What relevance does speaking have in primary schools and is the "Teilrahmenplan" aligned to meet the needs of speaking skills?

Contents

1 Introduction

2 The Importance of Speaking in Primary School

3 What is Important for Building a Conductive Ability of Speaking?
3.1 The importance of a nice atmosphere
3.2 The importance of input and authentic speaking situations

4 How Do the Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen and the Unterrichtsor- ganisation Grundschule Deal with the Support of Speaking?

5 The Problem Between the Contact Time and the Goals for Speaking in Primary School

6 Didactic and Methodological Consequences
6.1 The professionalism of a good teacher
6.2 Useful methods
6.3 Rituals, Songs and Games

7 Conclusion

1 Introduction

As in many other countries English is an important lingua franca in Germany. Before 2001, it was only learned from class ve or in some states from class three. Since 2001, English or another foreign language is an obligatory subject in the primary school from class one to four. The ability to communicate in a foreign language should be supported. Speaking skills are necessary for achieving this goal. As a consequence, speaking tasks should occupy an important place in everyday school live. The Unterrichtsorganisation Grundschule allocates teaching time to all subjects and the foreign language acquisi- tion got the fewest time of all primary school subjects. This term paper elaborates this problem and give a brief overview about possibilities on how a teacher could handle this situation.

First, the importance of speaking in primary school will be shown. After that, the focus will be on the requirements which are important for building a conductive ability of speaking. In this part,

In this part, the main focus will be on the theoretical basis for an ideal support of the speaking skill. Then, the "Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen" of Rhineland-Palatinate and its connection to speaking will be displayed. The proposed time management from the "Unterrichtsorganisation Grundschule" for the foreign language classroom will be re ected on, too. Next, the con ict between the insu cient contact time with the English language and the requirements for a successful language learning will be discussed. Afterwards, the opportunities for teachers for dealing with these issues will be shown. Lastly, it will be elaborated how teachers can improve the speaking skills.

2 The Importance of Speaking in Primary School

For all people language is the most important medium to communicate.¹ The mother tongue is used daily and it is essential for children to communicate with their environ- ment or to o er their needs. At the age of ve or six children use their rst language close to adult speakers. The second language which is learned in school is not as easy to learn as the native language. The contact time to the new language is a lot less, it is not the main medium for communication and pupils at the age of nine or ten are on another cognitive level than younger children which is not conducive for the language learner ². Imitating the sound of a new word is more easy for children in this age. Because of that an outstanding pronunciation of the linguistic example, by the teacher, is absolutely necessary.³ The whole massage could be changed without the right pronunciation of a sentence. Trying to correct a wrong learned phonetic picture will be demotivating, frustrating and often pointless for pupils.

In there early childhood children bring the precondition to learn a new language easier than later.⁴ A lot of curiosity and enthusiasm are the main reasons for this behaviour. They use the foreign language without bias and in a more natural way than an adult language learner. Recent researches discovered that this curiosity and enthusiasm get lost in institutional learning places like school because there is no place for spontaneous and free speaking.⁵

Primary school teachers should be aware of their responsibility.⁶ Pupils imitate their pronunciation, use their vocabulary and copy their grammar. The teacher should be a role model and this especially requires a correct pronunciation. Speaking and listening have to be already existing in class one but the teacher has to pay attention to the limits and possibilities of every child.⁷ Speaking is also demanded from the learner to learn the language. The child has to be aware of the di erent speech sounds and has to produce them correctly.⁸ Almost all pupils follow the teachers speaking and try to understand his words.

3 What is Important for Building a Conductive Ability of Speaking?

Speaking is presupposing for using a language in the way to communicate. Now the focus should be focused on the requirements necessary for building a conductive ability of speaking.⁹

3.1 The importance of a nice atmosphere

According to Kurtz, children are highly interested in English language.¹⁰ They link it to something positive and beautiful like lyrics of songs on the radio or slogans in TV- advertisement for toys. This interest can be endangered by bad vibes in classroom and inappropriate learning and teaching styles. It is proven by neuropsychology that children are able to learn faster and more e ective when they are interested in the subject and get enthusiastic about it. Especially speaking can be made harder by a problematic atmosphere because pupils may develop shame and so stop participating in class.

Pupils in primary school are mostly uninhibited learners.¹¹ Speaking and producing new words is funny for them and this could be very useful for the teacher to motivate them. They are not as scared about making mistakes as older children are and a nice atmosphere can even expend their courage to speak.

3.2 The importance of input and authentic speaking situations

In their publication Diehr and Frisch introduced a stage model, showing the transforma- tion in children's speaking from bound to free speaking in eight stages. This model is set for the whole primary school years.¹² Even though these stages have to be considered exible, contact time has to be at least two lessons per week to complete all of them. Children that have been taught in English language invariably did not show uncertainties in the fourth grade, when they were addressed in English.¹³ They even were able to follow contributions by native speakers. They listened attentively and never demanded a translation into German. Furthermore their need to talk got satis ed as they were able to participate in the conversation in class. Su cient input in form of listening can increase the capacity of speaking and therefore improves communication skills.

In the foreign language, as in the rst language, children have to perceive the need to speak. In school there is no authentic situation for children to talk in the foreign language. Everybody understand the mother tongue and so all dialogues are just imitated. These pretended situations of communication are not very motivating for pupils. Authentic speaking situations could be an explanation for the necessity of a foreign language like English. It shows the fact that people are not able to communicate with other peoples from foreign countries without using the same language. Input and authentic speaking situations need to have a high contact time with the foreign language.

4 How Do the Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen and the Unterrichtsorganisation Grundschule Deal with the Support of Speaking?

Didactic conceptions and the plans of education agree about the fact that the commu- nicative use of language is most important in primary school education.¹⁴ All primary school syllabus of every German state emphasize the competence of communication. ¹⁵

The ability to communicate is the principal object to reach before pupils get to class ve. So speaking and listening with the aim to communicate should be the main point in class. Consequent writing and reading of a new word should be taught when the pupils are capable to understand the meaning of this particular word in a spoken form. The Teil- rahmenplan Fremdsprachen of the state Rhineland-Palatinate agrees with this didactic statement.

Ausgehend von einer bewusst gemachten Sprachenvielfalt weitet die Fremdsprachenar- beit der Grundschule die Sprachkompetenz der Kinder [...] im Hinblick auf eine elementare Kommunikationsfähigkeit aus.¹⁶

The importance of speaking is expressed in the Teilrahmenplan and the ability to communicate is named as the main objective. Nearly all aims which are named in the category anwendungsfähiges Wissen ¹⁷ could be achieved with good speaking lessons.

There is no introduction in orthography included in the Teilrahmenplan which ex- pressed the subordinated importance of writing and reading in primary school.¹⁸ Never- theless writing should not be disregarded completely because writing and speaking can not be separated. The type face can be helpful in memorizing new vocabulary. Also written examinations are requested from class ve on.¹⁹

In the Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen topics for lessons are named with their tting skills, children are supposed to get.²⁰ The Teilrahmenplan makes a feature of the focus on these principles of situations relevant for communication. The contents of all topics are sort by class, build on one another.

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¹ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 35, 2008.

² cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 35, 2008.

³ cf. Sambanis: Aussprache systematisch üben, S.6, 2009.

⁴ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 14, 2008.

⁵ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 35, 2008.

⁶ cf. Driscoll/ Frost: The teaching of modern foreign language in the primary school, S.74, 1999.

⁷ cf. Kronisch: How to make them talk?, S.7, 2008.

⁸ cf. Driscoll/ Frost: The teaching of modern foreign language in the primary school, S.74, 1999.

⁹ cf. Kronisch: How to make them talk?, S.7, 2008.

¹⁰ cf. Kurtz: Schülerbeteiligung als Herausforderung, S.6, 2008.

¹¹ cf. Sambanis: Aussprache systematisch üben, S.6, 2009.

¹² cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 53, 2008.

¹³ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 15, 2008.

¹⁴ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 49, 2008.

¹⁵ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 16, 2008.

¹⁶ MBFJ: Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen, S. 8, 2004.

¹⁷ MBFJ: Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen, S. 10-11, 2004.

¹⁸ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 50, 2008.

¹⁹ cf. Diehr/ Frisch: Mark their words, S. 50, 2008. 20

²⁰ cf. MBFJ: Teilrahmenplan Fremdsprachen, S. 15, 2004.