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As M. Gorky said at a writers' convention: "For children, one should write just as one does for adults, only even better." If we take these words as a benchmark for quality, it becomes glaringly clear why children shouldn't read about how "Mama washed the window frame" - a phrase painfully familiar to our generation from primers. We were not encouraged to think about either the mother or the frame when reading it; it was merely a set of words with the letter "M" and nothing more. Credit must be given to modern textbooks for first graders; they have become much more meaningful and engaging... But in English, there are endless "mamas and frames" - the child reads a nonsensical set of words, and the first texts pretending to have meaning are simply frightening in their lack of it. How else would you describe such a "report from an orphanage": "My mother's name is Nina. She has two children. The children like to play ball." So, my mother has other children and she abandoned me? The most horrifying part is that while in one's native language one can survive the "mama and frame" narrative, because by age seven we all speak fluently, such readings in a foreign language are, alas, a death sentence for students! To kill a budding speech with a set of meaningless words, and then spend years trying to revive it, demanding coherent, meaningful speech from high school students?!
- So, where do you suggest we begin reading? With Shakespeare?
Let's aim a bit lower. We will definitely get to Shakespeare in a few years, but for now, with five, six, seven-year-old kids, let's start... of course, with fairy tales!
The role of fairy tales in language learning is simply invaluable. If they didn't exist in every culture, linguists would have invented them specifically for foreign language study. They encompass such crucial elements as:
- repeated use of the same grammatical structures. For instance, in the tale "Goldilocks," the Present Perfect Continuous tense is used 9 times! Expressed by the three bears about three items each (a chair, porridge, bed) – and this nine-fold repetition is not boring but captivatingly interesting. The three bears speak with completely different voices: from growls to squeaks – a powerful dynamic ranging from the initial bafflement of the father bear about his porridge to the desperate squeal (the climax) of the baby bear discovering the girl in his bed.
- using the bears as an example, we observe the second important characteristic of fairy tales: the presence of various characters with different personalities, and consequently, different speech styles. This allows the reader to modulate their voice, using a vast palette of expressions.
- and finally, the dynamic sequence of events in fairy tales. Virtually every phrase in a fairy tale represents an action that can be depicted. Take, for example, the manipulations with a sack and pebbles performed by the chicken, rooster, and mouse in the tale "The cock, the mouse, and the little Red Hen!" All this allows us to showcase the tale using tabletop puppetry and then act it out with the students. Meanwhile, the tale should be adapted within reason. For instance, if we begin with “The Three Little Pigs” at an elementary level, we shouldn't be alarmed by the presence of all kinds of tenses right away. It's essential not to oversimplify the language to just the Present Simple (see main grammar), as it leads to a degradation of the language.
-Yes, but how can a child starting from scratch listen to such a tale?
Quite easily, in fact, and with immense interest! Remember, they're not just listening to it, but also watching and participating in it.
To address a common question from parents: "What if my child comes back from the first lesson saying, 'I don't understand anything!!'" (reminding you, the teacher doesn't speak Russian either before or after the lesson).
Mother can remind the child of the time they went to the forest together:
- Remember how the birds sang in the forest? They weren't just singing; they were communicating: the mother bird was calling her chicks, the male bird was conveying something to the female. We didn't understand their language, but we didn't tell them, "Be quiet, birds, we don't understand you!" Plus, we enjoyed listening to them.
Yes, but now dear colleagues, after being given such a prelude and being likened to birds, make sure to sing like a nightingale, coo like a dove, chirp like a lark, and God forbid you slip into a preachy tone – the child will simply flee from the lesson.
Thus, the voice should be soul-penetrating, mesmerizing, exceptionally vivid and colorful. And do not succumb to the temptation to read slowly.
- But what does the label on the cassette that says "read in a teaching pace" mean?
From my perspective, it's a fundamental mistake in the very conception. Russia probably wouldn't have gotten Pushkin if Arina Rodionovna had read fairy tales to him at a teaching pace!
- Yes, but that was his native language.
Let's reverse the cause and effect. We read at a teaching pace not because the language is foreign, but because we present it... well, as if it's not native, making it remain alien.
The teaching pace (or rather the manner) should indeed be distinct from the usual, but not in the direction of slowing down, but quite the opposite! Think about it – in every fairy tale, you're bound to find a chase scene, fleeing from someone, etc. Can you really read about that at a slow pace without destroying the meaning? Such scenes should be read in a brisk, rapid-fire manner, always accelerating. However, this doesn't apply to all episodes of the fairy tale, which should sound melodic at times, contemplative at others, or even ecstatically pausing. In these cases, we read exaggeratedly slowly. And again, be careful! A slow pace is very dangerous! It can blur the vividness and cut off all the speech's nuances. By slow reading, we mean a melodic pace, with prolonged vowels, and most importantly, this slowness is achieved primarily by extending meaningful pauses, not by stretching out sentences. The pauses in a teaching pace should be much broader and deeper, filled either with snores or other sounds (a common occurrence in fairy tales), or puppetry, preferably accompanied by music. So, The teaching pace should differ from the usual in the direction of exaggerated inconsistency.
When looking at a drawing of a mountain landscape, one can say that our goal is to make it more vivid, protruding, and textured.
And another small secret of a reader:
- He skillfully pushes secondary vocabulary into the background, whole phrases, as if smoothly gliding over the surface, while brightly emphasizing, accentuating with clear articulation the main vocabulary that carries the semantic load. This is probably the main principle of the "educational" reading style. And it is this style that children adopt, repeating after the teacher, when they start reading themselves - this style of soaring above the line.
