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The effectiveness of mind-mapping learning strategy to extend vocabulary knowledge among elementary students
Šnevajsová, Helena ; Mikuláš, Martin (advisor) ; Kacafírková, Petra (referee)
Knowledge of vocabulary is an essential part of linguistic competence. Many students learn English vocabulary by translation and rote memorisation of vocabulary lists, which can result in the inability to use the words in well-formed sentences and appropriate contexts. Some students may find rote memorisation monotonous. This study examines the effectiveness of using the mind-map learning strategy to extend English vocabulary. Thirty-one elementary school students (15 men and 16 women) from two different elementary schools completed a short test before vocabulary instruction to obtain baseline data. Vocabulary instruction with the use of mind maps learning strategy followed. The recall was measured at the end of the lesson and one to two weeks after vocabulary instruction. A subjective assessment of the mind map learning strategy to learn vocabulary was taken. The results show that the knowledge of vocabulary items improved compared with the baseline. Moreover, students retained similar knowledge even after one to two weeks. New information was moved to the long-term memory of the students. Students were able to recall vocabulary from a medium- term perspective. Subjective assessment of the learning strategy showed that students enjoy learning vocabulary with mind maps more than writing vocabulary...
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The collocational competence of EFL students in relation to their cognitive and affective predispositions.
Kacafírková, Petra ; Kucharská, Anna (advisor) ; Betáková, Lucie (referee) ; Šulová, Lenka (referee)
The dissertation deals with the collocational competence of English language students and its relation to the naturalness of language production. In addition to the theoretical foundations of the research, the main focus is first given to the definition of collocational competence, followed by the presentation of the research project itself - a teaching intervention with students from Charles University (n = 39) over the course of one semester. Students were divided into an experimental group with explicit collocation instruction and a control group where teaching was conducted in a traditional way. The primary aim was to explore whether instruction inspired by lexically-oriented approaches contributes to the successful development of collocational competence. At the same time, we monitored individual differences, such as foreign language aptitude, anxiety, motivation, and learning strategies, and their impact on the learning process. The results suggest that explicit instruction of language in general is beneficial for students with higher levels of anxiety and weaker foreign language aptitude. Systematic lexically-oriented instruction proved to be effective in enhancing collocational competence and also contributed to naturalness of written production regardless of individual differences. The...
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The influence of early English language learning on the development of selected language competencies of elementary school students
Michalová, Šárka ; Špačková, Klára (advisor) ; Kacafírková, Petra (referee)
The question of the asset of early foreign language learning is a frequently discussed topic. Following prevailing opinion in society, that ‚the sooner, the better ', the beginning of compulsory foreign language learning is continually shifting in lower grades at primary school. A lot of children have already started with foreign language learning in kindergarten. Researches, which support the benefits of the approach, focus on a very narrow aspect of foreign language acquisition (pronunciation) or survey these facts with a specific group of inhabitants (immigrants). As experts point out, there is no significant benefit of early instructions ascertained in the Czech Republic. However, the research focused only on adults. We do not have any further evidence of the advantages of starting to learn a foreign language early. Therefore, the author focused on comparing the level of foreign language competences of two groups of pupils after their two-year compulsory instructions of English at primary school. The aim was to compare the level of their language competence in English and the learners' potential difficulties by the learners with early learning experience and by the learners without previous experience of foreign language learning before the beginning of compulsory learning at primary school....
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Inclusion of Pupils with Asperger syndrome in primary school
Belhajová, Hana ; Sotáková, Hana (advisor) ; Kacafírková, Petra (referee)
This work aims to analyze and describe how the inclusion of pupils with Asperger's syndrome takes place in a regular school and to verify the success of inclusion in practice through qualitative research. The theoretical part deals mainly with the possibilities of inclusion and its benefits in the school system, manifestations, and disorders associated with Asperger's syndrome, but also by defining basic concepts such as autism spectrum disorder, Asperger's syndrome, integration, and inclusion. Furthermore, the diagnosis of this spectrum of disorders according to the world criteria ICD 10 and DSM5 and ICD 11, which will come into force in the Czech Republic in 2022. The theoretical part also discusses the methods of approach and the position of teaching assistant. The empirical part of the thesis contains two case studies and evaluation of the success of the inclusion of pupils in mainstream schools based on qualitative research, in which I apply the knowledge from the theoretical part. The methods that were used for data collection and analysis include observation, interview, and expert documents. The research showed interesting results when most of the information and knowledge from the theoretical part was confirmed KEYWORDS Inclusion, Asperger's syndrome, elementary school, first grade, method...
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The level of basic reading and writing skills of bilingual primary school children
Tyburcová, Tereza ; Špačková, Klára (advisor) ; Kacafírková, Petra (referee)
Basic reading skills in Czech language, bilingual primary school children This thesis focuses on reading issues in Czech language in bilingual school age children born and taught in Czech environment. The main aim is to map there reading and writing skills in Czech language of bilingual children who live and study at the primary school with one or both parents from foreign country. The theoretical part defines the different types of bilingualism. It introduces the current state of knowledge about its advantages and disadvantages define the specifics of our language and education system focusing on the problems of foreigners and bilingual children. The practical part presents a research study in which the author compares the performance of monolingual and bilingual children in test mapping a level of the basic reading and writing skills in Czech language. There were used tests such as test of reading with comprehension, reading of pseudowords, writing a dictation, and test of reading literacy with expert text. KEYWORDS bilingualism monolingvism children of aliens school children primary school Czech language reading writing reading skills information retrieval comparative methods
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