The Language Games Influence on the Young School - Age Children´s Lexical Competence Development

Usvajanje jezika kod djece glavna je tema mnogih istraživanja dvadesetog stoljeća. Brojne teorije nastale su u cilju saznavanja i definiranja procesa jezičnog usvajanja te čimbenika koji djeluju na njega. U procesu usvajanja jezika djeca prolaze kroz dvije faze, predjezičnu i jezičnu. Glavno obilježje predjezične faze je spontano glasanje koje započinje plakanjem, gukanjem, ponavljanjem određenih vokala te završava fazom brbljanja u kojoj se dijete koristi i igra samoglasnicima i suglasnicima u komunikaciji s okolinom. Oko prve godine života, kada nastupa jezična faza, dijete počinje izgovarati prve riječi te započinje komunicirati sa svojom okolinom tzv. dječjim govorom (baby talk) ili tepanjem (Pavličević Franić, 2005). Djeca jezik veoma brzo usvajaju i razvijaju te već do šeste godine života broj riječi koje koriste raste na četrnaest tisuća (Aladrović Slovaček, 2012). Mnoga suvremena istraživanja pokazala su da djeca bolje usvajaju jezik kroz igru nego tradicionalnim metodama poučavanja. Igra kao djeci urođena aktivnost stvara osjećaj ugode i dobrog raspoloženja te zbog toga sadržaj koji djeca nesvjesno nauče kroz igru trajnije ostaje u njihovu pamćenju. U svrhu pisanja ovoga rada istražili smo koliko jezična igra, kao metoda poučavanja, utječe na razvoj leksičke kompetencije kod djece mlađe školske dobi. U skladu s glavnim ciljem postavili smo pet problema istraživanja kojima se htjelo ispitati utječu li dob, spol i mjesto stanovanja na razvoj leksičke kompetencije, kao i koriste li učenici u svom svakodnevnom govoru samo standardne riječi ili se služe i dijalektizmima i neologizmima. Istraživanje je provedeno u dva grada, Dubrovniku i Zagrebu, a u njemu su sudjelovali učenici trećih i četvrtih razreda osnovne škole. Rezultati pokazuju izrazit utjecaj spola i mjesta stanovanja na razvoj leksičke kompetencije, kao i da učenici u svom govoru upotrebljavaju i ostale vrste riječi osim standardnih. Kako bismo upotpunili istraživanje, anketirali smo i učitelje s ciljem utvrđivanja njihovih stavova o igri te koliko se često koriste igrama u svojoj nastavi.Language acquisition among children has been a subject of many debates, as well as, the main topic of numerous linguistic researches conducted through the 20th century. Inevitably that resulted in forming of various theoretical approaches with the goal of understanding and defining the process of linguistic acquisition, on one hand, and identifying key contributors of the aforementioned process on the other. Generally speaking, in the process of language acquisition, children go through two phases- before language production and language production. Key features of before language production phase is accidental or involuntary vocalisation which starts with crying and gurgling. Switch over to repetition of specific sounds and finally rounds up with the babble phase. In this final phase, a child uses vocal games to communicate with its surroundings. Around year one, which announces the beginning of the language production phase, the child starts to utter its first words to communicate with their surrounding via baby talk (Pavličević Franić, 2005). Children are quick to acquire and develop language which is why children tend to, by the age of six, increase their word count up to fourteen thousand (Aladrovič Slovaček, 2012). A fair number of modern day research, conducted in the field of language acquisition, show how children acquire language better if they do it through a game as opposed to more traditional methods of learning. Game, as an innate activity, creates feelings of pleasure and wellbeing which is why, for children, content acquired through unconscious play is retained longer in their memory. For the purposes of this research we explored the method of language games in correlation to development of linguistic abilities among younger school children. In correlation to the focus point of the research we established five research questions/parameters we wanted to observe – do the age, gender and place of residence affect development of lexical competence. In other words, do pupils use in their everyday lives only standard form of language or do they also use dialects, idiolects or neologisms. Research has been conducted in two cites Dubrovnik and Zagreb. Population selected to participate in the research consisted of the pupils from third and fourth grades of primary school. The results have shown noticeable influence of both gender and place of residence in developing lexical competence. The results also indicate that pupils use, besides the standard form of language, other types such as dialects. To make this research well-rounded, we also conducted a poll among teachers to determine their attitudes on using games as a method of teaching and how often, if at all, do they use it in their everyday classroom teaching regiments