1.4 Psychological characteristics of primary school children The main purpose of teaching foreign languages is the personal development of the child by means of the subject, i.e. creating a favorable situation for introducing him to the new language world in order to better adapt to the multilingual and multicultural situation in the modern world. The process of teaching school-age children a foreign language should be based on the psychophysical characteristics of children.
So, in the content of teaching foreign language communication at an early stage, it is necessary to introduce the following four aspects: developing (priority), educational, cognitive and educational. The purpose of training in all aspects can be formulated as follows:
- development of the child's mental functions through the process of mastering a foreign language;
- satisfaction of the child's cognitive needs;
- creating motivation for the child to further master a foreign language;
- education of a citizen not only of his country, but also of the world;
- improving the effectiveness of language acquisition.
However, the goals of teaching a foreign language to school-age children are not always implemented in practice. In most cases, this is due to non-compliance with the principle: English is for the sake of the ability to apply knowledge in practice, and not for the sake of the language itself.
Taking into account the psychology of schoolchildren, we can say that they are especially susceptible to phonetics and intonation of speech, therefore, a number of researchers, such as T.A.Chistyakova, R.A.Dolnikova, E.I.Matetskaya, N.F.Kolieva, consider the formation of correct pronunciation skills in children to be the main task of the initial stage of training. Teaching foreign pronunciation can be successful if children learn to independently control their pronunciation and distinguish correct from incorrect as early as possible. Thus, to solve this problem, various exercises and special didactic games for the development of phonemic hearing, as well as speech breathing, are used in the classroom.
Successful mastery of foreign language speech by children becomes possible because children are distinguished by more flexible and faster memorization of language material than at subsequent stages of learning, the absence of the so-called language barrier, that is, the fear of inhibition that prevents them from communicating in a foreign language even with the necessary skills, relatively little experience in speech communication in their native language. In addition, being the main activity of a preschooler, it allows you to make almost any language units communicatively valuable.
As V. V. Davydov, an expert in age psychology, writes, primary school age is a special period in the life of a child, which historically stood out relatively recently. Those children who did not attend school at all did not have it, nor did those for whom primary school was the first and last stage of education.
“The "fivefold" behavior and good grades are what constitutes a child's relationship with adults and peers. The first thing adults ask a child is "How do you study?" and a child with normal development craves praise and tries to make sure that he is rewarded and not scolded.”Moreover, at primary school age, children are inquisitive, they are interested in everything new, and the newly received information remains in their heads for many years. When a child is interested, he easily concentrates his attention and performs the tasks given to him, especially if they are of a playful nature. Moreover, the younger school age is the most favorable for learning foreign languages, since at this age imitation is still characteristic of children, but already mixed with thinking, that is, conscious.
When teaching children a foreign language, it must be remembered that "the psychological and pedagogical concept 00on which foreign language teaching was based in different countries was based on the theory of language acquisition by a child that existed until recently. According to this theory, a child learns a language as a result of imitating the speech of adults, in an imitative way without purposeful learning. In other words, no one divides the flow of speech for a child into units of assimilation, does not dose speech samples, does not arrange them in a certain sequence, does not explain the rules of grammar - and yet a normally developing child by the age of five or six already masters this most complex grammar so much that he builds independent statements, successfully solving communicative tasks, and by seven or eight, complex sentences and texts of considerable length appear in the child's speech.
The benefits of early learning a foreign language have been repeatedly proven. Everyone knows that at the initial stage of education, the formation of a student's personality takes place, the identification and development of his abilities, the formation of educational skills and the mastery of elements of culture and behavior. In this case, language is considered as a means of educating and developing the student's personality, introducing him to European and his own culture, national etiquette.
The psychological characteristics of younger schoolchildren give them advantages when learning a foreign language. Children 8-10 years old absorb IT indirectly and subconsciously. The amount of attention is small and the time of concentration is very short, but they increase with age. Younger schoolchildren have a well-developed long-term memory (what is learned is remembered for a very long time). The best incentive for further education for students in grades 2-4 is a sense of success. The ways of obtaining and assimilating information in children are also different: visual, auditory, kinesthetic.
Younger schoolchildren have developed the ability to reason, they can draw conclusions and conclusions, analyze objects and phenomena without resorting to practical actions, which indicates the development of verbal and logical thinking. This ability of students should be used when teaching a foreign language and developed through exercises to prove the judgments of teachers and students, to model problem situations, abstract schemes to fill them with concrete content.
The experience of leading psychologists proves that at an early age the foundation of practical knowledge of a foreign language is laid. Children over the age of 11 have a number of difficulties in this regard, for example, the lack of motives for learning a foreign language, the influence of their native language, etc. There is no doubt that a foreign language is easier to learn at an early age from 5 to 8 years, when children easily and firmly memorize the material and reproduce it well. But it is not easy to support the kids' desire to learn from day to day, moving forward with small steps, and a lot of responsibility rests on us, teachers of a foreign language.
It is impossible not to mention one more factor, especially important for young students – the success factor. When organizing foreign language teaching in general, and control in particular, it is important to create a situation of success for students. Even the smallest success inspires children and supports their interest in the subject. For many children, the response situation becomes stressful, so the teacher needs to master the technique of distracting the child from unnecessary and unhealthy tension. The technique of getting the child out of stress can include the use of auxiliary materials, visual aids, gestures, leading questions – anything that will help or encourage the child to speak out.
Evaluating the work of children in the classroom, it is necessary to pay attention to both the weakest and the strongest students. The former should be encouraged for perseverance, even if their successes are modest in relation to the successes of other children. It is important to give them feasible tasks, which they will surely cope with, feeling success, they will try to catch up with more capable children. As for the strong guys, it is important that working with the weak does not hold back their progress. They need to be given tasks that will require the work of thought and imagination.
Assessing the communicative skills and knowledge of children, it is necessary first of all to evaluate their successes, not shortcomings. It is necessary to maintain a sense of success in students. Even the smallest victory should be noticed and appreciated. After all, interest in learning a language is most often lost when the feeling of success disappears.