Naslov
A Constructivist Approach to Teaching Articles

Autori
Kuzmanić (Pivčević), Maja

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics: Linguistics, Culture and Identity in Foreign Language Education

Mjesto i datum
Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina, 09.05.2014. - 10.05.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
constructivism, acquisition of articles, French, Croatian, (in)definiteness as a universal category

Sažetak
According the hypothesis that Croatian speakers learning French have significant difficulties in acquiring the article system (Kuzmanić 2012), the focus of this paper is teaching of French articles in the context of constructivism as a learning theory. With it, learning is understood as a lifelong process and knowledge as a dynamic process – it is always, based on experience, constructed or reconstructed. According to constructivist theory, a teacher’s role is only to guide students in the process of discovery, making assumptions and reaching conclusions on the use of French articles. He/she encourages students to discover the way in which language works by themselves, thereby leading them to a global picture of what articles express (the category of (in)definiteness), as well as to create awareness of the universality of the mentioned categories, thus inductively reaching the cross-language general semantic principles, which can be found even in Croatian (language entirely lacking the system of article), but also in other previously learned foreign languages (in Croatia those are mainly English, Italian and German). A number of studies have been conducted on the acquisition of English articles by Croatian students (such as Trenkić 2000, Avery, Radišić 2007, Zergollern-Miletić 2008, Balenović 2012), but only few have dealt with the way the articles were presented and introduced to students. The novelty of this study is precisely the proposal of treatment of the articles based on the settings of the constructivist learning theory in which the student becomes an active language researcher. It will also be interesting, in terms of developing metacognitive competence, to see how much the students are aware of the cross- linguistic impact. With such a method, regardless of the language, it will be easier to acquire any new element if the student uses the knowledge he/she already possesses.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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