Педагогика / 4. Стратегические направления

реформирования системы образования

Shastova I.V.

Educational centre “Greenly”

Ukrainian Primary School: Teaching

Reading Skills in English

Effords to improve standards of teaching English as a foreign language in Ukrainian primary schools have been longstanding and have followed many researches [1, 4, 5, 10, 12]. Interest to reform can be partially explained by the growing importance of this language in Ukrainian society [4, 5].

The findings corroborated different aspects such as the competence in speaking, reading, listening and writing, developing new aids etc. It should be mentioned that among the different aspects, teaching reading skills in English is found to be highly important and less studied. The last two investigations of teaching reading skills in Ukrainian schools were represented by V.Zhoukovskiy [5] and M.Denysenko [4].

Thus, the present study of teaching reading skills to Ukrainian primary schoolchildren examines the retrospective evaluations of achievements and fails in this particular field and deals with reasons for them.

With the implementation of new curriculum in 2000 [7] all children in Ukraine started schooling at the age of six. Since its inception, teachers of English have experienced teaching seven-year-old schoolboys and schoolgirls in public schools and sometimes six-year-old children (they were those who studied at so called foreign language-oriented schools). In addition, there have been more changes in educational system in 2012 [9]. Thus, at the present time all six-year-old schoolchildren are expected to be taught reading skills in foreign languages.

Yet, despite the fact of starting teaching reading skills at early age, the primary schoolchilren’s level of reading is often reported as very weak. Facing this problem, practisioners search for effective ways of teaching reading skills to primary schoolchildren by publishing new schoolbooks and other materials, discussing problems at the seminars and conferences etc.

There’s still a little number of researches in teaching reading skills in English to six-year-old schoolchildren. A review of the results of precious studies [2, 3, 4, 5] points at some difficulties in this field.

1. The teachers have little or no theoretical background

For many years teachers were supposed to teach English across different age groups: children from 7 to 18 and adults from 18 to 30. Thus, they have not received needed theoretical knowledge about six-year-old children. The peculiarities of this age were examined by those educators who studied to become teachers in the kindergarden [2].

2. The teachers little or no practical background

Having little theoretical knowledge about young learners, experienced teachers avoid teaching in primary schools. Those who teach there have a low level of English or no experience [2].

3. The teachers are not provided with needed teaching materials

As it often the case with educational reforms, the coursebooks for six-year-old children were designed and published in short time span. Thus, primary teachers are not supplied with needed materials: teacher’s books, photocopiable materials, flash-cards, etc [12].

4. The teaching materials are not appropriate for this age.

It should be noted that mentioned above materials are sometimes not appropriate for teaching six-year-old children. For example, books need to be of bigger size and lighter weigh, the print is supposed to be bigger, etc [4].

5. The time for mastering reading skills

Children are supposed to be taught English three times a week. The length of each lesson is 35 minutes and, as a result, approximately 35 minutes are devoted for teaching reading skills in English every week. Taking into account the fact that by the end of the year children are expected to be able to read 100-150 words [9] it is possible to conclude that there is not enough time for mastering reading skills.

6. Physiological characteristics of six-year-old children

The investigations of physiological characteristics which were done by a big number of researches [8, 11] report that six-year-old and seven-year-old children must be taught in different conditions. However, this data is ignored in majority of primary school.

7. Difficulties of orthographical system

It is generally agreed that there are approximately 44 sounds in English, which are represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet individually and in combination. Thus, teaching the relationship between sounds and the letters is a complex process [12].

8. Method of teaching reading skills in English

In Egnlish-speaking countries the most widely used method of teaching reading skills in English is the whole word method. However, there is an educational battle going on between proponents of a phonics emphasis in reading and a whole language emphasis. In Ukraine and Russia there are two approaches which are used while teaching reading in English: the whole word method and the methods where various phonic strategies are used (transcriptional or phonetical methods). On the other hand, only one method has been used while teaching reading skills in Ukrainian (or Russian) as a first language. It is a type of phonic method which includes analytical and synthetical characteristics and is based on reading letters and syllables [3].

The main purpose of the present study was the background of teaching reading skills to six-year-old children in Ukrainian primary schools. It highlighted a methodological problem and revealed the necessity for solving it. Subsequent studies are expected to generalize and extend the present findings.

References

1. Бігич О. Б. Діяльнісний метод навчання іноземної мови в початковій школі : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : www.rusnauka.com/28_PRNT_2011/Pedagogica/4_94842.doc.htm.

2. Бігич О. Б. Навчальний сайт для майбутнього вчителя іноземної мови початкової школи : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : http://www.rusnauka.com/12_KPSN_2012/Pedagogica/2_108767.doc.htm.

3. Васильева Т. Г. Типологизация методов обучения техники чтения : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : ftp://lib.herzen.spb.ru/text/vasiljyeva_35_76_2_47_54.pdf.

4. Денисенко М. В. Навчання учнів початкової школи техніки читання англійською мовою : дис. … канд. пед. наук : спец. 13.00.02 / Денисенко Марина Володимирівна. – К., 2004. – 217 с.

5. Жуковский В. Н. Индувидуализация обучения технике чтения на начальном этапе средней школы (английский язык, VI класс) : автореф. … канд. пед. наук : спец. 13.00.02 /Жуковский В. Н. – К., 1992. – 18 с.

6. Інструктивно-методичні рекомендації щодо вивчення базових дисциплін у 2012/2013 навчальному році : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : http//www.mon.gov.ua.

7. Концепція 12-річної загальної середньої освіти (проект) // Інформаційний збірник Міністерства освіти України. – 2000. № 21. – С. 10-31.

8. Мир детства : Младший школьник / [Л. И. Айдарова, М. В. Антропова, Д. Б. Эльконин и др. ]; под ред. А. Г. Хрипковой. – М. : Педагогика, 1998. – 272 с.

9. Навчальна програма з іноземних мов для початкової школи у спеціалізованих школах з поглибленим вивченням іноземної мови : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : http//www.mon.gov.ua.

10. Паршикова О. О. Теоретичні основи навчання іноземної мови учнів початкової загальноосвітньої школи : автореф. дис. … докт. пед. наук : спец. 13.00.02 «Теорія і методика навчання іноземних мов : германські мови» / О. О. Паршикова. – К., 2010. – 44 с.

11. Психология детства / [В. А. Аверин, И. Я. Зимняя, А. А. Реан и др. ]; под ред. Члена-корреспондента РЛО А. А. Реана. – СПб. : Прайм-ЕВРОЗНАК, 2008. – 350 с.

12. Шастова І. В. Зміст компетенції в техніці читання на початковому ступені (школа з поглибленим вивченням англійської мови) : [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу : http://archive.nbuv.gov.ua/portal/Soc_Gum/Vknlu/Ptp/2012_21/Shastova.pdf.