HOW TO FORM ENGLISH AUDITORY AND PRONUNCIATION SKILLS IN RUSSIAN SPEAKING PRESCHOOLERS

ABSTRACT

The paper is devoted to a connection between auditory pronunciation skills and basic skills for initial reading and writing in English for Russian-speaking preschoolers. The research focuses on adapting the British methodology for Russian-speaking preschoolers, taking into account the culture and language differences. The work touches upon studying with multisensory way and synthetic phonics method, that used to teach kids how to read and write in English. To specify cognitive operations and visual devices, the author relies on tables and pictures.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Статья посвящена взаимосвязи процесса формирования слухо-произносительных навыков и развития элементарных умений чтения и письма на английском языке русскоязычных дошкольников. Исследование направлено на адаптацию британской методики для русскоязычных дошкольников с учетом культурных и языковых различий. Работа затрагивает изучение фонетики мультисенсорным способом, которые используются для обучения детей чтению и письму на английском языке. Для конкретизации когнитивных операций и зрительных приемов, автор опирается на таблицы и рисунки.

Keywords: Multisensory way, synthetic phonics method, auditory pronunciation skills, letter formation, digraphs.

Ключевые слова: Мультисенсорный подход, метод синтетической фонетики, навыки слухового произношения, формирование букв, диграфы.

The ways how to develop the mental abilities of preschool children become a relevant research target. There is a wide demand from society for mastering a foreign language from preschool age, since it is during this period of time that children learn with ease. The child’s imitation abilities, natural curiosity, the need to learn new things, as well as the absence of a language barrier contribute to effective foreign language mastering. Despite the high level of natural abilities of a preschooler, teachers face many tasks. Namely, not only to develop the child, but also to preserve the health of the young student, motivate him or her for the educational process and further continuous learning, develop the moral aspects of the individual, ensure cognitive development through foreign language training, and socialize the student.

There are many works devoted to teaching primary schoolchildren, teenagers and adults. O. A. Malykh writes about ways to develop the creative potential of younger schoolchildren in foreign language lessons [Malykh O.A., 2020, p. 3]. L. G. Vikulova dwells on the creating a communicative space for children and adolescents [Vikulova L. G., 2014, p. 232]. M. V. Kovalchuk considers methods of teaching reading to students with dyslexia within the framework of an inclusive approach [Kovalchuk M.V. and other others, 2017, p. 19]. There are also practical manuals aimed at teaching adults, in which significant attention is paid to improving listening skills - O. A. Suleymanova, K. S. Kardanova, N. N. Beklemesheva on the culture of speech communication [Suleymanova O. A. and other others, 2016, p. 288]. However, there are few works studying the developmental features of preschool children. M. M. Bezrukikh examines the origins of learning difficulties in primary school, talks about the connection between the characteristics of the child’s body and the child’s educational capabilities, readiness for the educational process [Bezrukikh M.M., 2009, p. 10-28]. Z. N. Nikitenko writes about cognitive and psychological development [Nikitenko Z.N., 2019, p. 113-120]. A. A. Mirolyubov described the main challenges in teaching pronunciation, requirements for foreign language pronunciation and methods for the formation and development of phonetic skills [Mirolyubov A.A., 2010, p. 154-159]. Currently, there are many methods and technologies for developing auditory and pronunciation skills, teaching reading and writing in English to primary school children, but only a few technologies take into account the requirements for the development of preschool children. Having considered the works described above, we can state the topic’s relevance.

Formed auditory and pronunciation skills are the basis for learning a foreign language, initial reading and writing. Without developed auditory and pronunciation skills, a child will not be able to subsequently read, write and understand the speech of a native speaker. Correct perception and imitation of sounds are the basis for teaching pronunciation, since traditionally methodological science considers auditory and pronunciation skills together as the auditory-articulatory basis in mastering a foreign language [Golovchanskaya I.I., Dudushkina S.V., 2021]. This study is aimed at developing the correct foreign language sounds pronunciation, the relationship of sound with its graphic form, writing letters and combining them into words.

Most languages have got tricky words, reading rules and digraphs. To cope with these mind-bending rules is extremely challenging for young learners. The paper introduces the five basic reading and writing skills. Furthermore, practical exercises to avoid potential difficulties and successfully develop auditory-pronunciation skills for initial reading and writing.

Learning the letter sounds

The first skill is learning the letter sounds. According to the Jolly Phonics program, there are 42 main sounds of English. The main sounds are expressed with letters and digraphs. The essential issue is association the sound with its graphic form. That is why the forthcoming goal is to teach young learners the way to remember letters and digraphs. That is why the forthcoming goal is to teach young learners to correlate and remember letters and digraphs.

A child needs to see the symbol, learn how to write it and have a writing practice to remember the graphic form of a sound. The worksheet takes into account student’s age features. The larger the letter the less developed the preschooler’s handwriting is. The size of the characters in the worksheet corresponds to the student’s age. An exercise with imaginary letters writing in the air develops imagination and boost writing techniques memory.

Association the sound with clear environment is a crucial point to remember the sound pronunciation. Give a known and developing contest from child’s life using an action to describe it. As an example, a snake says “s-s-s” and young learners wave their hands, pretending to be a snake and saying “s-s-s”. Actions are no longer necessary if a child becomes confident enough [Lloyd Sue, 2020, p. 3].

An extra practice for writing cvc-words needs to introduce the sounds not in alphabetical order. A first step in writing and learning sounds doesn’t include the letter names as it might confuse young learners. It presents after the confident reading cvc-words and words with digraphs. Alternatives as a-e (gate) presents with alphabetical letter names.

Learning the letter formation

The fundamental step in writing letters is holding a pencil correctly. The right fingers position is the tripod grip. A pencil is between the thumb and first two fingers - an index and a middle one. Incorrect writing way is difficult to relearn after.

The relevant personal and age’s abilities worksheets are essential. It is no use to ask a child for writing smaller letters at age before 7. The older a child is the stronger his fingers are. The young learner will be able to write small objects confidently as soon as he has physical abilities [Lloyd Sue, 2020, p. 7].

Focuses on particular writing each letter will teach joined-up writing and after that improve writing fluency. As for example, d- letter is started to write from the middle, not the top. Without such writing rules a child can hardly to write cursive. Writing in one continuous movement is helpful to remember word’s spelling. These theoretical aspects can be worked out with regular letter revision, air and paper- writing exercises and letter dictation.

Blending

The blending skill is a process of saying individual sounds in a word and running them together to make the word. The technique improves with practice. The reading motivation increases when a child starts blending known letters. A teacher has got a list of words for reading. It includes words which contain only known letters going step by step. The list is separated into 2 groups starters and movers. Starters group has got cvc-words - easy to start reding words with a new letter to a young learner. Movers group includes long words with two and more syllabus for children who have better blending abilities. A teacher mustn’t ignore extra splits reading (fl-a-g, dr-i-n-k…) to get used to blend 2 or 3 consonants.

The most challenging step is to recognize digraphs and blend 2 letters while reading. Young learners have to sound out the digraph, not as individual letters. It takes lots of time to get used to it. The helpful exercise to remember digraph is to give a common and clear to a child’s experience context. A mom is making a baby asleep and says to a boy or a girl «sh-sh-sh». We have a clear situation, a gesture to connect the digraph with a context, and a way to pronounce it. Thanks to a gesture a child is able to remember how a digraph sounds. Also, an essential point is to know the digraph’s graphic form. Young learners can hardly read without it. One of the key to recall a graphic form is to teach joined-up digraph’s writing. There are burning exercises as writing in the air, using worksheets and multisensory methods [Lloyd Sue, 2020, p. 9].

We have the controversial issue while reading words with irregular spelling because they aren’t read by blending (said, she, be, to, was…). It called tricky words. 

Identifying sounds in words

Hearing a word and pronouncing the sounds correctly is the fundamental ability for listening skills. Why? If a child pronounces the sounds correctly, he will hear words and identify them. A child needs to listen a word carefully and segment a word into the sounds, however, he should keep in mind digraphs, which has two letters, but only one sound.

There are four valuable exercises for segmenting and identifying sounds in words. The first one - I-Spy game. A teacher tells a word, children listen to the word and search for an appropriate sound’s position in a word (as the end sound, as the middle sound, as the hawrdest sound). A good idea is to start with three-letter words, then longer words, and words with digraphs. The other exercise. A teacher pronounces the word cat, learners reaped a c-a-t word out loud, counting, and bending the fingers to each sound. A teacher should encourage children to count the sounds and the letters in a word. Another game to play – add the sound. A teacher asks What do I get if I add a p to the beginning of ink? (pink). Take away the sound game. A teacher asks What do I get if I take away p prom pink? (ink). These games provide with the complex approach to identify sounds in a word and prepare children for spelling and writing [Lloyd Sue, 2020, p. 21].

Spelling the tricky words

Words with irregular spelling - tricky words – are needed to learn and remember. There are 6 tricky words groups. Each group has got 12 words and a group colour to make them more memorable. The first blue group has got I, the, he, she, me, we, be, was, to, do, are, all words. The second yellow group has got you, your, come, some, said, here, there, they, go, no, so, my words. The third orange group has got one, by, only, old, like, have, live, give, little, down, what, when words. The fourth green group has got why, where, who, which, any, many, more, before, other, were, because, want words. The fifth pink group has got saw, put, could, should, right, two, four, goes, does, made, their words. The sixth brown group has got once, upon, always, also, of, eight, love, cover, after, every, mother, father words. There are two ways to learn tricky words. Commonly used exercise to remember a word is look, cover, write and check. A teacher asks a student to look at a word and find a tricky word’s part. Then a student has to write a word in the air saying letters. Then close a previous writing or cover the word over and a student needs to write it down. A teacher makes sure what a student has written down. The next way is helpful to remember spelling. A teacher should teach joined-up writing to improve the hand-memory.

An integrated approach to teach phonetic skills in preschoolers provides the necessary basis for mastering a foreign language. The Jolly Phonics method was created by British methodologists for teaching British preschoolers in kindergarten and additional evening classes. The pedagogical event for preschool children is aimed at establishing sounds, the articulatory apparatus and the formation of auditory and pronunciation skills. The next foundation will be further teaching preschooler’s letters, reading and writing. The effectiveness of the course using the Jolly Phonics method is known throughout the world and non-English speaking countries use it to introduce preschool and elementary school children to learning English. At the same time, it is important to understand the relevance of differences in the cultural background, speech, and pronunciation of a Russian and a British preschooler. Therefore, the prospect of research is indicated in adapting the methodology for Russian-speaking students within the framework of additional evening education [Lloyd Sue, 2020, p. 38].

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