Psychology and sociology/9.
Development psychology
Chernov D.N., Ignatov Y.Y.
The Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. Pirogov, Russia
The role of subjective interrelations of younger schoolchildren with parents
and teacher in formation of language competence*
Studying of role of «parent–child» and «teacher–child»
generalities, developing as the collective subject, in formation of the
language competence of younger schoolchildren is the research purpose. Research
is executed in a paradigm of the subject-activity approach. In this
approach, the impact of external factors in
the development is seen through the mediation of internal conditions that constitute a holistic subject (S.L. Rubinstein, K.A. Abulkhanova, A.V.
Brushlinsky, etc.). We use the concept of «collective
subject» (Zhuravlev, 2002). Criteria for the
collective subject (the interconnectedness / interdependence, the ability to exercise common forms
of activity and self-reflexive),
the levels of development and types of
collective subject (pre-subjectivity, real subjectivity and reflexive
subjectivity) were identified by A.L.
Zhuravlev. We believe that the
success of a child's learning is
largely dependent upon the effectiveness of the upbringing process in the
early ontogeny, whose purpose
should be to build the child's relationship with an adult by
the type of collective subject. Guided by outlined methodological foundations, we conducted a study whose purpose was to investigate the role of generalities «parent–child» and «teacher–child» in the development of child language competence.
Methods. For an estimation of level
of language competency the Heidelberg test of language development adapted and standardized for the Russian
population was used. In order to create the generality «child – teacher» by the type of collective subject in an experimental situation we have developed a special technique of child training to the rules of word formation
(see
more in Chernov, 2009). Guided by ideas
of A.K. Markova (1993) about learning
as an aggregate of
characteristics of mental development, which are the result of previous training, we assumed that the technique of training should be
built in accordance with the
principles of experimental genetic
method of L.S. Vygotsky (1982). The rules of
the formation of inflexions of Russian nouns were
the material for working out of a technique. In order to
assess the children assimilation of the rules of inflection on the example of unfamiliar words for the child forming stage of the experiment is designed on the material of «artificial» words.
The child was asked to play the game –
to learn to communicate in an unknown
tribe’s
language. There are two steps in experiment: the formative stage in
«artificial» language, the final test in
Russian. The study used experimental design with control and experimental groups. We used expert teachers’ assessments of on a 5-point scale concerning
the adequacy of the rules use by children of the Russian
language in daily speech, for stratified sampling of children to the groups. The use of this
sampling scheme led
to their equivalence in terms
of language competence without pre-testing it in Russian.
For the study of child-parental generality in terms of representations of a collective subject used previously developed complex of techniques [see more in
Chernov, 2011]. The complex includes: techniques «The parent and the
child are together» by D.N. Chernov, «The person orientation» by V. Smekal – M.
Kuchera, «Film-test» by R. Zhil, «Kinetic drawing of a family» by R. Burns and
S. Kaufman, «The analysis of family relationships» by Y.G. Eydemiller and V.V.
Yustitskis; the questionnaire of diagnostics of reflexivity by A.V. Carpov, the
questionnaire of parental relations by A.Y. Varga and V.V. Stolin, and the
questionnaire «My family».
The analysis was performed using the statistical package Statistica
9.0. We used: Spearman's rank correlation, rank-biserial correlation, Pearson's linear correlation, partial correlation, Analysis of Variances with Newman–Keuls Test, Factor
analysis.
Sample.
100 children (48 girls and 58 boys) at the age of 7–8 years (
= 7,36; S =
0,29) and their mothers 27–41 years old (
= 35,33; S =
2,52) involved in research. All children visit school.
Results and their
discussion. In the
first stage of processing data
to obtain a general idea about
the features of parent-child relationships
in families bringing up younger schoolers, factor analysis
of data was carried out. There are data techniques «The parent and the
child are together», «The person orientation», «Kinetic drawing of a family»,
«The analysis of family relationships», the questionnaire of diagnostics of
reflexivity, the questionnaire of parental relations, and the questionnaire «My
family». The largest percentage of data is explained by the factor «Collective subject
“parent–child” with the style of parental relation “the indulging
hyperpatronage”»: the mother gives the
child enough time, seeks to maximize the satisfaction of their needs; the child
makes the minimum number of requirements (obligations and prohibitions);
sanctions for violation of the requirements are also minimal; characterized by
expansion of parental feelings, preference the baby qualities in the child.
Mother seeks to establish a cooperative relationship with the child, it is
characterized by: a high level of personal reflexivity, the collectivist person
orientation, a high degree of interconnection/interdependence with the child,
high intensity and extension of the areas of joint activity with a child and
reflexive to the joint life. The child has a positive attitude to the immediate
social environment, inquisitive, sociable, socially adequate, considers the
family situation as favorable.
In the second stage the relationship of individual factor
scores of identified factors – the components of parent-child relations, and the characteristics of language competence
was studied. The most pronounced positive correlations scores by the factor of «Collective subject
“parent–child” with the style of parental relation “the indulging
hyperpatronage”» with the final scores for Heidelberg test and characteristics of language competence in the field of grammar,
morphology, understanding of
the meaning of sentences and words, the interactive
meaning of sentences and operating by integral text (in all cases p≤0,001). Thus, the formation of the child-parental generality by the type collective
subject in combination with the style of parental
relation «the indulging hyperpatronage» positively causes child language development.
At the third stage the learning efficiency of children to rules of
the word-formation constructed in «zone of proximal development» (ZPD) of the
child in a situation of formation of the collective subject «teacher–child», in
case of this research – with the experimenter who has realized a technique with
each child separately was investigated. Learning in
the ZPD by the offered
technique to improve the skills
of word formation was the most effective for all children. Analysis of the relationship of the
pre- and final test results on
«artificial» language and test results on Russian material showed that in general there is succession of results. Average scores
for testing in Russian is positively related with estimates
of pre-and post-test on the material of «artificial» words and
with the value of learning
ability in the ZPD (in all cases p ≤ 0,001). So, in the course training of children to the rules of word formation of
Russian, conducted in the ZPD of the child in the construction of a collective
subject «teacher–child» was possible in the short term, postponed by to achieve
a high level of training in younger schoolchildren.
In the fourth stage of
the study we examined the contribution, which as has been experimentally proved
effective for the formation of language competence of younger schoolchildren collective
subject «parent–child» brings to the effectiveness of training during creation
of a collective subject «teacher–child». Main result is the children of
mothers who aspire to build
a relationship with
their children by the type of collective
subject, getting that experience of interpersonal
relationships, are responding to the teaching impact, implemented
in the ZPD of
the child and which is based on the
interaction of «teacher–child», according
to the type of collective subject.
The results allow speaking about succession of the effectiveness of child-parent and child-teacher generalities,
developing by type of collective subject in the language competence development of younger schoolchildren. They
point to the need to the creation of
subjective conditions for improving the
quality of relations between the child
and the social environment and the
formation of conscious attitude of
society to the language education
of the child, and improve the quality upbringing and pedagogical
work with children through the actualization of
subjective characteristics of the child for
the purpose of language learning.
* Research
is executed at the Russian Foundation for Humanities financial support of the
project of carrying out of scientific researches «Model of sociocultural
conditionality of language development in ontogenesis», project ¹12-06-00237à.