Review article
https://doi.org/10.32728/MO.07.2.2012.12
TEACHING THE CONCEPT OF SINGULARITY AND PLURALITY OF NOUNS WITHIN ENGLISH LESSONS TO CHILDREN OF AN EARLY AGE
Ester Vidović
; Faculty of Teacher Education, Rijeka (Croatia)
Morana Drakulić
; Faculty of Teacher Education, Rijeka (Croatia)
Abstract
According to the principles of contemporary methods of teaching a foreign language at an early age, grammar is taught with a gradual introduction of its elements through various activities within English lessons in the junior grades of primary school. In the population of junior grade pupils, nouns of irregular plural are one of the grammatical categories the acquisition of which results in frequent mistakes. The most represented method of teaching a foreign language at an early age is the Total Physical Response method (or TPR in short). According to the principles of this method, the foreign language teachers of children of an early age ought to assist their pupils in acheiving several goals: developing listening and speaking skills, including movement in lesson activities and increasing the engagement of the pupils in such activities. All the aforementioned goals can, according to the opinion of the majority of developmental psychologists and ESL methodologists, be realised if the category of plural nouns is taught in combination with children's songs and games, as they are accessible to younger primary school pupils. The aim of this paper is to point towards the importance of the teacher in the proceduralisation phase, i.e. the correction of mistakes that occur due to incorrect plural noun forms, and in particular irregular plural nouns, through songs and games. By combining children's songs and games that include movement and increased participation of pupils, these topics can be efficiently acquired with only a hint of grammatical metalanguage, as the same is only taught in the later phases of learning the English language.
Keywords
gramar; Total Physical Response Method; proceduralisation; children's songs; games; singular and plural nouns
Hrčak ID:
83754
URI
Publication date:
23.6.2012.
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