KARAKTERISTIČNE GREŠKE STUDENATA –BUDUĆIH VASPITAČA U KOMUNIKACIJI SA DECOM PREDŠKOLSKOG UZRASTA

Abstract

The educational process is mostly realized through verbal communication, i.e. by applying the method of conversation; therefore, all those who are involved in educational work should be highly competent in communication. Teachers use speech to ask questions, make requests, provide children with information or instructions, explain, praise or criticize. On the other hand, when communicating with teachers, children enrich their vocabulary, develop their culture of speech and communication skills. It is a common belief that everyone who can speak and communicate on a daily basis possesses developed communicative competences, especially when having 3- to 6-year-olds as interlocutors. In order to successfully communicate with children, preschool teachers need to have a good knowledge in pedagogy, psychology and methodology, to be familiar with children and spend time with them, to base the relationships on mutual trust and respect. Communication is easier to establish and more successfull if teachers provide children with emotional support, attention and help, show interest in what children are talking about, respect children’s ideas, suggestions and wishes, do not mock and laugh at children’s answers and comments, respect children’s interests and needs, and consider children as equal partners in communication. In order to have a fluent and relaxed conversation with children, it is necessary that teachers’ questions are short, precise and clear, stylistically and linguistically correctly formulated, with only one question word, without any ambiguity and appropriate to children’s age. Therefore we decided to analyze lesson plans written by students – future preschool teachers from the Faculty of Education in Jagodina – during the state of emergency in 2019/20 academic year and to identify the most common mistakes in their communication with children. Teacher’s questions should encourage children to think, to identify cause-and-effect relationships, and increase their interest in learning about their natural and social environment. However, the research results show that students mostly ask reproductive questions, make a large number of syntactical and grammar mistakes (especially in using grammatical cases) as well as methodological mistakes (choice of question words, word order, methodological rules related to the correct use of dialogue and age appropriate language). Due to the fact that in pedagogical communication there is no place for improvisation, it can be concluded that the development of students’ communicative competences should be intensified, both from theoretical and practical aspects, especially in the third and fourth years of study and within the subjects from the field of methodology.