Вестник КазНПУ им. Абая, серия «Филологические науки», №4(62) 2017 г.
264
Abstract
Children are more motivated andstimulated in the foreign language classroom when authentic materials (rhymes,
songs, realia) are used. Authentic materials increase the children’s levelof involvement and concentration. Exposing
students to such language forms will enable them to cope with genuine interaction, whether it is inside or outside the
classroom. There is an important reason is that rhymes make up a powerful means of teaching English at primary ages.
With help of rhymes the lexical aspect of communication is formed. Rhymes make it possible for students to learn
appropriate set of words, which later might be constructed into simple sentences. Rhymes are useful to enlarge the
vocabulary background of children, todevelop pupils’ listening and speaking skills. In addition, they show many aspects
of the culture of each society as they occur in allphases of our life, from birth to death. Since they play an important role
inthe process of learning and using our mother tongue, they are also quite important in the learning of foreign language,
and especially for young learners. Along this article, we aim to describe the importance of using rhymes in the teaching
of English as a foreign language at aprimary level.
Keywords:
rhymes, teaching foreign languages, primary level, secondary school, classrooms, listening and
speaking skills
INTRODUCTION.
A nursery rhyme can be defined as a short poem or song for children, usually
composed by an anonymous poet; these verses are “highly rhythmic, tightly rhymed, and popular with small
children” [1, 171]. Considered traditional poems for young children in Britain, their usage in North America
the older “Mother Goose Rhymes” are still often used in primary classrooms. Betsy Hearne emphasizes the
appeal of these rhymes and notes that “Nursery Rhymes are only a step away from song in their changing
cadence and compressed story elements”. Whereas lullabies are considered sleep songs, nursery rhymes are
waking songs; they are engaging verses for an adult to sing to or chant with children. Many of these
anonymous verses, with their rich oral tradition, have traveled from generation to generation and one can
often find the echoes of these poems in collections by later poets [2, 1138]. One of the goals of silly verses
known as nursery rhymes is to entertain young children and soothe babies. It is believed that the earliest
nursery rhymes were created before the 1600s. Although writing new nursery rhymes is not common, today
the old ones continue to be recited repeatedly by children and teachers around the world. Nursery rhymes
take no consistent form. Some are short, with four or fewer lines. Others are long and contain many verses.
Most nursery rhymes are musical, with a strong sense of rhyme and rhythm. These characteristics make
nursery rhymes easy and delightful to remember [3, 12]. Some nursery rhymes follow the scheme of using
couplets – the last words of the first two lines rhyme; the last words of the last two lines rhyme – or the use
of “a a b b” rhyme structure. This type of rhyme scheme is presented in the following example:
Little bird of paradise,
She works her work both neat and nice;
She pleases God, she pleases man,
does the work that no man can
[4, 5].
Exaggeration along with rhyme, repetition, and humor are combined to create attractive topics, events and
characters for young children [6, 160]. Another quality that makes nursery rhymes attractive is the witty and
whimsical characters that appear in these rhymes. The humorous aspect appeals to the children as well as to
the adults who share the verses with them [7, 169].
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