| Characteristics of a Multilingual Personality |
Students’ Age Peculiarities |
| Competence in the field of foreign-language speaking |
As a result of learning a foreign language in primary schools pupils:• know:а) – the sounds of the language; the rules of word and phrasal stress; the main intonation patterns;– lexical units, used in communicative situations within primary school themes; ways of word-formation;– the main types of a simple sentence, sentences with a link-verb; sentences like “I can...”, “I must…”; regular and irregular verbs; verbs in the present, past and future tenses; articles; the most widely used pronouns; quantitative numerals up to 100; ordinal numerals up to 20; simple prepositions of place, time and direction; – the name/names of the country/countries of the studied language, its/their capital/capitals; the names of most famous characters of children’s literary works; children’s rhymed folklore, easy in content and form;• have skills: – of adequate pronunciation and differentiation of foreign-language sounds; division of sentences into sense-groups; intoning the main types of sentences;– lexical (in communicative situations within primary school themes);– grammatical (making up the main types of a simple sentence);• have abilities:– to participate in a basic ethical dialogue (acquaintance, congratulations, thanks, greetings);– to question a partner, asking simple questions (“Who?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “When?”) and to answer them;– to make up a short story about oneself, one’s family, friend;– to make small descriptions of an object, a picture (of nature, school) on the model;– to make a description of the characters of a fairy tale, on the basis of an illustration/ |
| A system of values |
• Lack of knowledge of the hierarchy of values when there is a need to learn new things; no “frozen” system of values and attitudes.• National values: Russia as a value.• Introduction of universal values. A family, friends, school, hobbies, toys, leisure time, favorite seasons, pets, nature as values. Meeting with the world of foreign peers, foreign children’s folklore and literature/ |
| Emotional competence (emotional intelligence) |
• Emotional perception, imagination and response to events and activities. • “Contemplative curiosity”; a sincere and frank expression of joy, sadness, fear, pleasure or displeasure. • A great degree of emotional instability, frequent changes of mood (on a general background of cheerfulness, fun, carefree), proneness to short-term and violent passions.• Need for movement; a rapid fatigue and loss of interest in activities. • The domination of imagery (figurativeness) and an intense emotional coloring of thought processes.• Weak awareness and realizing of feelings and emotions (of one’s own and those of others); inadequate responses; lack of empathy. |
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• Emotionally significant factors are not only games and communication with peers, but also success in learning a foreign language and its evaluation by teachers and classmates.• Elements of social sentiment, formation of emotional relations with classmates and a teacher. • Motivation lagging behind the intellectual sphere; its unconsciousness. • Inconsistency in family and school assessment; low self-esteem/ |
| Volitional sphere |
A weak will; a number of difficulties (a new regime of life, need to work systematically, etc.). • The requirement for continuous exercises in arbitrary attention and will to work with a foreign-language text. |
| Personal universal educational activities |
• Personal self-determination: the main task of the age is to comprehend the surrounding world: nature, human relations.An intensive development of a pupil’s personality, speech, intellectual and cognitive abilities, as well as attention, thinking, memory and imagination, general educational skills, and motivation for further language learning. The first active manifestations of freedom, which should be aimed at developing a student’s independence. • Students’ orientation in the sphere of personality values: resilience, suggestibility, gullibility, propensity for imitation, the authority of a teacher. Communicative and psychological adaptation to a new language world.• Moral and ethical evaluation: vagueness of spiritual and moral concepts; identification of their external signs; misunderstanding of their meaning; no difference between “good” and “bad”. • Sense formation: willingness to learn new facts (learning is the leading age activity). The development of one’s ability to foreign-language communication (basic speech habits in speaking, listening, reading and written speech), based on pupils’ speech skills and needs. A visual way of learning. Aptitude for purposeful memorizing of uninteresting material.• Orientation in social roles and interpersonal relationships: sufficient knowledge in the field of everyday communication (but not fully conscious and random), cultural patterns; the ability to cooperate. The development of pupils’ social skills (teamwork, responsibility for actions, partnership, mutual assistance, etc.). Expansion of the sphere of communication. Using one’s knowledge and skills for oral communication with native foreign-language speakers, a friendly attitude to representatives of other countries; a new social experience. |
