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Development of Children’s Language Awareness in English Teaching Materials

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Development of children’s language awareness in English teaching materials

Abstract
The paper will focus on the concept of language awareness in the context of young learners. The whole language approach, inductive approach and implicit grammar teaching are advocated in early language education as children by the age of 10 are not able to understand abstract rules and principles. However, for languages to develop naturally grammatical categories have to be present in the instructions. Namely, YL encounter chunks, phrases and sentences, which are learnt in chants, rhymes, songs and stories, to express functions. Then, early foreign language education, including grammar teaching, can be viewed as consciousness raising process or …show more content…

Namely, it is suggested to introduce discovery grammar activities (problem solving activities), for example YL listen to a story and sequence pictures in the correct order. It is both the process of solving tasks and teaching grammar as the consciousness-raising process (cf. Ellis, 2002, 167-174 in Richards and Renandya). The idea is to provide opportunities for meaning-focused language use – communication. Development of language awareness in primary schools can occur in three following stages:
1) Noticing new language structures: teachers focus children’s attention to the forms of the target language so they perceive the structure and meaning.
2) Structuring knowledge of the target language system: YL manipulate forms and meanings of the structures in controlled practice (for example drills).
3) Proceduralizing: YL use the target language fluently and communicate in the controlled context (cf. Batstone, 1994:51-54).
2. Research aims The idea is to analyse a selected number of syllabuses and course books to identify the latest approaches to teaching grammatical categories in primary schools. There is one major aim:
1. To analyse English instructional materials (syllabuses and course books) for YL in terms of raising their language awareness and teaching grammatical categories. The analysis of syllabuses involves three detailed aims:
a) to analyse principles

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