Algorithm for learning a foreign language for preschool children. Stages of development of speech activity of children in the process of teaching a foreign language

The way they teach English preschoolers sometimes it causes bewilderment in parents - why is it so, after all, we were taught in a completely different way ..? Indeed, the teaching method English language preschoolers and younger schoolchildren (7-8 years old) depends on their age features which adults sometimes do not think about. They remember how they themselves learned a foreign language at an older age. And this is completely different age group and other teaching methods.

I already wrote about whether it is worth teaching preschoolers, when to start and how to do it. And today about why we teach preschoolers this way.

We don't teach, we play

The main difference from adults is that children do not learn English, they play it. That is, they teach, of course, but they themselves do not think so. At this age, it is useless to force something to learn - children predominate involuntary memorization , so we need positive emotions. And where to get them, if not in games? Naturally, educational.

One day I accidentally overheard a conversation between my little six-year-old student and her grandmother, who was picking her up from class. The conversation went something like this:

Grandmother: Did your teacher ask you in class today?

Girl: No.

Grandmother: Well, didn't she ask you: Tell me, how would you say "ball" or "train" or "airplane" in English?

Girl: Not…

Grandmother: Well, did she ask anyone else?

Girl: Didn't ask...

Grandmother: What did you do in class???

Girl: We played!

At the same time, at the lesson, the girl called all the words listed by her grandmother and many other words and phrases, but all this was in game moments. For example, when it was necessary to name a picture that disappeared from the blackboard or guess what the word was from a small piece of the picture, and it never occurred to her that the teacher was asking her. She played. One of the advantages of early learning is that children learn by playing, easily and naturally..

Bright and clear

preschoolers predominate visual-figurative thinking . Children think in images and this allows them to use the English language as much as possible when teaching - children do not need translation. It is enough to correlate the word with its image - the corresponding picture, toy, object, gesture. Hence such a popular (and by the way, extremely effective) method in teaching preschoolers and younger schoolchildren as the method of complete physical response. This is a method in which, when learning new words or phrases, along with each word / phrase, a gesture is invented and memorized to imitate them. For example, with the word apple, children repeat the gesture, as if biting an imaginary apple, etc.

No grammar rules

Grammar acquisition in young children is also different. Logical thinking begins to form only closer to school and becomes more or less developed by the beginning of the younger adolescence. Respectively, when teaching preschoolers and younger students foreign language do not rely on the explanation of the rules (rules are an abstraction, they are hard for children) , but for the development of certain structures - grammar patterns (pattern - sample, pattern). That is, to explain little child that the verb to be means "to be, to be, to be" and in the present tense it changes by person like this - it's useless. With children of this age, they simply take the most frequently used patterns and train them properly, ideally to the point of automatism. Therefore, most of my little students of 7-8 years old perfectly use, for example, I am / You are / He is ... etc., without having the slightest idea that these are forms of the verb to be. Grow up and find out.

Translation is not needed!

Since abstract-logical thinking is not developed among preschoolers, and among younger schoolchildren it is still in the process of formation, it is not always necessary to draw parallels with the native language and sometimes it is even harmful. The early start of learning just allows you to form a foreign language separately from your native one. Adults (parents of the student, as well as grandparents) often do not know this feature of the teaching methodology, so sometimes funny situations happen when at home the child begins to ask: “How to say in English this ...? And how will it be in English then ...? Most children, of course, will answer this question. But sometimes the child in such a situation falls into a stupor and is silent in response. They come to see the teacher. The teacher takes out picture cards or toys, shows the child and asks What’s this? And suddenly the child names all-all objects. That is, he, in principle, knows how it will be “apple” both in Russian and in English, but these two languages \u200b\u200bin his head exist separately and he cannot yet build parallels between them.

Or vice versa, parents sometimes complain that their child, a preschooler or a first-grader, can describe a picture in English, selects sentences in an exercise for pictures correctly, but does not translate. How, they ask, to fix this ... And what is there to fix? If he describes and selects correctly, then he understands what he is talking about. And the fact that he does not translate into Russian means just that his language is being formed naturally and in the future, if the training is properly built, the child will not translate from Russian into English, but immediately build a statement in English.

Frequent change of activity

For preschoolers and younger students limited attention span They can't do the same thing for a long time. Frequent change of activities is one of the conditions for successful classes. Calculating everything is simple - we add 5 minutes to the age of the children - this is the maximum concentration time of the child. Those. children 5-6 years old can do the same thing for about 10 minutes. It will not work in another way: when children get bored with what they are doing, it will be difficult to calm them down.

Therefore, in courses for kids, children manage to do a lot of different things in a lesson: read, color, sing, dance, play with cards, watch a cartoon, and sometimes even do crafts. And all this is not a waste of time, as it may seem from the outside, but the elements of the lesson. Dancing is not just dancing, but again using TPR, for better memory words and grammatical patterns. When coloring or doing crafts, children follow the teacher's commands, which means they develop listening skills and repeat the learned vocabulary - colors, names of objects in the picture, etc. Educational cartoons are also not superfluous at all. They are short (2-5 minutes), they also repeat the studied vocabulary and grammar, and they help to relax when the children are tired of active game or difficult task.

I hope this article was useful for you. If something is missing or you want to ask a question - please write in the comments, I will try to answer.Good luck with your learning English!

1. Introduction

Over the past 5-6 years, the number of people learning English has increased dramatically. The fact that it is impossible for a modern person to do without knowledge of foreign languages has become obvious to almost everyone. The age of students has also changed. If until now the methodology was focused primarily on schoolchildren, now parents are striving to start teaching their children a foreign language as early as possible. Moreover, preschool age is recognized by psychologists as the most favorable period for this type of activity.

The purpose of this work is to reveal the main possible directions, general idea organization of teaching a foreign language to children up to school age.

The main objectives of the study are:

To determine the possibilities of preschoolers in the field of learning a foreign language.

To reveal the main goals and objectives of teaching a foreign language to children preschool age.

To reveal the main methods of teaching a foreign language to preschoolers.

The subject of the research is the problem of teaching a foreign language to preschoolers.

The object of the study is the game as the leading method of teaching preschoolers a foreign language in domestic and foreign methods.

The work consists of theoretical and practical parts. In the theoretical part, we determine the possibilities of preschoolers in the field of learning a foreign language, reveal the main goals and objectives of teaching a foreign language to preschoolers, as well as solve the problem of group size, reveal the main methods of teaching a foreign language to preschoolers.

In the practical part of this work, exemplary exercises in teaching preschoolers pronunciation, mastering transcription, reading, writing, foreign vocabulary, as well as methodological recommendations for organizing lessons in preschool institutions.

The theoretical significance of this work lies in the fact that its results can contribute to the further introduction of foreign language teaching in preschool institutions, as well as the resolution of many problems associated with teaching children a foreign language.

The practical value of this work lies in the fact that these methodological recommendations and many tasks and exercises can be applied by teachers of foreign languages in preschool institutions, as well as in primary school.

2. Opportunities for preschoolers in the field of learning a foreign language

2.1 Readiness of preschoolers to learn

Behind last years the age threshold for the start of teaching children a foreign language is increasingly decreasing. As a rule, a four-year-old child is considered to be already fully prepared for classes, while some parents tend to send three-year-old children to English language groups. How to relate to this, and what age is considered the most suitable for starting training?

It is known that the possibilities of an early age in mastering a foreign language are truly unique. More K.D. Ushinsky wrote: ""A child learns in a few months to speak a foreign language in a way that he cannot learn in a few years"".

A unique predisposition to speech (and the most favored zone in mastering a foreign language is age period from 4 to 8-9 years), the plasticity of the natural mechanism of speech acquisition, as well as a certain independence of this mechanism from the action of hereditary factors associated with belonging to a particular nationality - all this gives the child the opportunity, under appropriate conditions, to successfully master a foreign language. With age, this ability gradually fades away. Therefore, any attempts to teach a second foreign language (especially in isolation from the language environment) to older children are usually associated with a number of difficulties.

Successful mastery of foreign language speech by children becomes possible also because children (especially preschoolers) are distinguished by more flexible and faster memorization of language material than at subsequent age stages; the presence of a globally operating model and the naturalness of communication motives; the absence of the so-called language barrier, i.e. fear of inhibition, which prevents you from engaging in communication in a foreign language, even if you have the necessary skills; relatively little experience in speech communication in their native language, etc. In addition, the game, being the main activity of a preschooler, makes it possible to make practically any language units.

All this makes it possible to early age optimally combine communicative needs and the possibilities of their expression in a foreign language by children given age and thus avoid one essential contradiction, which constantly arises with more late start teaching this subject between the communicative needs of the student (the desire to learn and say a lot) and limited language and speech experience (not knowing how to express a lot with a small amount of vocabulary).

So, at what age should you start learning a foreign language? According to the author of the textbook "How to teach children to speak English" Sholpo I.L., it is best to start learning a foreign language at the age of five. Teaching four-year-olds, in her opinion, is certainly possible, but unproductive. Four-year-olds learn material much more slowly than five-year-olds. Their reactions are spontaneous, emotions overflow, attention constantly switches from one subject to another. It is difficult for children of this age who do not attend kindergarten to do without the presence of their parents, in addition, they have not yet formed a proper sense of humor, which is important when organizing foreign language teaching. In addition, four-year-old children still do not speak their native language well enough: they have not developed the ability to communicate, the regulatory function of speech and inner speech. The role-playing game, which has highest value when teaching a foreign language to preschoolers.

Experimental confirmation the inexpediency of starting teaching a foreign language at the age of four, according to the author of the book, was received by Z.Ya. Futerman, who compared the success in learning of two groups of children, one of which began to study at the age of four, and the other at the age of five. Four-year-olds not only lagged behind five-year-olds in the first year of study, but also advanced more slowly in the second year than five-year-olds in the first, which allowed the teacher to conclude that "some negative influence early learning of a foreign language in further move learning"". The optimal age to start classes Z.Ya. Futerman counts five; comes to the same conclusion based on his practical experience and E.I. Negnevitskaya.

However, the author of the article, from the magazine "Foreign Languages at School" No. 2 of 1997, "Teaching English to Children colloquial speech in kindergarten"" Shchebedina V.V., shares with readers information about the successful completion of a four-year experiment in teaching English to children of three years of age, which took place in 1994 in kindergarten No. 14 in the city of Syktyvkar. The author of the article concludes that, "" now we can say with certainty that early learning foreign language speech of children of this age is legitimate, as it allows a flexible transition to in-depth teaching of a foreign language in elementary school, allows you to maintain and deepen the positive motivation for studying the subject at school "". The author notes that children of this age are very inquisitive, inquisitive, they are characterized by an inexhaustible need for new experiences, a thirst for research, and all these psychophysiological features were used by teachers in teaching English conversational speech. However, how exactly all these features were used by teachers, the author of the article keeps a secret, but the author reveals another, that the principle of communicative learning, which is obvious in itself, because the article is called "" Teaching children English colloquial speech in kindergarten. I would like to mention one interesting fact that every two months entertainment classes were held in kindergarten: staged various fairy tales, children sang songs, read poetry, and all such activities were recorded on video. In our opinion, teachers have created a new interesting incentive for learning a foreign language in children, although the author sees more deep meaning in the use of video, namely "" The video film allows them to see themselves from the side, analyze mistakes, celebrate successes "". And again, the author is silent about how children of three years old will analyze their mistakes. Also, it must be remembered that it is at the age of three that children experience the so-called "three-year-old crisis", which negatively affects the child's learning a foreign language. We can conclude that the author's statements that the age of three can be called legitimate for learning a foreign language are absolutely not supported by facts, namely, unsubstantiated.

The relevance of early learning a foreign language is determined by the needs of society. Teaching a foreign language to preschool children creates excellent opportunities for learning a foreign language for younger students. In this connection, the desire of parents of preschool children to learn a foreign language as early as possible increases. Nowadays, a foreign language is a ubiquitous practice based on modern and efficient technologies learning a foreign language, health-saving technologies, taking into account the personality - oriented approach, age characteristics of preschool children.
The purpose of teaching preschoolers a foreign language is to form an interest in learning, in knowing the world around them, people, relationships and cultures on the basis of mastering a foreign language.
Early learning a foreign language puts forward the following tasks:
1. Formation and development of foreign language phonetic skills (so far speech apparatus plastic and there are still mechanisms for mastering the native speech, these skills are easily acquired, so it is important not to waste time);
2. Development of listening skills (understanding of speech by ear);
3. Development of speaking skills (i.e. the formation of a child's idea of a foreign language as a means of communication);
4. Formation and replenishment of vocabulary.
The positive role of early learning of foreign languages is as follows:

Contributes to the self-identification of the personality of the child to a large extent;
Creates prerequisites for the formation of interest in other equally valuable cultures and languages;
Teaching a foreign language to preschoolers contributes to the development mental processes necessary for the formation of language abilities and communication skills children:

In this connection, all sides are improving mother tongue, which provides:

The socialization of the child's personality takes place:

Early learning a foreign language contributes to the development of emotional and volitional qualities child:

- the ability to overcome obstacles in achieving the goal on the basis of the child's interest in achieving this goal;

- ability to correctly evaluate the results of their achievements.

As well as:
- development creativity children,

- development of their imagination,

- development of emotional responsiveness to foreign speech.

Most researchers (A.A. Leontiev, E.A. Arkin, E.I. Negnevitskaya, I.L. Sholpo and others) consider preschool and primary school age as the most favorable both in physiological and in psychologically to start the systematic study of foreign languages.
One of the most significant points, according to most researchers, is increased sensitivity to linguistic phenomena at this age, which is an important prerequisite for the successful formation of foreign language speech skills and abilities.
Successful mastery of foreign language speech by children becomes possible also because children of preschool and primary school age are distinguished by more flexible and faster memorization of language material than at subsequent stages; naturalness of communication motives; the absence of the so-called language barrier, i.e. fear of inhibition, which prevents you from engaging in communication in a foreign language, even if you have the necessary skills; relatively little experience in verbal communication in their native language.
It is also important to note that the correct organization of teaching a foreign language is very important. Optimal organized activity in childhood(playful, visual, constructive, labor, as well as related to the implementation of regime moments) can and should be used in the formation of foreign language skills in children. Each activity provides in turn great opportunities for the assimilation of specific groups of words, which provides in further formation Speech Skills, provides children with the opportunity to communicate at an elementary level using the language they are learning and let them feel their own success.
Thus, significant positive impact organized early foreign language education in intellectual development children is manifested in achieving success in learning, including the acquisition of their native language, which in turn is caused by the activation of the main cognitive mental processes: perception, memory, thinking, imagination; in more high level formation creative thinking. Equally important is the familiarization of children with the means of language to a foreign culture and their awareness of their native culture, the upbringing of an intercultural vision of the child; educating a child's sense of self-awareness as a person (adequate self-esteem and early socialization of a preschooler); formation of interest and motivation for further study of a foreign language in the context lifelong learning and further inclusion of the child in educational activities.

Bibliography

Bakhtalina E.Yu. On Integrated Teaching of English in Kindergarten // Foreign Languages at School. -2000.-№6- P.44
Vitol A.B. Do preschoolers need a foreign language? // Foreign languages at school, - 2002. No. 3. - P. 42
Makhina O.E. Teaching a foreign language to preschoolers: a review of theoretical positions // Foreign languages at school. - 1990. - No. 1 - P. 38 - 42.
Negnevitskaya E.I., Nikitenko Z.N., Lenskaya E.A. Teaching English to children 6 years old in 1st grade high school: Guidelines: At 2 o'clock - M.,: Education, 2002-300s.
Nikitenko Z.N. Teaching foreign languages in initial stage.// Foreign languages at school. 2003-5-6-p.34-35.
Passov E.I. Basics communicative methodology teaching foreign language communication / E.I. Passov - M .: Russian language, 1989 - 140s.

Kochevykh N.V., teacher additional education(English) MDOU kindergarten combined type No. 10 Zemsky, Belgorod

Games used in the English lesson for preschoolers

Games used in the English lesson for preschoolers to introduce and consolidate the studied material and enhance the learning process

1. "Fun exercise"
Instruction: “I call the commands in English, and you follow them. But there is one condition: if I politely ask you to make a command, for example, "Please run", then you execute it, and if I do not say the word "please", then you do nothing. Be careful!"

2. Game (to consolidate the structure "I can ... .."
The leader counts to five: “One, two, three, four, five!” Then he says: "Stop!" While counting, children perform arbitrary movements, and on “Stop!” freeze. After that, the host "revives" the players. He approaches each child in turn and asks: “What can you do?”. The child "dies off", answering: "I can run" - depicts the desired action.

3. "Merry account"
The ball is passed in a circle to the account: one! Two! Three! Four! Five! good bye! The one who has the ball in his hand on "Good-bye" is eliminated. The game continues until only one of all players remains. Which will be the winner.

4. "Who are you?"
Players guess a profession. The facilitator throws a ball to each player and asks "Are you a cook?". If the player guessed this profession, he answers: "Yes", if not, then "No".

5. "Corridor"
Ask the children to break into pairs, hold hands, stand in pair by pair and raise their joined hands high above their heads, forming a “corridor”.
The host must go through the "corridor" and choose one of the players in any pair, ask him who he is (Who are you?) And what is his name (What is your name?).
The child should answer: “I am a girl / a boy. My name is …..). Then the rider says: “Come here!” ("Come here!") - and takes the player by the hand. The kid replies: "With pleasure!" (“With pleasure!”). After that, along the "corridor" passes new couple and gets up after the rest of the players. The new host becomes the one who was left without a pair.

6. "Little ring" ("Little ring")
The host hides the coin between the palms. Children become a semicircle, folding their palms together. The host approaches each player and says, pushing his palms apart with his palms: “Please!” The player must answer: "Thank you!" Having gone around everyone and quietly giving a coin to one of the children, the presenter asks: “Little ring! Come here!" The game continues: now the driver will be the one who ran out of the semicircle with a coin in his palms.

7. "Broken phone"
Children sit in a semicircle. To the one who sits on the edge, the presenter says English word(according to the topic covered or studied). The word is passed into the ear of a friend. If the last player said the word that the host thought, then "the phone is not damaged."

8. "Read my lips"
The leader pronounces English words without a voice. Players must recognize the word by the movement of the leader's lips.

9. "Edible-inedible"
The host calls the word in English and throws the ball to the child. The kid must catch the ball if the word means an edible object. If the word means an inedible object, you do not need to catch the ball.

10. "Who's in the bag?"
The host puts the toys in a bag. Then brings to each player. The child puts his hand into the bag, and by touch guesses what kind of object it is. He says: “It is a ....” Then he takes it out of the bag, and everyone looks to see if he called correctly.

11. "What is missing?" ("What's the missing?")
The leader arranges the toys. He asks the children to name them and remember them, and at the command “Close your eyes!” close eyes. Then he removes one of the toys and, at the command “Open your eyes!” asks the children to open their eyes and guess which toy is missing.

12. "Blind Man's Buff".
Children stand in a circle. The leader is blindfolded. One of the players goes out or hides. The leader is unleashed and asked: “Look at us and say who has run away?” . The leader answers: "Light."

13. Role-playing game "In the shop" ("In the shop")
Children are divided into the role of a seller and a buyer. The seller lays out the products and meets the buyers.
- What would you like?
-I'd like……
-Here you are.
-Thank you.
-My pleasure.

14. "Traffic Lights"
The leader and the children stand opposite each other at some distance. The host calls the color in English.
Children must find the color indicated by the leader on their clothes, demonstrate this color and go to the side of the leader.
Whoever does not have the right color must count one, two, three! Run across to opposite side. If the leader catches one of the children, then the caught one becomes the leader.

15. "Echo"
Turning to the side, in a distinct whisper, the teacher pronounces the words passed. Children, like an echo, repeat every word after the teacher.

16. "English-Russian"
If the teacher calls an English word, then the children clap.
If the Russian is not clapping. (It is advisable to play the game at the initial stage of learning English).

17. The game "Make an animal" ("Turn into an animal")
At the signal of the teacher, all the children scatter around the class. At the signal: “Make an animal!” (clap hands) all the players stop at the place where the team found them and take any animal pose.
The teacher, approaching the children, asks: “Who are you?” The child answers: "I'm a cat".

18. Game to reinforce structures: "It is cold (warm, hot)." (Cold, warm, hot)
The host is invited to turn away or go out the door for a while. At this time, the players hide an object in the room, after showing it to the leader. When the item is hidden, the presenter enters (turns) and starts looking for it. The players tell the presenter in English whether he is far or close to the hidden object. In this case, the expressions “it’s cold (warm, hot)” are used.

19. The game "Guess whose voice" (fixing the pronouns he / she)
The facilitator turns his back to the players. One of the players pronounces a phrase in English (the phrase is selected relative to the topic covered), and the presenter guesses who said it: “She is Sveta. He is Misha

20. Game "Hide and Seek"
Children close their eyes. The host hides the toy behind his back. Children open their eyes and ask questions to the facilitator, trying to guess who he hid: “Is it a bear / a frog / a mouse?” And the leader answers: “Yes / No” The one who guessed it goes to drive next.

21. "Stand up those who ..."
The teacher says the phrase: “Stand up, who…..(has a sister/brother, is 5/6/7, likes ice cream/ fish, can/can't swim/fly”. Students get up from the chair depending on the command .

22. Guess: who is he (she)?
A leader is chosen from among the children. The players name the signs of clothing by which you can guess the hidden child. She has a gray sweater. The driver asks: Is it Sveta?

23. "What's missing"
Cards with words are laid out on the carpet, the children call them. The teacher gives the command: "Close your eyes!" and removes 1-2 cards. Then he gives the command: "Open your eyes!" and asks the question: "What is missing?" Children remember the missing words.

24. "Pass the card"
Children sit in a semicircle and pass each other a card, calling it. The teacher calls the word first. To complicate the task, children can say: “I have a…” / “I have a… and a…”.

25. "Forbidden Movements"
At the beginning of the game, the driver gives a command that cannot be executed (for example, run) and gives the instruction: "When you hear the command run, you must stop and do not move."

26. "Words road"
Cards are laid out on the carpet one after another, with small gaps. The child walks along the "path", naming all the words.

27. Is it true or not?
The game can be played with a ball. The driver throws the ball to any of the players and calls the phrase, asking the question: "Is it true or not?" The player catches the ball and answers: "Yes, it's true", or "No, it's not true". Then he becomes the leader and throws the ball to the next player.
For example:
Yellow lemon Pink pig
orange bear brown monkey
White snow Red crocodile
Purple mouse Green grapes
Gray elephant Purple cucumber
blue apple black sun

28. "Confusion"
The driver calls the team, at the same time shows another. Players must follow the command that the driver calls, and does not show. Whoever makes a mistake is out of the game.

29. "Tell me something beginning with…..."
The driver says the words: "Tell me something beginning with" s "". Players must name what they can more words, which start with an "s" sound.

Opportunities for preschoolers in the field of learning a foreign language

Over the past 5-6 years, the number of people learning English has increased dramatically. The fact that it is impossible for a modern person to do without knowledge of foreign languages has become obvious to almost everyone. The age of students has also changed. If until now the methodology was focused primarily on schoolchildren, now parents are striving to start teaching children a foreign language as early as possible. Moreover, preschool age is recognized by psychologists as the most favorable period for this type of activity.

The changed situation creates an ever-increasing need for qualified teachers in society. Their absence leads to rather sad consequences. People who barely know the basics of the language consider themselves capable of teaching preschoolers, since this knowledge is supposedly quite enough for small children. As a result, time is not only wasted, but the further advancement of children in this area is also damaged: after all, it is always harder to relearn than to teach, and it is more difficult to correct bad pronunciation than to put sounds from scratch. But even when people who know the language perfectly come to the kids, they do not always manage to achieve the desired result: teaching kids is a very difficult task that requires a completely different methodological approach than teaching schoolchildren and adults. Faced with methodologically helpless lessons, children can acquire an aversion to a foreign language for a long time, lose confidence in their abilities.
In recent years, the age threshold for the start of teaching children a foreign language has been increasingly reduced. As a rule, a four-year-old child is considered to be already fully prepared for classes, while some parents tend to send three-year-old children to English language groups. How to relate to this, and what age is considered the most suitable for starting training?
It is known that the possibilities of an early age in mastering a foreign language are truly unique. More K.D. Ushinsky wrote: ""A child learns in a few months to speak a foreign language in a way that he cannot learn in a few years"".
Unique predisposition to speech(and the most favored zone in mastering a foreign language is the age period from 4 to 8-9 years), the plasticity of the natural mechanism of speech acquisition, as well as a certain independence of this mechanism from the action of hereditary factors associated with belonging to a particular nationality - all this gives the child the opportunity, under appropriate conditions, to successfully master a foreign language. With age, this ability gradually fades away. Therefore, any attempts to teach a second foreign language (especially in isolation from the language environment) to older children are usually associated with a number of difficulties.
Successful mastery of foreign language speech by children becomes possible also because children (especially preschoolers) are distinguished by more flexible and faster memorization of language material than at subsequent age stages; the presence of a globally operating model and the naturalness of communication motives; the absence of the so-called language barrier, i.e. fear of inhibition, which prevents you from engaging in communication in a foreign language, even if you have the necessary skills; relatively little experience in verbal communication in their native language, etc. In addition, the game, being the main activity of a preschooler, makes it possible to make practically any language units communicatively valuable.
All this makes it possible at an early age to optimally combine communicative needs and the ability to express them in a foreign language by children of this age and thereby avoid one significant contradiction that constantly arises at a later start of teaching this subject between the communicative needs of the student (the desire to learn and say a lot) and limited language and speech experience (not knowing how to express a lot with a small amount of vocabulary).
So, at what age should you start learning a foreign language? According to the author of the textbook "How to teach children to speak English" Sholpo I.L., it is best to start learning a foreign language at the age of five.
Teaching four-year-olds, in her opinion, is certainly possible, but unproductive. Four-year-olds learn material much more slowly than five-year-olds. Their reactions are spontaneous, emotions overflow, attention constantly switches from one subject to another. It is difficult for children of this age who do not attend kindergarten to do without the presence of their parents, in addition, they have not yet formed a proper sense of humor, which is important when organizing foreign language teaching. In addition, four-year-old children still do not speak their native language well enough: they have not developed the ability to communicate, the regulatory function of speech and inner speech have not been formed. The role-playing game, which is of the greatest importance in teaching a foreign language to preschoolers, has not reached developed forms either.
Experimental confirmation of the inexpediency of starting teaching a foreign language at the age of four, according to the author of the book, was obtained by Z.Ya. Futerman, who compared the success in learning of two groups of children, one of which began to study at the age of four, and the other at the age of five. Four-year-olds not only lagged behind five-year-olds in the first year of study, but also advanced more slowly in the second year than five-year-olds in the first, which allowed the teacher to conclude that "" some negative impact of early learning a foreign language on the further course of education "". The optimal age to start classes Z.Ya. Futerman counts five; E.I. comes to the same conclusion on the basis of his practical experience. Negnevitskaya.

As for three-year-old children, it is even less necessary to speak about their mastery of a foreign language in the process of more or less conscious learning in a team. At this age, the child is just beginning to master grammatically designed speech in his native language, dialogic speech is only in its infancy. The vocabulary of a child up to three years of age is enriched almost exclusively by the accumulation of individual words, and only after three years of age begins to grow rapidly due to the mastery of the laws of word and form formation. Neither educational nor collective play activities are available to them yet. As the experience of early childhood development (in particular, teaching babies to swim) shows, children under three years of age are able to learn something only in close direct contact with their parents.
However, the author of the article, from the journal "Foreign Languages at School" No. 2, 1997, "Teaching Children English Conversation in Kindergarten" Shchebedina V.V., shares with readers information about the successful completion of a four-year experiment in teaching English the language of children of three years of age, which took place in 1994 in kindergarten No. 14 of the city of Syktyvkar. The author of the article concludes that, ""now we can say with confidence that the early teaching of foreign language speech to children of this age is legitimate, as it allows a flexible transition to in-depth teaching of a foreign language in elementary school, allows you to maintain and deepen the positive motivation for studying the subject at school"". The author notes that children of this age are very inquisitive, inquisitive, they are characterized by an inexhaustible need for new experiences, a thirst for research, and all these psychophysiological features were used by teachers in teaching English conversational speech. However, how exactly all these features were used by teachers, the author of the article keeps a secret, but the author reveals to another that the principle of communicative learning was put at the basis of each lesson, which is obvious in itself, because. The article is titled "Teaching Children English Conversation in Kindergarten". I would like to note one interesting fact that every two months entertainment classes were held in the kindergarten: various fairy tales were staged, children sang songs, read poems, and all such activities were recorded on video. In our opinion, teachers have created an interesting new stimulus for learning a foreign language in kids, although the author sees a deeper meaning in the use of video, namely "" Video allows them to see themselves from the side, analyze mistakes, celebrate successes "". And again, the author is silent about how children of three years old will analyze their mistakes. Also, it must be remembered that it is at the age of three that children experience the so-called "three-year-old crisis", which negatively affects the child's learning a foreign language. We can conclude that the author's statements that the age of three can be called legitimate for learning a foreign language are absolutely not supported by facts, namely, unsubstantiated.
E.A. Arkin singles out the age of five as the most suitable (both physiologically and psychologically) for the beginning of any learning activities. At this age, the child is capable of more or less prolonged concentration of attention, he has the ability to purposeful activity, he masters sufficient vocabulary and a stock of speech models to meet their communication needs. Five-year-olds develop a sense of humor, role-playing games wear developed, complex nature. Obviously, the prerequisites for conscious mastery of a language are usually created by the age of five.
What is the reason for such a strong desire of parents to send the child to a foreign language study group as early as possible? Most likely, first of all, with the popularity of imitative learning theory and the belief of many people in the possibility of miraculous involuntary language acquisition at an early age.
But unconscious, spontaneous assimilation occurs, in fact, only in the conditions of the child's constant presence in the language environment. This is how the learning process goes. mother tongue, so it happens with bilinguals - children who grew up in a bilingual environment, when a child hears one language in the family, and another in the yard, in kindergarten, on the street (for example, in the former Soviet republics). We know cases of bilingualism in artificially created conditions, when the father spoke only English to his son, starting from his birth, and by the age of five the child was equally fluent in both Russian and English. The ""governess method"" is also based on this, but this involves many hours of daily communication with the child in a foreign language. In the conditions of a kindergarten group, a cultural center, etc. this method is not possible.
In addition, not all children are able to successfully engage in conditions involuntary memorization. Research by M.K. Kabardov revealed the existence of two types of students: communicative and non-communicative. If those belonging to the first type are equally successful in both voluntary and involuntary memorization, then those belonging to the second (and this is 30%, regardless of age) are capable of productive activity only if they are oriented towards voluntary memorization and visual reinforcement of verbal material. This means that, stepping on the path of imitativeness, the involuntary acquisition of knowledge, we automatically classify 30% of children as incapable of successfully mastering a foreign language. But this is unfair: the same children can achieve no less success than representatives of communicative type if they are placed in a situation of conscious acquisition of knowledge.
Therefore, mastering a foreign language at preschool age should take place in the learning process, no matter how playful and outwardly spontaneous it may be. And children must be physically and psychologically prepared for this. And this readiness, as a rule, comes by the age of five.
Methodology pedagogical work determined by the goals and objectives set by the teacher. From the point of view of I.L. Sholpo main goals in teaching preschoolers a foreign language are:
- formation of primary communication skills in a foreign language in children; the ability to use a foreign language to achieve their goals, express thoughts and feelings in real situations of communication;
- creation of a positive mindset for the further study of foreign languages; awakening interest in the life and culture of other countries;
- education of an active-creative and emotional-aesthetic attitude to the word;
- development of linguistic abilities of students, taking into account the age characteristics of their structure in older preschoolers;
- Decentration of the personality, that is, the ability to look at the world from different perspectives.
Children are ready to learn a foreign language by the age of five. The methodology of teaching classes should be built taking into account age and individual characteristics structure of children's linguistic abilities and be aimed at their development. Foreign language classes should be comprehended by the teacher as part of general development personality of the child are associated with his sensory, physical, intellectual education.
Teaching children a foreign language should be communicative in nature, when the child masters the language as a means of communication, that is, not just learns individual words and speech patterns, but learns to construct statements according to the models known to him in accordance with the communicative needs that arise in him. Communication in a foreign language should be motivated and purposeful. It is necessary to create in the child a positive psychological attitude to foreign language speech. The way to create such positive motivation is the game. Games in the lesson should be episodic and isolated. A cross-cutting gaming technique is needed that combines and integrates other types of activities in the process of language learning. The game technique is based on the creation of an imaginary situation and the adoption by a child or a teacher of a particular role.
Teaching a foreign language in kindergarten is aimed at educating and developing children by means of the subject on the basis and in the process of practical mastery of the language as a means of communication.
Teaching a foreign language puts forward the task of humanitarian and humanistic formation of the child's personality. This is facilitated by acquaintance with the culture of the countries of the language being studied; education of politeness, goodwill; awareness of oneself as a person of a certain gender and age, a person. The study of a foreign language is also intended to make a certain contribution to the development of independent thinking, logic, memory, imagination of the child, to the formation of his emotions, to the development of his communicative and cognitive abilities.

Algorithm for learning a foreign language for preschool children. Stages of development of speech activity of children in the process of teaching a foreign language

We don't teach, we play