Literacy development in course books for teaching English in the second cycle of Slovenian primary school

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increased focus on the teaching of reading to children, and the development of their literacy skills in their mother tongue and foreign languages.The theoretical part of the article introduces literacy, and its role within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Literacy is part of the linguistic competences (particularly phonological, orthographic and orthoepic competences) that need to be acquired for successful communication. Unlike Slovene, English is a language with deep orthography, therefore, the development of literacy skills in English poses a considerable challenge to Slovenian learners. In the empirical part of the article, course books used for teaching English in the second cycle of Slovenian primary schools have been analysed with regard to literacy development, especially phonological, orthographic and orthoepic competences. This includes activities for developing orthographic reading skills, phonological and phonemic awareness, and the like. The research has shown that this area is approached to a greater or lesser extent in course books, and that literacy skills are mostly developed in an unprincipled way, without any systematic planning. Finally, a more systematic approach is recommended in developing early literacy skills in English as a foreign language.

Developing EFL Writing with Year 5 Pupils by Writing Summaries

“…consequently, teaching literacy skills is left to chance, and is a by-product of learning foreign languages (Dagarin Fojkar, Sešek, and Skela 2011, 19). In Slovenia, the development of foreign language literacy skills in primary school has not been carried out in a sufficiently systematic way (Dagarin Fojkar 2014), leading to considerable differences among pupils' writing skills.…”