Development in pre-schoolers of skills in listening comprehension and producing of expression-reasoning

Natalia Kharchenko

Theoretical setting of the problem

Psychological and psycholinguistic researches of P.P. Blomskyi, L.I. Bozhovych, L.S. Vyhotskyi, L.F. Voitko, P.I. Halperin, М. Donaldson, D.B. Elkonin, M.I. Zhynkin, O.V. Zaporozhets, A. М. Leontiev, О.О. Leontiev, O.R. Luria, H. О. Liublinskaya, N.O. Menchinskaya, S.L. Rubinshtein, V.O. Fil', О.М. Shahnarovych and other scientists proved, that in children of a senior pre-school age the development of speech is closely related to formation of a «reasoning thought», that at the terms of specially organized studies they are able to master reasoning as a successive row of judgments.

The well-known methodists (М.М. Alexeyeva, А.М. Bohush, N.F. Vynogradova, N.V. Havrysh, L.O. Kalmykova, N.I. Kuzina, TO. Ladyzhenskaya, M.R. Lvov, R.I. Nikolskaya, N.H. Smolnikova, F. O. Sohin, О.С. Ushakova, L.P. Fedorenko, V.I. Yashina and others) defend the idea that it is necessary to form skills and abilities of listening (perception and understanding) reasoning in senior preschoolers and utterance in a form of reasoning.

In our research such tasks were put:

1. To find out psychological and linguistic features of senior pre-schoolers' reasoning in spontaneous speaking; to set the difficulties which appear in children in the process of semantic perception and production of reasoning.

2. To work out the methodic of forming in children of senior pre-school age skills and abilities of listening comprehension and production of reasoning.

Research methods

speaking linguistic children perception

For the exposure of psychological and linguistic features of semantic perception and production of reasoning by children in the conditions of spontaneous speaking it was offered to the preschoolers:

1. Listen to the text with the elements of reasoning, or text-reasoning and to answer a question: «What is this text about»? (Understanding of the main idea of the text); «Why did the author create his work? What does he want to say to us or to teach us? «(Understanding of basic idea of the text; understanding of authorial intention).

2. After the given title to make a prognosis of the maintenance of utterance-reasoning (A capacity for semantic prognostication of the maintenance of a text).

3. According to the listened utterance-reasoning to think a title (A capacity for a semantic compression).

4. To guess a riddle and explain (to ground), why was such the solution to a riddle.

5. To ground the choice in the didactic games of type «What is superfluous and why»? («Explain, why did you take (whether took away) this picture, but not other»?).

6. In conversations to answer different questions which induced children to build reasoning (What toy is the most favorite for you? Explain, why? Who is your best friend? Why do you consider him (her) the best friend? Do you like to stay in the kindergarten? Why? Do you want to go to school? Why? Who is your favorite fairy-tale hero? Why? What season do you like most? Explain, why?).

The specific features of children's reasoning were determined on such criteria:

* semantic (understanding of the key point of a text; understanding of authorial idea, intention; selection of the semantic components of a text, their comparison; capacity for a semantic prognostication of the maintenance of a text: capacity for a semantic compression).

• volume of reasoning (quantity of words in the utterance - reasoning);

• syntactic structure of the utterance-reasoning;

• presence of structurally-semantic parts of reasoning (thesis, arguments, deductions);

• language means of connection of structurally-semantic parts of reasoning.

Results of the establishment experiment

Thus, the analysis of pre-schoolers' speech in relation to semantic criterion showed, that prevailing majority of children had difficulties in understanding of text-reasoning. They can not distinguish the key point. On a question «What is this text about?», the children chiefly began the detailed narration of a text. The preschoolers could not distinguish substantial semantic components of a text and compare them. Children experienced difficulty in prognostication of the semantic maintenance of a text. Not always they could think of a title to the listened text. Reason of it, to our opinion, is the unformed mechanisms of reliable prognostication and semantic compression.

The volume of preschoolers' utterances-reasoning presented six-seven words. But, answering a question about the favorite fairytale hero, the amount of words in children's reasoning grew to 1012. We explain it as possible, because it is considerably more easily to recreate causal copulas, shown in examples from the acquainted artistic works (fairy-tales) as ready ones.

The syntactic structure of children's utterances-reasoning was studied in relation to logical and semantic features. A task consisted in: at first, at analytical level to distinguish the degrees of mastering by children language (grammatical) means for expression of ideas; secondly - to find out, whether children feel the specific of that language material (types and kinds of sentences and word-combinations) which is needed for the construction of reasoning; thirdly, as far as the syntax of child's speaking corresponds to those requirements which are set to the syntax of monologues-reasoning.

It was found out, that, at first, simple sentences prevailed in preschoolers' reasoning. The analysis of the grammatical system of reasoning witnessed that, speaking out, the preschoolers chiefly were not able to make an integral complex sentence with a subordinate clause of reason, they began their reasoning with a subordinate part of a complex sentence, dropping the main; did not unite a thesis and arguments in one judgement (sentence) about an object. All distinguishing features of the object children pointed mostly by means of predicate (predicate) (she is beautiful, he is good).

As single cases were observed reasonings expressed in complex causal sentences.

Secondly, in their reasonings pre-schoolers, as a rule, did not express reason in a simple sentence by means of word-combination. To do this mental work was simpler for them with a help of subordinate parts of a complex sentence because they were formed in children's speech in the process of dialogic practice, practice of intercourse as the answers for the questions.

Thirdly, subordinate parts, used by children for the argumentation of ideas, conveyed the relations of reason (60%), aim (15%) place (12%). Other subordinate parts conveyed the relation of condition, time, comparative degree.

According to the structure child's utterances approached such composition: a thesis - arguments. Trying to build up reasoning, preschoolers dropped a thesis with the conclusions, expressing only arguments. Some children combined a thesis with arguments in one judgement, but there were only a few conclusions.

70% of children grounded a thesis only by one argument, 12% - by two, 5 % - by three, quite not argued 13% of children.

From the used language means 50 % of pre-schoolers combined a thesis with arguments by means of conjunctions of causality «because», 12% of children used the conjunction «in order to», which is not specific for reasoning.

13 % of children instead of conjunction «because» used his wrong form of «that»; 15% of preschoolers used asyndeton of thesis with arguments as the most simple for himself/herself method of reasoning construction. We consider that the use of asyndeton by children is related with the next, at first, conjunctional complex sentences require considerably more exact, deeper and more bright verbal registration of idea, establishing of reason and result connections; secondly, pre-schoolers do not own the language means, necessary for combination of composition-semantic parts of reasoning.

Arguments preschoolers combined by means of «and», «more», «some more», «any more», «then», «there», «here».

Word combinations «I think», «I consider», connecting words «at first», «secondly», summarizing words «hence», «thus», «that is why» were not fixed in the pre-schoolers' speech.

Methodic of shaping in children of a senior pre-school age the skills and abilities of listening and production of reasoningThe aim of experimental method consisted in organization of purposeful and systematic process of forming in children of a senior pre-school age the skills and abilities of listening and production of reasoning as a functionally-semantic type of current verbal utterance.

Methodology was based on psycholingvomethodic principles which provided practical (functionally-vocal) approach in relation to forming in senior pre-schoolers the speech skills and abilities of listening (perception and understanding) and production of reasoning. Among them are such principles: complex development of all psychical processes and states (feeling, perception, presentation, memory, attention, thought, imagination, emotions, sense and others like that); providing of speech activity motivation; communicative - vocal; perceptive-mnemonical; cognitive; principle of understanding of lexico-grammatical meanings and sense of reasoning; development of language sense («feeling of language»); passing ahead development of the verbal speech in relation to writing; successive acceleration of rates of speech enriching; supports on the algorithms of speaking and language models; integrity of forming the lexico-grammatical structure of speech; comparison and differentiation of the units of language; interconnection of sensory, mental and vocal development of children; providing of vocal activity; organic interconnection of language, speech and thinking; forming of elementary generalization of the language phenomena; language and didactics visuality.

Leading terms which provided efficiency of introducing method of forming in children of a senior pre-school age the skills and abilities of listening and production of reasoning were the next: stimulation in preschoolers of positive reasons, which activate their listening, perception and understanding of speaking: awakening and supporting of the personal interest, interest in new words, word-combinations, sentences, coherent utterances; Organization of educational-vocal environment for planning and realization of vocal acts in a form of reasoning. Use of the language standard for imitation which is one of the mechanisms of mastering by children reasoning as functionally-semantic type of the current verbal utterance. Providing of content side of reasoning: message of interesting facts about the surrounding world; enriching of child's impressions, empiric generalized knowledge of children about the point of reasoning. Stimulation of thinking activity of children as bases of their speaking - analysis, synthesis, abstracting, comparison, generalization and classification, evidentialness, substantiality and others like that. Development of the «language feeling of reasoning»: skills of pronunciation, lexical skills (correct use of words), and grammatical skills (correct construction of word-combinations and complex sentences which show reason-result connections and relations). Development of the mechanisms of semantic perception and speech production (comprehension, operative vocal memory, reliable prognostication, generalization of the structure of reasoning, outrunning synthesis). Enriching of children's vocabulary and purposeful work at syntax of reasoning. An account of the value of intersubject connections in studies which provides continuity and systematic character of forming process in the senior pre-schoolers of skills and abilities in listening and production of reasoning. Organization of semantic perception and construction of monologue - reasoning by the children in different emotionally-saturated types of activity - artistically-vocal, playing and others like that. Organization of subject and cognitive activity of the preschoolers. Creation of vocal-communicative situations for maximal vocal activity of the pre-schoolers, which is stipulated by understanding of children of reason-result connections and dependences in a surrounding, by a rich vocabulary; by the formed skills of the construction of complex sentences with a subordinate clauses of reasons and by abilities to combine them into the coherent reasoning with a help of language means of connection (conjunctions, connecting words). An increase of the level of special (theoretical and practical) preparation of educators in relation to the work at reasoning as functionally-semantic type of the current verbal utterance.

Essence of the method consisted in following: by an empiric way to provide an analogical-perceptible, intuitional capture by the children of composition and lexico-grammatical ways of reasoning construction; to form in pre-schoolers a feeling of reasoning at practical level, sufficient for a further successful comprehension, realization and objectification of reasoning as a type of speech, as the linguistic phenomenon by the students of the 1-st class.

Therefore a structure of reasoning is not the point of the realized capture by pre-schoolers; its structure the children should master at the level of generalization of interstructural relations of reasoning.

Process of skills and abilities of listening formation and generation of reasoning in pre-schoolers was divided into two stages: preparatory (logic-syntactical) and basic (fUnctionally-vocal) one.

The first stage - preparatory (logic-syntactical). Its aim is the enriching of empiric vocal experience of children (listening and manner of speaking) by the syntactic constructions with subordinate clauses of reasons and successive accumulation in memory of preschoolers the logical (concept, judgement, deductions) and language (word-combination and suggestion) forms of expression of the idea.

Task of the first stage:

1. To teach the pre-schoolers to listen (to percept and understand) the maintenance and grammatical value of reasoning,

2. e. the sense of information and reason-result relations which are contained in them. To develop in children the sense of language in the sphere of composition and syntax of monologue-reasoning.

3. To teach the children to distinguish the substantial features of objects and phenomena of surrounding reality, distinguishing them from unimportant.

4. To develop in children the mental operations of analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstracting, generalization and classification by means of the mother tongue and vocal activity facilities, their productive vocal activity.

5. To enrich the children's speech with conjunctions with the meaning of reason («because», «because of»), connecting words («at first», «secondly», «I think», «I consider», «in my opinion», «thus», «that is why» etc.).

6. To teach the preschoolers to use in speech the complex sentences which refer reason-result connections and relations.

7. To provide a practical capture by children at the level of language feeling the logical rules of expression of reason-result connections and relations in complex sentences with subordinate clauses of reasons (at first the reason is uttered and then consequence; each time when there is a reason, a consequence comes unavoidable; reason generates a consequence; there are not and can not be the phenomena without any reason).

8. To teach the children to operate concepts; to express affirmative and negative judgments; to distinguish veritable and erroneous judgments; to make deductions on the basis of two judgments.

This stage was directed to forming in preschoolers such skills and abilities:

• to listen (to perceive and understand the maintenance of reasoning: to determine the main opinion of utterance; to divide an utterance into semantic parts (components), to compare them with each other; to set logic and sense relations in an utterance; to create hypotheses (to express prognoses) in relation to the sense of utterance; to «get into» the authorial intention of the text, to reveal it);

• to point out the reason-result connections and relations, substantial features of the objects and phenomena of surrounding reality;

• to gather additionally proofs, arguments; to refer in the own reasoning the reason-result connections and relations;

• to operate with concepts, to express affirmative and negative judgments, to formulate deductions;

• distinctly pronounce with intonation (to product) the causal complex sentences, using the necessary language means of connection (conjunctions and connecting words) between the principle and subordinate parts; to retell the text-reasoning.

The second stage - basic (functionally-vocal). The aim consists in practical (analogical-perceptible, unintentional, intuitional) capture of logical and linguistic regularities of reasoning construction.

On this stage very important were tasks to teach children:

1. To make examples from fiction, own experience and fairy-tales for an argumentation or proving of the opinion, adopting expressive language means.

2. To use the generalized structure of reasoning; to build the integral coherent reasoning, that correspond to compositions «thesis - arguments (proofs) - deductions», using natural, implicit and lingually-normative rules of text construction.

3. It is expedient to use lexico-grammatical and syntactic language means for expression of structurally-semantic parts of reasoning and their connection.

This stage was directed to practically-perceptible capture of skills and abilities by children:

• to choose intuitionally correctly the type of the current verbal utterance for expression of reason-result connections;

• to gather additionally necessary arguments and language means for connection of structurally-semantic parts of reasoning; to adhere to the generalized structure of reasoning (thesis - arguments - conclusion);

• to intone reasoning (to express the opinion logically and consistently by setting the reason-result relations between facts and phenomena of surrounding reality), adhering to intention and key point of utterance.

Present skills and abilities had been formed in children previously at creatively-reproductive level, and later - creatively- searching (heuristic) level (independent production of reasoning both on the task of educator, and appropriately used in terms of intercourse).

Conclusions

The analysis of the results of experimental tasks implementation permitted to distinguish difficulties which arise in the process of activity of understanding the utterance-reasoning: 1) unformed skill of reference activity in relation to recognition of text messages (difficulties of orientation in semantic and syntactic relations which are contained in a text-reasoning; unformed skill of recognition of reasoning among the other types of utterances); a 2) narrowing of clearness in a text-reasoning (fragmentariness of understanding of the maintenance of reasoning, semantic «sources» (М. I. Zhynkin); 3) violation of superficial (formal) and deep (logic-sense) connections in the text; 4) low level of the analysis of structurally-semantic maintenance of a text (difficulties of determination of the main idea of text-reasoning (substitution of the main idea by a theme, one of the micro themes, by a description of the concrete situation and others like that); 5) difficulties in recreations of a text, related to the features of understanding (admission of the basic semantic landmarks, admission of substantial details, difficulties in actualization of lexico- grammatical facilities of shaping the utterance).

Specific features of children's utterances-reasoning in spontaneous speaking are the next: a) in the individual children's speech are fully absent, or imperfect for expression of reason-result relations grammatical forms, necessary for a reasoning construction; b) preschoolers do not own a structure and not able to use the syntactic models of reasoning; c) reasoning of children is poor on the maintenance of arguments and proofs; d) their judgements are not complete, not reasonable; e) trying to build reasoning, the preschoolers mostly drop a thesis with conclusions, expressing arguments. In single cases children combine a thesis with arguments in one judgement (sentence), but conclusions are failing; f) to ground and prove the own judgements-reasoning children begin with a subordinate part of a complex causal sentence, using mainly conjunction «because»; widespread is also an asyndeton of thesis with arguments; g) in reasoning on the basis of the own experience preschoolers do not make examples for strengthening the argumentation part without incentive reasons.

Trying to build reasoning, children have difficulties in motivational, semantic and operating plans. At first, during socializing with an educator, passing from dialogic to monologue speech, children lose usual reasons of activity. Pre-schoolers do not understand what for or whom for they must build monologuereasoning, they do not have a stimulus to this intellectual activity. Secondly, it is difficult for children to build correctly and express reasoning, if they do not understand reason-result connections and dependences in the subject world. Thirdly, a typical obstacle in the mechanism of reasoning construction is also that children do not own by lexico-grammatical facilities and syntactic constructions of reasoning expression.

Difficulties which arise in children in the process of coherent utterances construction of reasoning can be explained by such reasons. First - the absence in pre-school educational establishments of the specially organized studies on forming in children of senior pre-school age the skills and abilities of listening and producting of reasoning. Second - the absence or limited nature of the generalized empiric knowledge of children about the subject of reasoning. Third - unformed general functional mechanisms of speaking (of comprehension, reliable prognostication, generalization of the structure of reasoning, main vocal memory, passing ahead synthesis (maintenance and rapid selection of words in the process of reasoning construction).

The indexes of the experienced studies confirmed the efficiency of the worked out methods of forming in children of senior pre-school age skills and abilities to build reasoning.

Reference

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Анотація

У статті висвітлено психолого-лінгвістичні особливості аудіювання і продукування старшими дошкільниками міркування як функціонально-смислового типу мовлення та запропоновано підходи щодо розвитку в дітей навичок і вмінь сприймання, розуміння та породження висловлювання-міркування.