Błędy metodyczne w nauczaniu języka obcego w przedszkolu

Abstract

As it is commonly known, as of 1 September 2015 foreign language (FL) instructions have become an obligatory component of kindergarten education of five-year-old children. As of 1 September 2017, foreign language education will become a compulsory subject for all kindergarteners. The question that needs to be asked is about the quality of FL teaching at the kindergarten level. To answer it, I conducted a series of observations of English and German classes in ten public kindergartens in the Silesian Voivodeship. The choice of kindergartens was random. These were the institutions from the following cities: Piekary Śląskie, Bytom, Chorzów, Sosnowiec, Będzin, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Tarnowskie Góry, Siemianowice Śląskie, Katowice and Zabrze. The observations were then used to draw conclusions concerning, among other things, methodological mistakes made by teachers. The mistakes included e.g. not following the principle of prioritizing receptive over productive skills at this early stage, motivating children to repetition and language production, not taking the so-called ‘period of language incubation’ into consideration, not using longer texts (e.g. narratives) and not including elements of physical activity during the class. This article, apart from discussing the methodological mistakes, shows how these mistakes influence the process of language acquisition. What is more, the paper presents the way foreign language instruction is organized and conducted in the sampled kindergartens. The article ends with a few comments concerning the implications of the study for teacher training and teacher qualifications.