What do the small children remember more in English, song or short story?

Anna Górska-Stefańska

GRADUATION WORK

„WHAT DO THE SMALL CHILDREN REMEMBER MORE IN ENGLISH,
SONG OR SHORT STORY?”

Postgraduate studies:

“English in preschool education and early school education”

1. Psychologists on whom the dissertation relies.

On my research I would like to check: what do small children prefer – song or short stories? How much information they are able to remember on those different ways? The famous psychologists have their own way to understand thinking and learning process for small children. For example:
a) Jean Piaget (constructivism)
• Everyone makes their own sense of the world and the experiences that surround them.
• It’s more important to provide experiences in the target language which are related to aspects of the children’s own world.
• We (the teachers) should not expect them (learners) to reach the stage of abstract reasoning and not expect them to understand the language through rules.
The teacher should encourage learners to be actively involved. The development of thinking and experience become a central focus of learning. We need to modifity what we already know so as to fit the new information. In classroom experiential learning should take place.

b)Eric Erikson
• Every individual proceeds through eight stages from birth to old age, each of which poses a particular challenge or crisis. If this challenge is handled well individuals can move smoothly onto the next stage. If the challenges are inadequately dealt with, they will continue to reappear throughout a person’s life, making it more and more difficult to deal with next stages and challenges appropriately.
Learning should involve the whole person, the emotions and feelings ii does not involve only transmitting knowledge piece by piece.

c) Jerome Bruner (cognitive)
• Every single thing learners learn in schools should selve them in the future.
• Every subject may be taught to anybody at any age in some form – it simply must be introduced step by step and making sure that all learners follow.
• Learners should be encouraged to think.
• Self actualization.
• (Story technique)

d)Carl Rogers
• Learners learn also about the process of learning itself.
• The extremal criticism is keept to a minims.
• It is important that the teacher conveys warm and empathy towards the learners in order to establish a relationship of trust.
• (Song technique)- context, no critisism, trust.

2. Hypothesis or research question.
For my dissertation, I was assigned that:
- What do the small children remember faster and more in English? Song or short story?

3. Profile of my group:
There is 24 children on my group on age 5-6 years old. There are 9boys and 15girls.

4. The skills, the methodological words:
- research, sample, controll group, experience, procedures, observation, analysis.

5. The conduct of the lesson and research implementation
It is the classroom which children know, it is safe place for them.

Synopsis of English lesson
Group: 5 years old
Time: about 25 min.
Subject: Five Little Monkeys
Total goals:
- We will know what children liked the most (song or stories)
- Wzbogacenie słownictwa w języku angielskim
- Ćwiczenie poprawnej wymowy pojedynczych słów anglojęzycznych
- Ćwiczenie sprawności słuchania i rozumienia z kontekstu
- Wprowadzenie nowej piosenki
- Ćwiczenie koordynacji wzrokowo-słuchowo- ruchowej
- Wprowadzenie ćwiczeń dramowych
Specyfic goals:
- Dzieci ćwiczą umiejętność słuchania nauczyciela i powtarzania za nim słów i/lub gestów
- Dzieci powtórzą liczenie w zakresie od 1 do 5
- Dzieci poznają historyjkę Five Little Monkeys , oglądają krótką historyjkę
-Dzieci układają historykę z uwzględnieniem chronologii zdarzeń
wysłuchają i nauczą się ruchów do piosenki Five Little Monkeys (Super Simple Songs 1) ,
- Dzieci odgrywają role (mama, małpki, lekarz)
The materials:
- film, CD music with song, Picture, monkey masks, crayons, mattress, telephone, doctor uniform, apron.
Konstruktion :
Część wstępna
1. Sprawdzenie listy obecności
2. Przywitanie: „If you happy”– śpiewanie z pokazywaniem i gestykulacją
3. Rozgrzewka: Cheeky’s jungle gym – piosenka z gestykulacją z kursu Cheeky Monkey

The essential part;
Zasadnicza część zajęć
1. Powtórzenie słówek z poprzednich lekcji: crayon, chair, monkey oraz utrwalanie liczenia w zakresie od 1 do 5
2. Historyjka Five Little Monkeys – nauczyciel opowiada historyjkę z wykorzystaniem odpowiednich kart obrazkowych Dzieci układalą historyjkę zgodnie z kolejnością w piosence.

3. Wspólne oglądanie krótkiego filmiku o małpkach.

4. Piosenka Five Little Monkeys – wprowadzenie piosenki i nauka odpowiednich gestów
5. Piosenka Five Little Monkeys – odśpiewanie i odegranie piosenki za pomocą ruchów i gestów z podziałem na role.

End of the class :
1. Dzieci kolorują obrazki małpki.
2. Wspólne sprzątanie – uczniowie sprzątają materiały, śledząc wskazówki nauczyciela
6. Research tools (interview):

• Interview – research instrument.
• CATEGORIES – STORY (by Jaremy Harmer)

Technique - jingsaw Technique - drama
1.Girls
(liked) 4 11
2.Boys
(liked) 3 5

• CATEGORIES – SONG (by Jaremy Harmer)

Technique – listening without pictures Technique – listening music and watching film
1.Girls
(liked) 7 8
2.Boys
(liked) 7 8

7. Expected results, analysis.
The most children boys and girls liked all classes. The most interesting for them was role play (monkeys, mum, doctor). Girls definitely preferred drama as nice fun, they were dancing and jumping during the song. Many children get remember a lot of full context words, gestures and rhythm. Boys on the group also liked drama , but they sad that film was also very nice and funny.
Finally, I think that the most effective technique is connect or mix different kinds of them to get better results.