The article describes the early teaching of English. The authors suppose that younger school age is the most sensitive period for developing a skills of continuous language self-education. Namely these skills allows the person to develop her abilities in the future. However, the key to success is the correct organization of the ed- ucational process that considers individual characteristics and interests of the learner.
Educational institution is along with the family the most important institution of socialization of the children. In the stable development period of the society education as a mechanism for relaying knowledge accumulated by mankind viewed the learner as the object of the impact. Modern conditions of integration and transformation of the global community, reducing of reproductive activity, widespread dissemination of innovative creative processes led to changes in the system of language education. Firstly, the learner be- comes the subject of an educational process which is built on the basis of his personal way. Secondly, along with the social significance a foreign language is also a personal need. It is becoming ever more important to be able to successfully interact with people with other cultures and languages. Accordingly, foreign language learning starts early not to miss and use advantage of the sensitive period of younger school age. The psycho- logical studies and experiments have confirmed that.
The main aim of early teaching is to learn gradually how to learn a foreign language, i.e., becoming an effective language and culture learner, because these skills acquired at an early age are fixed for life and pro- vide a solid basis for continuous language self-education. It is the self-managed process of actively assign a new social experience during the foreign language learning [1]. The strategies of self directed learning are the great tools for understanding what methods and techniques are effective personality. And once the learn- er knows how to learn he is ready to teach himself anything.
Clearly, one of the main objectives of early learning foreign language is the development of an intercul- tural communicative competence. According to D. Hymes learning is a process of personal knowledge con- struction and meaning-making. It is both a cognitive (intra-individual) and a socioculturally (inter-individual) constructive process. As a cognitive constructive process, learning involves reorganising and restructuring, as well as interpreting information. It involves the individual making sense of new knowledge by mapping it onto his/her existing framework of knowledge, thereby restructuring the individual’s conceptual map. As a socioculturally constructive process, learning is socially situated and mediated towards the construction of knowledge, in social action, within its cultural, historical, and institutional setting. Through interaction, indi- viduals develop a framework for interpreting experience, congruent with the cultural system. Within this view of learning, teaching and learning are simultaneously linguistic and sociocultural acts [2]. Involving learners in linguistic and sociocultural acts can be successfully by using of game technologies. Game allows the learner first emotionally and then intellectually mastere the whole system of human relations. They are a complex effect on his/her intellectual, emotional, volitional, communicative and others qualities.
It was established that the child learns a language only in a vital communication that provides true in- trinsic motivation. According to E.V. Passov, creating everyday situations at the lesson gives learner to «penetrate» in the culture itself. In addition to this, using authentic video, audio or printed materials signifi- cantly increase the degree of «penetration» into someone else's cultural and social reality, help to understand verbal and nonverbal behavior of the English speaking people [3]. That’s why one of the most important aim of foreign language teaching is to make the learning process as a real communication. M.V. Stronin the au- thor of the study «Learning games at English lessons» divides games into the following categories:
1 game of listening; 2 vocabulary games;
- language games;
- phonetic games;
- spelling games;
- games to work with the alphabet; 7 grammatical games;
8 lexical and grammatical exercises [4].
Bearing in mind the needs, individual characteristics and interests of the younger learner (need to move, communicate, draw, design, facial expressions, be individuals) theatrical games are the most effective meth- ods of forming communicative, social, cultural, self-learning skills.
Researching the concept of a theatrical play, we have come to a conclusion that, there is no particular definition of a theatrical play in psychological and pedagogical studies. For example, children's theater activ- ities L.S. Vygotsky sees as dramatization, E.L.Trusova uses this notion as synonyms for «theatrical play», «theater-play activity and creativity» and V.N. Vsevoldovsky — Gengross understands them as «game- dramatization» — dramatic play, which are characterized by «the presence of the artistic image and dramatic action».
The more comprehensive concept of a theatrical play, in our opinion, is presented by such researchers as L.V. Artemova, L.V. Voroshnina, L.S. Furmina who see the game as a theatrical enactment, the works of literature: fairy tales, short stories, specially written plays. The characters of the literature books become actors and their adventures, life events, modified by child fantasy — a storyline. Thus, the characteristic fea- tures of theatrical games are literary or folk basis of the content and the presence of spectators.
Theatrical games have a diverse arsenal of aids, such as different types of desktop theatre: soft toys, wooden theater, tapered theater, folk toys and plane figures, finger theater.
Theatrical games can be divided into two main groups: the dramatization and directing games. In dram- atization games, according to O. Akulova, learner, playing the role, as an artist, creates a self-image through the complex of verbal and nonverbal expressiveness. The type of dramatization games is simulating games, with the help of which, learners can imitate the images of animals, people, literary characters; role-play the dialogues based on the text; staging performances. In the director's game artists are toys or their deputies, and the child, organizing activities as a writer and director, manages and voicing the characters and com- menting on the story, using different means of verbal expression. The types of director's games are deter- mined according to a variety of theaters, used in kindergarten: desk, flat, puppet (bibabo, fingerling, pup- pets), etc. [5].
According to games researches such as L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonin, N. Mihaylenko, theatrical game, in its structure, is similar to a role-play games, because in the theatrical games as in the role-play game the speech formation in organized models of communication comes out on the first place. The difference is that in theatrical games, except forming foreign communicational skills, our aim is to form an socio - cultural skills too. The plot in a theatrical game is based on a literature books, fairy-tails that contributes to the for- mation of culturally oriented speech patterns. For example, a theatrical play «Miss. Polite», derived from the need to teach children using polite words in different situations. The idea is that fairy tale character Miss. Polite knows only polite words «Good morning, Good night, Thank you». Introducing the characters in the form of finger puppets, which appear in different situations, the teacher has a chance to teach children the etiquette of another country. For the formation of comradeship, cooperation, support, gender education the appropriate game is dramatization of «Castle In A Fire». The plot is based on the tales of the brave prince and defenseless princess in distress. The idea is that the princess locked in a castle, which sets in the fire by the evil dragon. It all starts with the seine as the dragon breathes fire on the tower in which the princess is locked. Princess asks for a help «Help me!». Prince appears on his faithful horse (you can use the means at hand chair, broom to sweep the floor, etc.) and saves the princess «Jump on my horse», at the end of Princess thanked Prince «Thank you». So the story is taken from fairy tales, and the role represents a human or ani- mal, which is characterized by typical symptoms in a particular game, and at a certain time.
Theatrical games in addition to the foreign-language skills formation and acculturation of the language, contribute to the development of learner's creative abilities. So, S.A. Kozlova, T.A. Kulikova see a connec- tion of the children's foreign-language skills development at the time of the theatrical play to create a truth- ful image of the character, children need to understand what the character is, why does he or she behave like that, think about the conditions, feelings, and be able to analyze and evaluate actions. Reading an authentic literature or view the print or video — materials is very important activity to create children's visions. During the reading, viewing, presentations or video cards series to learner, they get acquainted with the vocabulary of the English speech phrases, get impressions and create the image of the character. The older the learner, the richer his or her imagination, feelings, impressions of the surrounding life, and also he or she has more vocabulary in the English language to express their feelings, and the easier for him or her to get into the role of the character [6].
In order to create a positive perception of the other country's reality, to bring up a sense of tolerance in children, it is important to organize theatrical games, because the characters of the foreign language culture are differ from the characters in fairy tales and literary books of the learners's native culture. In most cases children misunderstand or have a desire to compare these characters and figure out who is better and who is worse. The task of the teacher when meeting children with another culture is, above all, to create a positive image or a complete image of the character, to neutralize the language and cultural barriers with no — or a personal assessment. For example, in our country, the most prominent and long-awaited holiday is the New Year, and in the English-speaking countries it is the Christmas day, the characters are also different in our country — Ded Moroz, and in English-speaking countries — Santa Claus. People also celebrate these holi- days in a different dates. Russian children know well the New Year holiday, as it is celebrated at the family and for all families it has similar traditions. The Christmas holiday is becoming a new and confusing for children, so the aim of the teacher is to organize activities in class, which help to remove cultural barriers and to explain these discrepancies. Organizing theatrical staging games, suitable organization of extracurric- ular activities, writing scripts, making costumes, decorations, invitations tickets for relatives serve all pur- poses. Also these activities fills the lessons with meaningful activities, joyful expectation, and in an interest- ing way contribute to the development of learner's cultural skills.
Thus, in the process of organizing or playing theatrical games the main skills and abilities are socio- cultural knowledge of traditions and values of the English-speaking countries, foreign language skills — the development of vocabulary, grammar and basic etiquette models, as well as foster a sense of tolerance for the culture and traditions of the English — speaking country. Moreover the game produced such vital quali- ties as attentiveness, diligence, memory, perseverance, persistence in achieving goals. The most important is that early learning a foreign language make the effective basis for further continuous language self- education.
References
- Bobykina I.A. Professional project: ideas, technologies, results, 2011, 1 (2), р. 121–127.
- Hymes D. Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society, 1987, р. 219–229.
- Passow Ye.I. Communicative method of teaching foreign language speaking, Moscow: Obrazovanie, 1991, 223 р.
- Stronin M.V. Learning games at English lessons, Moscow: Obrazovanie, 2001, 370
- Akulova O. Preschool education, 2005, 4, p. 24–26.
- Kozlovа S.A., Kulikova T.A. Preschool Pedagogy, Moscow: Academy, 2000, 234