Role of movement games in learning a foreign language in kindergarten

The thesis discusses children's learning of foreign languages in preschool education. The theoretical part describes the motivation of children, which is necessary for successful learning of a foreign language in kindergarten. It defines play, as a primary activity in the preschool period, as well as different types of games. I also provided a more detailed description of movement games because I used them for my research, where I taught 5 – 6 years old children English with the help of movement games. The thesis also discusses the method of the Total Physical Response. In the empirical part of the thesis, I tested the role of movement games in relation to learning a foreign language in kindergarten. I performed the movement games in English in one of the Slovenian kindergartens for two weeks, three times a week. I chose 36 English words that children learned while performing movement games. Before the start, I checked their prior knowledge with the help of a checklist and flashcards, and afterward, I checked their progress, once at the end of the activity, and once two weeks after we finished with all activities. After two weeks of performing movement games in English, I found out that throughout that period, children recognized an average of 14 new words and named around 8.7 new words. The two weeks of performing movement games were followed by a two-week break without performing movement games in English. In the meantime, I asked the preschool teachers to write down each time the children used English in their free play. The preschool teachers noticed that the children played in the ''English corner'' almost every day, named the pictures posted on the cupboard, used English in other activities, etc. Since the children also used English during the break, I repeated the vocabulary test. Compared to the last test, they recognized 1.1 new words and named 1.2 new words, which means that also during their free play they consolidated their knowledge of English. The children's progress in their knowledge of English vocabulary can be observed in both of the tests. To conclude everything, I conducted an individual interview with all the children and asked them which movement game they liked the most. Most of them could not decide on just one movement game and therefore said that they liked all of them equally. Among the children who chose their favourite movement game, the predominant answer was the game called "ANIMALS"