Problems of teaching a foreign language in primary school

We see the school as a special place where, unlike the University, the teacher is not only a teacher, but also, above all, an educator. That is why taking into account the age and individual characteristics of each child is necessary. There may be certain problems when teaching a foreign language at school, but they should not be an obstacle, but an incentive for the professional growth of the teacher. Among them are the following:

• 1)    the problem of early learning, which affects the psychological and age characteristics of a particular child;

• 2)    the task of effectively introducing play activities into the educational process in order to increase the motivation of children;

• 3)    the difficulty of mastering written speech at the age of primary school students;

• 4)    the question of teaching phonetic material due to lack of time in the classroom. Learning a foreign language from a psychological point of view is "a complex process of forming a new speech system in the cortex of the brain, which begins to coexist and constantly interact with the already developed system of the native language, experiencing its interfering influence". Researchers and teachers have noticed that children are most susceptible to learning a foreign language at the

age of 3 to 10 years, which allows the teacher to conduct lessons with primary school students effectively, getting a visible result: "Special classes can be started with children 3-10 years old, up to three-pointless, after ten-useless to hope for a quick positive result, which is possible only for a small part of students, those who have communicative and linguistic abilities above average".

Problem 1. The problem of early learning, which affects the psychological and age characteristics of a particular child, is always the most relevant, since the study of a foreign language in primary school corresponds to the most favorable and susceptible to knowledge period of children's development. Researchers have long identified a close relationship between methods of teaching foreign languages and psychology. It is especially important to remember that primary school students are inattentive due to this period of their development, so even if children are distracted, cannot focus on the educational material or stop listening to the teacher, it does not make sense to punish them with a bad grade or scold them, since this method will only work for the next few minutes. Students will remember everything new, unexpected, and bright without any effort, but they may miss important, "serious" details of the material being taught. Researchers note that only the third grade attention can be maintained continuously throughout the lesson. In the normal development of a child during primary school, all the properties of attention, except switching, become almost the same as in an adult. At the same time, attention switching in younger schoolchildren is even better developed than in adults, which is explained by the mobility of nervous processes. Decision. The specificity of working with younger students is also the need to select such methods and means of teaching that would be effective and interesting to the students themselves. It is necessary to take into account the fact that schoolchildren remember visual material better: their perception is characterized by high emotionality and brightness of images.

Problem 2. The goal of effective introduction of play activities into the educational process in order to increase the motivation of children. Younger students perceive symbolic and schematic images worse, and visual material is better. In the process of learning, children need bright images, frequent changes of events and activities, otherwise they get tired quite quickly due to their age characteristics. In the process of learning a foreign language, many analyzers are used: visual - for the perception of visual material, auditory-for the perception of oral speech, some exercises require the participation of touch (games "Guess the letter by touch", "Show with your hands"). Decision. Mini-projects "what the letter looks like" are useful for developing thinking. Children choose a letter of the English alphabet (for example, S), select words starting with S, draw a letter-image - in the form of a snake (snake), paint it with silver (silver), decorate it with stars (stars) and stripes, ribbons (stripes), draw it in the sun circle (sun). Then the child must make a representation of his letter. When performing such tasks, the child's versatile development occurs: imagination, memory, perseverance, the ability to finish the job, communication skills are actively involved and stimulated to improve, there is a connection between abstract-logical and imaginative types of thinking.

Problem 3. The difficulty of mastering written speech at the age of primary school students. Teaching writing is one of the most important aspects of modern language teaching methods. As writing is mastered, coherent speech develops, which involves "mastering the lexical stock and grammatical structure of the language, as well as their practical application, the ability to use the learned material, namely, the ability to consistently, coherently, clearly convey to others the content of the read text or independently composed text". Decision. Mastering written speech in both native and foreign languages directly affects the formation of a complete language personality, so this aspect requires special attention of the teacher, because everything that is laid down in childhood will form the basis for personal development in the future. There are many programs for teaching children a foreign language, but it's not just about choosing the right one. In primary school, a particularly important role is played by the personality of the teacher, his ability to interest students, engage them in the subject, "do not frighten", and teach children to learn. Therefore, in our opinion, the solution to this problem is facilitated, first of all, by careful and competent selection of teachers for teaching younger students. Problem 4. Teaching phonetic material in conditions of lack of time in the classroom. English pronunciation seems to us to be one of the most important stages in learning a language, which in most cases is simply ignored and the importance of which is underestimated.

In our opinion, learning to pronounce should be the beginning of learning a foreign language. Often the student can understand and translate the text, but is completely unable to read it correctly due to banal ignorance of letter combinations and reading rules, as well as the constraint that is caused by this ignorance. Due to the large number of students in English language groups in schools, the ability to effectively teach pronunciation may be questioned. After all, this requires a really great work of the teacher, who will pay attention to each student and turn the process of working on phonetics into an exciting activity. Decision. There are various methods of working on phonetics and pronunciation, but the most important issue is the age of students for whom the teacher selects material. One of the most interesting methods is the method of sound color analysis. This method is used in teaching methods as a variant of sound intelligence, which is especially important for younger students: they will be able to figuratively and clearly represent the sounds of the English language represented in the system. This method includes an interesting technique-building an emotional portrait of the sounds of the English language, in particular vowels, the correct pronunciation of which often causes difficulties for students. The researcher introduces the concept of an emotional portrait of sound, and, therefore, children can easily imagine and pronounce it. The described method is one of the directions of teaching English phonetics, which will be especially effective in primary school, when the child's onomatopoeic abilities and imagination are highly developed.

The described method of teaching phonetics to children of primary school age is not the only one, however, it is one of the few that includes techniques that can really interest and engage children. Such phonetic classes do not require much time from the teacher, and will be effective if the proposed ideas are correctly implemented in life. Teaching a foreign language to younger students requires special skills of the teacher, because he has a huge responsibility. It is important not just to know a foreign language, but also to be able to teach it, love your work, be tactful and responsible.