My house»
The 3rd grade — «World around me» The 4th grade — «My country».
In elementary communicative situations initial communicative skills are formed with a help of enrichment of vocabulary, pronunciational skills and realization of speaking skills in elementary situations of communication in the context of definite thematic minimum.
Expected results of the subject «English language» are determined in accordance with learning course of European system of levels of language acquirement that supposes elementary level A (Basic User), А1 (Breakthrough) at primary school. Thus, in the process of listening the students understand the main content of short-termed conversation with familiar thematic content, identify the sounding of familiar words and phrases; understand short questions about colors and numbers; use context hints for prediction of content and meaning of brief conversation with familiar thematic content, understand the general meaning of short stories, that are sounded slow and distinctly. In the process of speaking the students formulate the main affirmations and statements about themselves, construct questions, answer the questions, pronounce main words and phrases during the describing of objects and events with correct intonation and stress, express feelings about what they like and what they don’t [3; 6]. Thus succession of not only the content of language education but processual aspects of English learning are envisaged [4].
For attaining of expected results of the subject «English language» at primary school it’s necessary to be guided be the following methodical principles, that are actualized through the minimization of learnings material and planning of educational process: communicative principle of learning, situationalthematical principle of material representation, functional principle, principle of integration, differential principle, principle of concentrism [5; 4].
Communicative principle is actualized through the using of role plays in the everyday situations, that are directed on the solving of communicative tasks, with a help of special prescribed language sources — active speech and active grammar material.
In accordance with the functional principle the language system is presented not as a lineal, but as maintaining the definite theme of microsystem of English language sources in different levels — lexical and syntactical. (through this framework — phonetic, word-forming, morphologic).
Principle of integration is actualized in the aspect of interconnected learning with the types of speech activity. Whereas separate types of speech activity are presented in close connection, methodists came to the well-formed conclusion about prospectively of interconnected learning of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The presence of correlating abilities that are necessary for reception and productive speech, and also community of mechanisms that are serving types of speech activity played an essential role in the reasoning and formation of methodology of interconnected learning. At the same time interconnected learning doesn’t exclude the learning that is directed on the development of the separate types of speech activity. Thus in accordance with general educational program of English language at primary school learning of listening and speaking is started at the 1st grade (on the principle of oral forestalling, acquaintance with English alphabet is started at the second semester, listening, speaking, reading and writing — 2nd — 4th grades
In the theory and assembled practice of foreign language teaching, interconnected learning is understood as learning that is directed on the collateral forming of 4 essential types of speech activity in the context of definite time — consequence correlation on the basis of general language material and with a help of series of special exercises.
Differential principle supposes the methods of functialsemantical presentation of new words of the one theme, that are distributed into microthemes, settings for visual sources, activation of new words ( active forms in the context of one thematic field) in the student’s speech at the beginning of vocabulary enrichment. The stage of enrichment of grammar system of the speech is characterized by methods of situational using of the most active types of elementary statements, spreading the basis of the sentence by concretized components (secondary members of the sentence); combining of two simple sentences in one complex. At the stage of development of dialogical communication abilities the methods of bedrock on the speech situations, activation of etiquette formulas are used; at the stage of development of monological speech the methods of bedrock on the expected structures of given texts for the definite theme.
Principle of concentrism during the teaching of English language at the primary school is actualized through the definite minimums for each grade: thematic and situational minimums, minimums of speech intensions, lexical and grammar minimums, dialogical and monological minimums (the content of each minimums for each grade is prepared in accordance with principle of succession).
One of the essential principles is communicative principle that is actualized through the using of role plays in the everyday situations that are directed on the solving of communicative tasks with a help of specially given language sources — active lexis and active grammar material. Иными словами, осуществляется приобщение младших учащихся к новому социальному опыту за счет проигрывания на английском языке различных ролей в игровых ситуациях, типичных для семейного, бытового, учебного общения.
The basis of any process of learning is communication. Nevertheless this communication is not usual educational one, but organized and managed in special way. In the scientificс-methodical literature several definitions of the «method of learning» notions are existed. They were determined by I.F. Harlamov, Babanskiy, A.Ilina, I.Y. Lerner and others. Generalizing all the notions that were given by these researchers we can determine «method of learning» as a system of regulative principles and rules of organization of pedagogical purposeful interaction between teacher and student that is used for the definite numbers of tasks of learning, development and education.
One of the most effective methods of foreign language teaching is communicative that is presented as teaching organized on the base of communicative tasks. In the theory of methods of communicative teaching the following regulations are mentioned:
- communicative direction of teaching of every type of speech activity and language sources;
- stimulating of intellectual students’ activity;
- individualization of learning;
- situational organization of the learning process;
- informativeness of educational material (I.L.Bim, E.I. Passov).
Given regulations can be added by other peculiarities of communicative learning that pay attention to the content and meaning of the statement. Speech context acquires particular meaning, grammar and fluency of expressing thoughts are developed, group works of performing the tasks are preferred, involuntary memorization is stimulated, personal content of learning communication is encouraged, the student is in the center of attention [6].
At the beginning of early English learning is oral speech (pronounced and perceived on hearing) as an object of investigation, inasmuch as perception precedes reproduction, understanding precedes speaking, speaking precedes writing.
Teaching to the listening should be realized in accordance with level of knowledge, interests, and necessity of students: short fairy-tales, brief stories, the description of animals, captivating stories and etc. The length of the text should be approximately 1 minute, the amount of listening — 2–3 times [7; 37].
Teaching to the speaking supposes the development of abilities of dialogical and monological speech: development of ability to perform a dialogue in etiquette form, dialogue — questioning, dialogue — inducement to the action, dialogue — exchange of opinions.
The development of monological speech at this stage of education is directed on the forming of abilities to construct elementary statements in the context of definite thematic situations: to introduce yourself, to give brief information about members of family, friends, animals and plants of the country. (day at work, hobbies, studying at school and etc.) [7; 37].
For teaching of listening at the beginning stage of English learning the system of exercises that includes the following regulations was worked out:
preparatory exercises for the recognition of phonetical units;
preparatory exercises for the recognition of lexical units;
preparatory exercises for development of abilities of probabilistic forecasting;
exercises for recognition of grammar elements, speaking exercises, accomplished in the process of listening, speaking exercises, accomplished after listening of the text [8].
For forming of elementary skills of listening at primary school the following exercises were chosed:
Preparatory exercises for the recognition of phonetical units:
To listen sounds and define (to give sign, to raise a hand, to show the card) vowel and consonant sounds:
[r], [a:], [h], [t], [m], [?], [u], [i:], [^], etc.
To listen and define the amount of:
dog, doctor, farmer, cunning, bicycle, fat, etc.
To listen and define the syllable under the stress, to pronounce the syllable and the word: Ugly, cunning, doctor, tomato, etc.
Exercises for physical minute:
To listen the word and raise hands, if you listen the letter [n] in the pronounced word by teacher, to squat, if there is no such sound;
To listen words and define the endings of each word [d] or [t]: stopped, played, worked, opened...
To listen and select the nouns, that have endings of plural number: Monkeys, pigs, hen, boy, farms, trousers, skirt, shoes etc.
Preparatory exercises for the recognition of lexical units:
To listen sentences and color the objects in appropriate colors: The lamp is yellow.cat is black.dog is black.
To listen the set of separate words and construct sentences from the words: The forest, monkey, live, in. — Monkey lives in the forest.
To listen the story and define the speaker:
I am big and strong. I am brown. I live in the forest. I like honey. (А bear).
Preparatory exercises for development of abilities of probabilistic forecasting:
To listen the beginning of the word and pronounce it fully, to finish the word: Beauti... ful, eleph... ant, interes… ting, marme...lade, mush... room etc.
To listen the phrase and add one more to the given phrase, to choose with right meaning: Look at this boy. .... He is my friend. Или His name is Dick. ( thus the story can be made)
To listen the beginning of the sentence and finish it, with a help of conjuctions and conjunctional words: He is at home now, because... ( he is ill).
Exercises for recognition of grammar elements:
To listen the sentence and define the type of the (affirmative, negative, interrogative), to show the signal card « + », « », « ? ».
To listen the question and choose the short answer in appropriate grammar form (with a help of visual material): he/she is.you play tennis? Yes, he/she can., he/she has., he/she does.
To fulfil the table (graph, cluster) with necessary information after listening the dialogue.
- Speaking exercises, accomplished after listening of the text:
(directed on the controlling the understanding and involving the students in the process of creative activity)
Exercises — tests TRUE — FALSE;
Answer the questions;
To evaluate the actions of characters.
The process of learning of listening and speaking for children is composed from communicative situations, that are differed by the types of activity, type of communication, using of visual or audio sources (especially visual sphere has a big potential) by roles and behavior of the particaptors по ролям и поведению коммуникантов. The drama of educational communication requires carefulness in choosing and using the speech samples (in accordance with age, interests, the degree of students’ activity and etc.).
Students study to name actions accomplished by the person, animal; to inform about location of an object, toy, person; to inform about yourself, members of family, friend (name, activity of the person, description of the person); to describe the things (name, color, size, the purpose), define the time of action (time of year, month, day); to find the information about what it is, who it is, the age, what kind of person. The content of learning is actualized through the playing atmosphere in the way to stimulate the motivation for using of foreign language, to develop verbal, literary creation, to promote the forming of abilities of the communicative equally behavior in children’ collective.
Communicative situations are created in playing form. It is the most effective way of involving students in the communicational process. For developing listening and speaking skills during the foreign language learning of students from the 1st till the 4th grades the following games were chosen:
«Introductions». Teacher offers to everybody to sit in a circle and explains, that students should make an acquaintance: «Introduce yourselves to one another, and give yourselves numbers. Say, I am Victor, number one, I am Katya, number two, and so on». Students sit down and start to introduce themselves. One of the students is left without a chair — he is a leader. He walks around and talks with players:
It: Number 3.Number 3: I am Lena.
It: Number 3, sit down. Number 10. Number 10: I am Kolya. It: Number 10, sit down.
When the leader blunts the students’ watchfulness, he says: «Number 11, number 6 — change places». Called students execute the command and the leader tries to sit on the someone’s place. The player that is left without chair is the next leader [8; 15].
«Guess the voice». Misha comes to the blackboard and turns his back upon a class. Teacher with gesture points at Katya and she says: «Good morning, Misha». Misha should guess whose voice was it. «Good morning, Katya», he answers. Katya comes to the blackboard. Students can change their places around the class and change their voices. Students uses the forms of greetings: How do you do, Good afternoon, Good morning, Good evening, Good-bye [8; 17].
«We Can Eat Bread». «Look, this is bread. I can eat it», says the teacher, put it into the mouth and eat it. Teacher can do the same with cheese. Then the teacher takes a pen and plays as she tries to eat it, repeating one sentence: We can eat a pen». «No», say students all together. Then the teacher gives counters to every student and says that when she says about eatable thing students should raise their hands, and if students raise their hands when teacher says about not eatable things, they should return their counters.
Teacher: We can eat butter. We can eat jam. We can eat chalk. Oh, Andy, give me your counter, please [8; 18].
«Simon Says». Once upon a time, a little funny man appeared in the teacher’s hands.
Children, look at this man. His name is Simon. And he is a teacher now. You must obey only his commands. Simon says, «Stand up!»’ Good! Simon says, «Hands up!». Good! Sit down! Why did you sit down? Simon did not say, «Sit down». Remember — Simon is a teacher. Students should execute the command, only I the case when teacher says: ''Simon says''. The student that makes a mistake is out of a game. The winner is a student that won’t make a mistake.
«Draw a House and Colour It Brown». «Children, take sheets of paper and coloured pencils and listen to my commands». Commands were recorded in advance: Draw a small house in the middle. Colour the house brown Colour the roof red. The house has 2 windows and a door. You can see flowers in one of the windows. Draw a tree to the right of the house. Draw a bird flying over the house. Sign your name. Give the pictures to me [8; 19].
At this stage it’s necessary to insert the exercises that require to listen and to choose the right answer for the question or statement from one or two variants. Listening of dialogues is also necessary at this stage of learning. They contain all types of sentences, questions, answers, commands, requests, advices that are samples of everyday life. Well-constructed dialogue is an illustration of language structures and includes the material of contrystudial character.
At early school age mechanical memory works to the utmost, specific and creative thinking with bright emotional coloring is prevalen; rich presentation, as knowledge, are chaotic and insufficiently realized. Dissatisfaction of all these demands leads to the fatigability and loss of the interest in a lesson. Thereby it’s purposeful to use visual aids, communicative games that allow imitating what students saw, behaviors of people, to change the methods of learning and include the methods of learning that concentrate the students‘ attention in the process of forming the conversation. This age phase is connected with imitation, learning the material by heart or the reproduction the material close to the material. Therefore at the beginning of learning process small dialogues with the main task to reproduct i.e. repeating after teacher. Gradually dialogues with the sounds of natural, live and real conversation with repetitions, interjections, abbreviations, pauses and hesitations that can be in real conversations with natural noises are introduced. The concluding phase of working with dialogue is its staging and presentation [9; 178].
Effectiveness of exercises for partial controlled learning of listening depends on the repeatability of separate technics and methods that is very important at the beginning of the language learning: involving of the listening analyzer along with others, especially with visual one; steady attention and the presence of creative predictive intellectual activity. As a result of performing of given exercises definite adaptation to the conditions of text presentations, adjustment to the established regime of listening and sustained working capacity occur. In regard to the visual aids, using them should be considered as not only the element of managing, but as a source of individualized learning.
Thus the forming of elementary listening and speaking skills should provide the successful communicational process, develop students’ ability to speak and understand foreign language. Inasmuch this process is hard and difficult thus a big attention should be paid to this aspect of learning at schools.
References
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