Реферат: Формирование грамматических навыков на начальном этапе обучения иностранному языку

In the elementary grades the major emphasis will be upon the actual use, rather than upon knowledge of the language itself and attention to restrictive rules. Grammar of the analytical and structural sort will have little place or no place in the elementary grades, but the oral and written conventions of English, those which function in actual speaking and writing, will be of chief concern.

Grammar organizes the vocabulary and as a result we have sense units. There is a system of stereotypes, which organizes words into sentences. But what skill does grammar develop?

First of all it gives the ability to make up sentences correctly, to reproduce the text adequately. (the development of practical skills and habits)

• The knowledge of the specific grammar structure helps pupils point out the differences between the mother tongue and the target language.

• The knowledge of grammar develops abilities to abstract systematize plural facts.

Examining the problem of grammar skills we must acquire how they are defined in literature. We must differentiate their kinds, features, and the conditions under which they are formed, the steps of forming grammar skills, and the grammar minimum for the primary school.

Learning grammar and forming grammar skills are important tasks of the subject “Foreign language” at the primary school. It is necessary for children not to make grammar mistakes. Roberto Lado wrote that a mistake is the wrong skill the aim of my diploma paper is to prevent children from making grammar mistakes, i.e. to form grammar skills. I think that the best way to form grammar skills is to use a lot of training exercises and individual approach in teaching grammar.

T

Theoretical part

he Importance of Grammar in Learning a Foreign

Language.

To judge by the way some people speak, there is no place for grammar in the language course nowadays; yet it is, in reality, as important as it ever was exercise of correct grammar, if he is to attain any skill of effective use of the language, but he need not know consciously formulated rules to account to him for that he does unconsciously correctly.

In order to understand a language and to express oneself correctly one must assimilate the grammar mechanism of the language studied. Indeed, one may know all the words in a sentence and yet fail to understand it, if one does not see the relation between the words in the given sentence. And vice versa, a sentence may contain one, two, and more in known words but if one has a good knowledge of the structure of the language one can easily guess the meaning of these words or at least find them in a dictionary.

No speaking is possible without the knowledge of grammar, without the forming of a grammar mechanism.

If learner has acquired such a mechanism, he can produce correct sentences in a foreign language. Paul Roberts writes: “ Grammar is something that produces the sentences of a language. By something we mean a speaker of English. If you speak English natively, you have built into you rules of English grammar. In a sense, you are an English grammar. You possess, as an essential part of your being, a very complicated apparatus which enables you to produce infinitely many sentences, all English ones, including many that you have never specifically learned. Furthermore by applying you rule you can easily tell whether a sentence that you hear a grammatical English sentence or not.” *¹

A command of English as is envisaged by the school syllabus cannot be ensured without the study of grammar . Pupils need grammar to be able to aud, speak, read, and write in the target language.

*1 Roberts P. English Sentences. New York, 1962, p.1

A Brief Review Of The Major Methods

Of Foreign Language Teaching.

The grammatical systems of Russian and English are fundamentally different. English is an analytical language, in which grammatical meaning in largely expressed through the use of additional words and by changes in word order. Russian is a synthetic language, in which the majority of grammatical forms are created through changes in the structure of words, by means of a developed system of prefixes, suffixes and ending. ( p. 121,

Brown C. and Jule “Teaching the spoken language”, Cambridge, 1983)

No one knows exactly how people learn languages although a great deal of research has been done into the subject.

Many methods have been proposed for the teaching of foreign language. And they have met with varying degrees of success and failure.

We should know that the method by which children are taught must have some effect on their motivation. If they find it deadly boring they will probably become de-motivated, whereas if they have confidence in the method they will find it motivating. Child learners differ from adult learners in many ways. Children are curious, their attention is of a shorter duration, they are quite differently motivated in, their interests are less specialized. They need frequent of activity; they need activities which are exciting and stimulating their curiosity; they need to be involved in something active.

We shall examine such methods as “The Grammar – Translation Method”, ”The Direct Method”, “The Audio-lingual Method”. And we pay attention to the teaching grammar of the foreign language. We shall comment those methods, which have had a long history.

The Grammar Translation method will be discussed.

This method was widely used in teaching the classics, namely Latin, and it was transferred to the teaching of modern languages when they were introduced into schools

In the grammar-translation mode, the books begin with definitions of the parts of speech, declensions, conjugations, rules to be memorized, examples illustrating the rules, and exceptions. Often each unit has a paragraph to be translated into the target language and one to be translated into native one. These paragraphs illustrate the grammar rules studied in the unit. The student is expected to apply the rules on his own. This involves a complicated mental manipulation of the conjugations and declensions in the order memorized, down to the form that might fit the translation. As a result, students are unable to use the language, and they sometimes develop an inferiority complex about languages in general. Exceptionally bright and diligent students do learn languages by this method, or in spite of it, but they would learn with any method.