Nowadays, people are increasingly aware of globalisation, which is why the process of learning a foreign language in early years is becoming more and more important. As children learn their first language mainly through listening, it would be reasonable to have them start learning the second/foreign language in the same way. Hearing allows us to perceive both language and music and so the two areas are very similar. The thesis therefore combines them and discusses the teaching of English in the preschool period through music activities.
The theoretical part examines the acquisition of the first and second/foreign language and discusses their differences and similarities. It highlights the advantages of early foreign language learning and indicates several modern methods and approaches to foreign language teaching. The Total Physical Response (TPR) method was considered as the most suitable method of teaching a foreign language in preschool. I combined the TPR method with music and carried out the research activities with action songs.
In the empirical part I explored the effectiveness of musical activities in combination with the TPR method in teaching English in preschool. I also looked into their impact on the motivation of children for learning a foreign language, taking into account the activities undertaken in the kindergarten, observations and opinions of preschool teachers. The research findings suggest that musical activities combined with the TPR method in preschool are very effective in foreign language learning because children memorised many English words from the action songs. In addition, their motivation was always high and the majority of children participated in the activities and had fun. Based on the interpreted results we can conclude that the chosen method was suitable for the preschool period.
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