Acquisition of the Roman scriptThe Roman script acquisitionis achieved by solving two major tasks: a) the acquisition of the sound-letter correlation; b) the establishment of the ties between different functional variants of each letter. The first task is closely connected with teaching reading techniques. It is so because both reading and writing techniques are based on associating certain graphic symbols with the sounds of speech. The only difference is in the way the activity is directed. While teaching reading techniques, the activity of symbol decoding is aimed at associating graphic symbols with certain sounds. While mastering the technique of writing, we encode the sound into the associated graphic symbol. Thus, teaching script should be based on parallel and interconnected teaching both reading and writing. 1.5.2. Training penmanship: Difficulties Before training his students in their penmanship, the teacher should focus his attention on Roman script features that may cause students difficulty. These difficulties are numerous: left to right direction of writing; writing on the line; shape and size of letters; joining letters; capital and small letters; order of introducing letters and the teacher’s handwriting. a) Left to right direction. Obviously, teachers should make it clear from the beginning and remind students constantly of it. b) Writing on the line. Teachers make it clear by drawing lines on the board. It is best to draw four lines: this makes it possible to show which letters go above and which go below:
c) Shape and size of letters. Students may find it difficult to form the basic shape of some letters. Before learning a new letter, they can practise making the basic shape. E.g.: before learning i, u, l and t, they could practise: ____________ ________________________
____________ ________________________ d) Joining letters. At this stage, a decision must be made whether students should begin writing cursive script from the start. This may seem desirable and may work if they have plenty of studying hours available. But the main difficulty this approach causes is that when imitating models young pupils have a serious problem identifying the separate letters. For this reason, many teachers and education ministers have preferred to start with the simplified form of printing which is designed to lead easily into cursive writing at a later stage. This requires training in writing fairly simple curves and straight lines: a b c d e f h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v However, it is not enough to copy these letter shapes. They must also acquire the habit of making the pen movements in the right direction at the same time. If this is done, they will readily learn to write cursively later on; if not, they will probably develop an idiosyncratic, slow, awkward method of semi-joined printing, which they will use for the rest of their life. To take an example:
c + l will cause endless problems. e) Capital and small letters. When starting with young beginners, it is worth remembering that very young children still have difficulty coordinating their hand movements and this degree of control varies from child to child. Large letters are easier to manage to begin with. Another point is: capital letters become important later when students begin to write sentences. But students can start practising capital letters by writing their own names and the names of days, months, towns, countries, etc. f) What order to introduce the letters in? It is not necessary to introduce the letters in the alphabetical order – the alphabet can easily be learned separately. It should be noted that: · letters with similar shape are taught together. This helps the students see important differences between them (e.g. between n and h); · vowels are introduced near the beginning. This is useful as they are common and can be joined to other letters to form words. In practice, the order of letters to be introduced is often determined by the syllabus or textbook. g) Teacher’s handwriting. It goes without saying that those teaching beginners of any age unfamiliar with the Roman script will have to pay particular attention to their own handwriting, especially when writing models on board. Many experienced teachers faced with this situation have found it necessary to teach themselves to write a special blackboard script. Just because you can read your own writing, it does not mean that your students can. For this reason, it is essential to keep a close check on what your students are copying down. 10.5.3. Training penmanship: Procedural steps Training penmanship should proceed by steps: 1)
2) Pronounce the letter separately and in the word context. a) Draw the lines on the board. b) Write the letter clearly on the board and then the word. 3) Describe how the letter is formed in simple English or in students’ native language. 4) Give the sound of the letter. There’s no need for students to repeat the sound. Giving the name of the letter at this stage would be confusing, especially if the name is different from the sound (e.g. the vowels). 5) Students draw the letter in the air. Some teachers find it useful to practise forming the letter in the air before they write it down. This helps students ‘feel’ the shape of the letter. However, this can be difficult to control in a large class. 6) Students copy the letter in their books. The teacher asks them to write the letter first, then the word in their books. 7) Check what they copy. Walk round and look at the work your students are doing. Give help if there’s any need. The teacher should bear in mind that students are taught to write the letters presenting difficulty to Russian script writers. That is why manifold repetition in writing such letters as a, o, e, c and the like does not help.
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a d j
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c + l can easily become d. However,
