The development of primary school students’ monologue skills in Russian and English

Abstract

This article focuses on the development of primary school students’ monologue skills in Russian and English. A thorough examination of different definitions of the term “monologue” shows that they are synonymous. The article analyses educational aims and objectives of teaching monologue to young learners in two languages. The following similarities in both languages have been identified: primary school children should be taught (1) to talk about themselves, their friends and families; (2) to express and argue their opinion, and (3) to prepare a brief speech with their attitude towards the text they have read. The differences have to do with the speech length and degree of novelty: in English, students are only required to use speech patterns taught by a teacher as they are only beginners. The paper gives an overview of types of exercises for the development of speaking skills in Russian and English. In the Russian language, the key tools for their development include teaching students synonyms and antonyms and allowing them to reflect on different topics. In the English language, speaking skills are developed by providing speech patterns and asking students to learn texts by heart. Speaking about one’s family, describing pictures, retelling texts and special exercises on expanding sentences are used both in Russian and English. Particular attention is paid to the methods of development of monologue skills in the Russian language and stages of development of monologue skills in the English language. The main difference between the two languages is that when entering school young learners have already mastered monologue in their native language (Russian), whereas they start learning English only in the second grade at the age of 7–8. Thus, monologue skills of young learners in the Russian language are improving, while in the English language they are being developed from scratch.