26PEDAGOGY
LINGUISTIC ELECTRONIC GAMES IN THE PROCESS OF JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILD'S SPEECH DEVELOPMENT
Associate professor Arine Avagimyan Associate professor Laura Avagyan Lecturer Tatevik Yenokyan Associate professor Armine Mikayelyan
Armenia, Yerevan, Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan DOI: https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_sr/30092019/6680
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Received 11 July 2019 In the article, we touched upon the problem of junior schoolchildren's speech
Accepted 21 September 2019 development, in which we emphasized the importance of electronic linguistic
Published 30 September 2019 games in modern times. We conducted studies and developed a number of
--electronic linguistic games, taking into consideration the age characteristics
KEYWORDS of junior schoolchildren. Through the experiment we justified the
effectiveness of the usage of mentioned games by qualitative analyzing the
inf°rmative communicative obtained results, and suggested methodological instructions.
technologies, junior school Thus, electronic linguistic games contribute to the development of learner's
child, linguistic elementary basic linguistic knowledge, the psychic processes of the individual, and,
knowledge mteractive eventually, the speech. methods, electronic game-task, speech development, capacity.
Citation: Arine Avagimyan, Laura Avagyan, Tatevik Yenokyan, Armine Mikayelyan. (2019) Linguistic Electronic Games in the Process of Junior Schoolchild's Speech Development. Science Review. 7(24). doi: 10.3143 5/rsglobal_sr/30092019/6680
Copyright: © 2019 Arine Avagimyan, Laura Avagyan, Tatevik Yenokyan, Armine Mikayelyan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Introduction. The developing pace of informative technologies, modern teaching methods, the necessity of learners' continuous self-education and development require the usage of such technologies in teaching process, that enhance the efficiency and quality of education, provide motivations for independent cognitive activity, which has been reflected in the requirements of general public educational standard: special attention must be paid to the investment of modern informative and communicative technologies to make teaching material more accessible and attractive, accelerate the process of acquisition, develop learner's ability to do self-dependent work, possess means of acquiring new information and, in general, promote initiative of self-education [5].
These requirements can satisfy the usage of interactive teaching methods: due to them, learners enjoy learning, participate in the lesson actively, and perceive teaching material more easily not only in primary, but in middle and high grades as well. Interactive methods provide the development of skills and abilities such as thinking, creating, searching, finding non-standard solutions, self-orientation, researching, and so on.
The development of above-mentioned abilities and skills can greatly be promoted by electronic games through which the learner interacts with the virtual domain developing visual, acoustic and tactile perceptions. Moreover, the modern educational system can no longer be imagined without the usage of informative communicative technologies (ICT): nowadays junior schoolchildren
are interested in electronic games, and we think, it would be purposeful to direct that interest to the field of study making the computer an effective means of teaching the native language.
Child's education and comprehensive development can not be implemented without the knowledge of native language, therefore, junior school child at elementary grades should acquire a certain level of possessing the native language, otherwise, at middle school he/she will face serious difficulties. The issue of mastering the native language in elementary grades is not the possession of linguistic deep knowledge, but the ability to implement active speech activity on that basis. A. Ter-Grigoryan mentions that junior school age is an irreplaceable period for child's speech development [7].
A child, admitted to school, without knowing grammatical rules, is able to make the right speech, communicate freely, that is, the knowledge he/she acquires is based on the imitation of adult's speech, which is based on scientific bases at school, and teacher is responsible for its further development. At this age, the child sometimes learns thousands of new words, phrases and idioms imperceptibly, perceive the basic attributes and peculiarities of the language spontaneously that often takes great efforts from adults, that is, elementary grades are favorable periods to grind, correct and develop child's speech. Speech development is one of the most important standard requirements for elementary grades. In order to find out the importance of electronic games and difficulties in the process of linguistic basic knowledge perception by junior schoolchildren and their speech development, we conducted questionnaires at nine schools in the Republic of Armenia (4, 57, 99, 124, 125, 135 basic schools in Yerevan, ''Vardanank'' educational complex, Yervandashat secondary school in Armavir region, Akunk secondary schools in Aragatsotn region) among fifty-eight elementary school teachers. Below we present the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the survey, so 82.8% of respondents use linguistic games at the Native language lessons, only 17.2% apply sometimes. All teachers responded positively to the mentioned question, which, in our opinion, is conditioned by the fact that the leading activity of children of this age is play: play develops learner's speech, volitional behavior, the games ease the sense of inferiority, facilitate perception and reinforcement of the learning material, especially if they fit the learner's interests. Play is a way to overcome the feeling of distrust, so it is effective to master linguistic knowledge through games, and, in the century of modern technology it is not only preferable, but, we think, it is also necessary to teach linguistic knowledge through interactive electronic games.
During the survey, we emphasized the frequency of the usage of linguistic games at Native language lessons by teachers, because the efficiency of work is also conditioned by the frequency of their usage. By analyzing of responses, it becomes clear that 53.4% of respondents use linguistic games every week, 17.2% - every day, 10.3% - once a month, 19.1% mentioned another answer (according to the content of the material, theme and requirement).
Studying the curricula and textbooks of the Native language, we found out that they provide a wide range of opportunities to use linguistic games at the Native language lessons, even several times a week. Then, having a talk with teachers, the cause of frequency of using linguistic games, became apparent. Teachers mentioned that they often can not reach the set goal through the game, although they do not deny that what is related to the game, children do with pleasure, from which we can conclude that teachers do not clearly define the purpose of linguistic games and avoid from their application.
In order to find out what kinds of games are most frequently used by teachers, we suggested the following types of linguistic games: sound-letter, lexical, morphological and syntax. The most was "lexical games" - 47.4%, the least - "syntax games"- 8.6%, the "sound-letter games" - 25%, "morphological games" - 19%. The gained result is connected with the fact, that such games are insufficiently developed in methodological references, although the curricula and textbooks on the Native language provide a wide opportunity to develop and implement them, but teachers have difficulties to do it independently.
We were also interested in what phase of the Native language lessons the teachers used linguistic games and what difficulties they faced during the process. 12.1% of the respondents mentioned the stimulation phase of the lesson, 27.6% - the understanding phase, 24.1% - the consideration phase, and 55.2% - all the phases of the Native language lesson. We also think that linguistic games can be used at all phases of the Native language lesson connected with the purpose of the theme of the teaching linguistic material. 77.6% of the participants mention that they have organizational difficulties during the implementation of linguistic games, 15.5% have content difficulties, 6.9% have both organizational and content difficulties. Organizational difficulties for teachers were the followings: unnecessary enthusiasm of pupils, not focusing, the complexity of transition from one form of activity to another, not involvement of all pupils. The mentioned problems are solvable, and teachers are offered to work out certain game rules with pupils and follow them
while implementing the games, in case of not keeping the rules, teachers should reduce the points. It is possible to design such games that will be carried out in group, in other cases, disciplined pupils of the day will participate in the game or organize a small survey (for example, about studied works, events etc.) by selecting participants of the game in such a way.
Through the questionnaire we found out if the linguistic games contribute to the development of pupils' speech according to the teachers. From the analysis of the responses it became clear that the majority of respondents - 91.4% emphasized the role of linguistic games and 8.6% found that it was not so important. By analyzing the responses to questionnaires, teachers prefer sound-word, soundletter linguistic games, then morphological, but syntax games are rarely used. Whereas, these games mostly promote the development of speech making ability. Such approach of teacher is conditioned by the fact that these games are less developed in the methodological references, they are also replaced by simple tasks that are not very effective. The work on the mastering of the elementary linguistic knowledge should be done equally and should not be preferred from one another: the effectiveness of using linguistic games is conditioned not only by their type, but also by their implementation (for example, electronic material, animation, sound effect, light signal, an interesting version of a praise, interactive mode etc.), as it is difficult for junior grade pupils to perceive the linguistic material. We believe that electronic linguistic games can contribute to understanding of the problem more easily.
81% of teachers responded positively to the following question, "Do you evaluate informative communicative technologies when teaching linguistic material?", and 19% did not care much about it. 69% of respondents has noted that the usage of ICT is effective in mastering linguistic elementary knowledge and 31% has regarded it partially effective. Having conversations with teachers, we tried to find out the reasons for the effectiveness of the implementation of ICT. In their opinion, the displayed materials make the teaching theme more impressive and interesting: videos, slideshows are shone, and as a result, pupils engage and actively participate in the lesson with pleasure. Teachers who has answered "partially effective", explain the cause with having difficulties to work with ICT, but they do not exclude their usage if they have developed electronic game-tasks.
Experimental work
Taking into account the teachers' difficulties in this area, we have developed and tested a number of linguistic electronic game-tasks. Some of them are represented below.
Game 1. "Vowel or consonant?"
The goal of the game is to strengthen the knowledge of vowel and consonant sounds, to improve the abilities of utterance and differentiation, cognition and hearing perceptions.
Necessary accessories: computer or electronic board.
The process of the game: according to colors, pupils separate the vowels and consonants: red (vowel) - on the left, blue (consonant) - on the right (a, p, s, e, d, o, n, f, h, b).
If the game-task is done correctly, the screen will show the following phrase: "Well-done. You did it right". https://learningapps.org/display?v=pw6khf00k19
Game 2. "Make words"
The goal of the game is to strengthen the abilities of the sound analysis and synthesis of the word, enrich lexicon, develop hearing perceptions and logical thinking.
Necessary accessories: computer or electronic board.
The process of the game: the pupils, with the help of the teacher, combine presented letters (p, o, f, n, t) with letter-combinations or words (ear, range, ox, ice, on) and make new words.
If the game-task is done correctly, the screen will show the following phrase: "Well-done. You did it right". https://learningapps.org/display?v=pw6rryk9a19
Game 3. "Let's become friends"
The goal of the game is to group words according to their sense, enrich lexicon, develop linguistic-thinking.
Necessary accessories: computer or electronic board.
The process of the game: the pupils are offered to find synonyms of the given words (way, ancient, nice, clever, famous, road, old, beautiful, smart, popular).
If the game-task is done correctly, the screen will show the following phrase: "Well-done. You did it right". https://learningapps.org/display?v=pz89tnar319
Game 4. "Who or what?"
The goal of the game is to differentiate and correctly use the nouns showing person and object, develop cognitive abilities and thinking.
Necessary accessories: computer or electronic board.
The process of the game: the pupils are offered to group the pictures of nouns showing person and object according to the questions (what, who?) (clock, flower, table, butterfly, boy, pilot, doctor).
If the game-task is done correctly, the screen will show the following phrase: "Well-done. You did it right". https://learningapps.org/display?v=pktn5vbfk19 Game 5. "Find important"
The goal of the game is to strengthen the knowledge of sentence structure, develop linguistic-logic thinking.
The process of the game: to pupils are offered to change simple extended sentences into simple short (for example, Everywhere domains the spirit of the nature's fairy kingdom. The inhabitants of winter forest gradually wake up from deep sleep. The withered flowers have closed the exquisite eyes from thirst).
If the game-task is done correctly, the screen will show the following phrase: "Well-done. You did it right". https://learningapps.org/display?v=pncainhcn19
Conclusions. It should be noted that the above-mentioned examples have been tested by us at elementary grades during pedagogical practices. Analyzing the experimental work, we have made some reviews: that is, when selecting a language game, the contingent of the class should be emphasized, according to which, it is possible to modify the linguistic material of the game (simplify, complicate). The used game should be directly related to the study material. The linguistic game can be successfully organized at stimulation, understanding and consideration phases of the lesson. The choice of the phases is conditioned by the degree of mastering the linguistic material (studying, strengthening, comparing, distinguishing etc.).
It is also important for all pupils to participate in the game, if necessary, we offer to do preparation exercises before organizing the game, that is, the human speech and mental activities are closely interconnected and interdependent, and because the speech is not only an external form of thinking but also a means, therefore, it is an important component in thinking development.
Thus, the process of speech development is conditioned by the level of the native language knowledge, and the speech is the existing form of consciousness (thoughts, emotions, experiences) not only for communicating with others, but also for reflection of generalized reality and thinking [3].
The effectiveness of teaching in modern school is largely connected with the purposeful usage of ICTs, which has also been confirmed by our experimental work: electronic linguistic games contribute to the development of learner's basic linguistic knowledge, the psychic processes of the individual, and, eventually, the speech.
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