Teaching English to young learners

Teaching a foreign language at school requires a teacher to have a high level of professional skill, love for children, as well as diligence and ability to present the material in such a way that students not only successfully learn it, but also show interest in the subject. Undoubtedly, this can be achieved by making certain efforts, and, as practice shows, success depends not so much on experience as on enthusiasm, energy and interest of the teacher. We see the school as a special place where, unlike a university, a teacher is not only a teacher, but, above all, a teacher. That is why taking into account the age and individual characteristics of each child is necessary. Certain problems may arise when teaching a foreign language at school, but they should not serve as an obstacle, but as an incentive for the professional growth of a teacher. Among them are the following:

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

• 2)    the task of effectively introducing game activity 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 issue of teaching phonetic material due to lack of time in the lesson.

The study of a foreign language from a psychological point of view is “a complex process of forming a new speech system in the cerebral cortex, which begins to coexist and constantly interact with the already developed system of the native language, experiencing its interfering effect on itself”.

Researchers and educators noticed that children are most susceptible to learning a foreign language from 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 - it’s pointless, after ten - it’s 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 the average level”.

The problem of early learning, which affects the psychological and age-related characteristics of a particular child, is always the most relevant, since the study of a foreign language in elementary school corresponds to the most favorable and knowledge-sensitive period of development of children. Researchers have long identified a close relationship between the 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, therefore, even if the children are distracted, they can’t concentrate on the teaching material or stop listening to the teacher, punish them with a bad grade or scold them, because this method will only work for the next few minutes. Students without any effort will remember everything new, unexpected, bright, but they may miss the essential, “serious”

details of the material taught. Researchers notice that only the third grade can be maintained continuously throughout the lesson. With normal development in a child during training in elementary school, all the properties of attention, except for 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. The specifics of working with primary schoolchildren also lies in the need to select such methods and teaching aids that are effective and interesting to the students themselves. It is necessary to take into account the fact that schoolchildren better remember visual material: their perception is characterized by high emotionality and brightness of images.

The task of effectively introducing gaming into the educational process in order to increase the motivation of children. Younger schoolchildren perceive symbolic and schematic images worse, and visual material is better. In the process of learning, children need vivid images, a frequent change of events and activities, otherwise they get tired pretty quickly due to their age characteristics.

In the process of learning a foreign language, many analyzers are involved: 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 by hand"). Decision. Useful for the development of thinking mini-projects "What the letter looks like." 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), color it with silver color (silver), decorate it with stars (stars) and stripes, ribbons (strips), draw it in the solar circle (sun). Then the child must make a representation of his letter. When performing such tasks, the child develops diversely: 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 figurative types of thinking.

The difficulty of mastering written speech at the age of elementary school students. Writing instruction is one of the most important aspects of the modern language teaching methodology. As writing is mastered, a coherent speech develops, involving "mastery of the lexical stock and grammar 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 contents of the text read or self-written text." Decision. Mastering a written speech in both a native and a foreign language directly affects the formation of a holistic linguistic personality, therefore 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 the point here is not only in its correct choice. In elementary school, the personality of the teacher plays a particularly important role, his ability to interest schoolchildren, to fascinate with the subject, “not to frighten”, to teach children to learn. Therefore, in our opinion, the solution to this problem is promoted, first of all, by a careful and competent selection of teachers for teaching younger students.

Teaching phonetic material in the absence of time in the lesson. English pronunciation seems to us to be one of the most important stages in learning a language that in most cases is simply ignored and the importance of which is underestimated. In our opinion, mastering a foreign language should begin with pronunciation training. Often the student can understand and translate the text, but is completely unable to read it correctly because of the banal ignorance of the letter combinations and reading rules, as well as the constraint caused by this ignorance. Due to the large number of students in English language groups in schools, the ability to effectively teach pronunciation can be challenged. Indeed, this requires really great work of the teacher, who will pay attention to each student and turn the process of working on phonetics into an exciting lesson. Decision. There are various methods of working on phonetics and pronunciation, but the most important issue is the age of the students for whom the teacher selects material. One of the most interesting methods is the sound-color analysis method.

This method is used in teaching methods as an option for sound imaging, which is especially important for younger students: they will be able to figuratively and clearly present the sounds of the English language presented 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 technique is one of the areas of teaching the phonetics of the English language, which will be especially effective in elementary school, when the child's onomatopoeic abilities and imagination are highly developed. According to the recommendations of Zh.B. Vereninova, students imagine a vowel as if it were animated, and the author devotes a special educational song to each sound that conveys the character of this sound.

The described method of teaching children of primary school age is not the only one, however, it is one of the few that includes a method. Such phonetic classes do not require much time from teachers, and will be effective if the proposed ideas are put into practice correctly. Teaching a foreign language to younger students requires special skill of teachers, because it bears a huge responsibility. It is necessary not only to know a foreign language, but also to deal with it.