The use of puppet in teaching English in preschool education

We live in times when it’s quite important to learn foreign languages. Those are the times of frequent migrations of going on holidays and studying or permanently moving to other countries. Being able to communicate in different languages gives children an opportunity to understand others, to solve problems and to work together with others. There are different ways of learning foreign languages in Slovenia and children like to learn them, especially when they are introduced to them through topics which are in their interest. A puppet is an effective tool to learn a foreign language, as children normally respond to it very well and they like to copy its behaviour. In the theoretical part of my dissertation I did a research about the effect of physical activities and playing on children’s development and learning English language in preschool. Children’s play also involves theatre, animation and use of different kind of puppets. I described different types of puppets and drama space and stressed out the magic power of the puppet when the puppeteer gives it life and makes it move. I also defined the meaning of the puppet in learning a foreign language in preschool. In the empirical part of the dissertation I did a research with the English-speaking puppet to find out if the use of puppet enables understanding of simple words and directions in English and if it encourages the use of simple English words. Also, I wanted to find out the meaning of the puppet in communication in English language. There was a group of children who are attending the private day nursery involved in the research. The most involved in the activities were 6 children, aged between 1,5 and 3. The puppet was speaking English at all times while carrying out the activities for 6 months. It got involved in children’s free play and also in planned themed activities, during which it was encouraging children to learn and use certain words in English language. The children accepted the Puppet as a part of the group very quickly and they responded to its activities in the group. They started to use verbal as well as non-verbal communication as they wanted to get into interaction with her. Soon, older children started to use simple words in English language. The research has shown that preschool children show interest in learning foreign languages, the use of puppet in different activities enables them to understand simple words and directions in English language and to use them. The research has also shown that the use of the Puppet encourages children who are approximately three years old to communicate in English language