STIMULATION OF LANGUAGE COMPETENCE ACCORDING TO THE PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK – THE EXAMPLE OF DEVELOPMENT OF MORPHOLOGICAL SYSTEM

Abstract

The paper discusses ways in which the stimulation of language competence is aligned with the view of the child offered by the Preschool Curriculum Framework (rich in potential, creative, whole being, being of play...) and provides suggestions for harmonizing traditional teaching practices, manifested in domain directed activities, with the project approach. The potential for integrating language play with the contents of other sub-domains of speech development and other developmental domains is highlighted. Attention is directed to stimulating the development of the morphological system, in order to shed light on two aspects of it: ways to stimulate the acquisition of (1) morphological (inflectional) and morphophonological patterns and of (2) derivational patterns. It is found that the kindergarten teacher’s preparation for such subject requires an awareness of the ways of uncovering the derivated words, ways of introducing patterns, ways of representing the meaning of derivated words or their morphemes, understanding the derivational meaning, the selection of derivational patterns and examples, and how they are extracted from dictionaries. It is concluded that a quality holistic approach to the child requires not only the application of general pedagogical principles, but also of the principles of the subject, as outlined.