First, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my research supervisor, Dr Makrina Zafiri who guided me and gave me detailed academic feedback during the completion of this paper. A special thanks goes to my very young students for their vivacity, their intense desire to learn and their incredible cooperation. Finally, I feel I must express my boundless gratitude to my parents, Giorgos and Thaleia, for their constant emotional support and faith in me.
Introduction
The PEAP Curriculum, the 1 st Grade Syllabus and the Communicative Approach to
Description of the PEAP Curriculum
- The pedagogic objectives of the Curiculum
- Ideological Orientation of the Curriculum
The specific definition appears to meet the needs of the current study as it allows for the use of specific tasks that can act as criteria to improve YLs' oral skills through their involvement in visual arts. By asserting that education is student-centered, “placing the student at the center of teacher thinking and curriculum planning” (Cameron, 2001, p.1), the specific curriculum appears to be consistent with arts-based education that is aimed at general education of the students. (Chapman, 1978), as we will see later in this study. Meanwhile, the social and cultural basis of learning is emphasized, claiming that teaching is in accordance with the students' socio-cultural environment, which is also the focus of the current study.
Description of the 1 st Grade Syllabus
- The Structure of the Syllabus
- The language learning objectives of the Syllabus
Students are invited to recognize images and relate them to sounds and words (Dendrinos, 2013), while at the same time learning to respond to greetings using simple syntactic structures and creating familiar routines that “give children a sense of security and a sense of of community. and belonging to them” (Read, 2005, p. 6). What follows is Cycle B, which includes activities aimed at gradually enabling students to move from themselves to people, animals and things around them, while at the same time promoting a more dynamic and active classroom environment . Last but not least, Cycle E, the last cycle of the proposed learning material, features seasonal activities aimed at introducing young learners to the culture of the foreign population (Papa and Lantorno, 1989, p.8) that emerged in at the same time as a starting point for cross-curricular work and the acquisition of a single vocabulary and longer pieces of language.
The use of the Communicative Language Teaching Approach to improve
The specific definition seems to meet the objectives of this study, as it allows the use of specific tasks that can be used as criteria for the development of students' speaking skills. More specifically, in relation to YLs and taking into account that they are not cut off from the rest of society (Alexiou, 2019), CLT aims to create authentic practical activities as similar as possible to those of real life in order to stimulate the use of language in lessons by expanding the students' vocabulary and simultaneously an experiential horizon (Zardini and Barnabe, 2013). Considering that when YLs experience a new language, they try to understand it by bringing their social knowledge of the world to bear, an interactive environment should be built to help learners find social purpose in meaningful and contextualized tasks through VA that they can use as a key to understanding and encourage them to use the foreign language as a primary tool for communication (Cameron, 2001).
The use of Visual Arts in speaking: a multisensory activation, vocabulary development
Defining Visual Arts and their pedagogical value in the Primary EFL class
Also, in his review of a Guggenheim assessment of an arts education program in New York public schools, Kennedy (2006) presents findings that YLs' involvement in VAs such as paintings and sculpture positively influences the development of literacy and oral skills. communication skills where the arts are considered an essential part of the EFL curriculum. In line with the basic tenets of the PEAP curriculum that emphasizes the social and cultural foundations of learning by taking a learner-centered approach to language teaching (Dendrinos, 2013), this study provides examples of the teacher's attempt to develop that aim to motivate and educate learners as a whole while improving language acquisition. YLs may learn about themselves and others by viewing and evaluating artistic content, while sensory experiences induced by visual stimuli enhance understanding of the human experience (Dewey, 1938).
Integrating Visual Arts into an EFL Curriculum: Benefits
- The connection of Visual Arts to the development of speaking
- The connection of Visual Arts to multisensory activation and oral development
- Visual Arts as a tool to enhance vocabulary development
- Visual Arts as a tool to enhance language chunks development
- Criteria for selecting the paintings
Finally, it aims to facilitate students to gain command over abstract language and develop speaking skills which are the objective of the specific study (Baines, 2008). In fact, with the introduction of the CLT approach, vocabulary development has become a major focus of language work as an important. In line with the principles of CLT, providing opportunities for YLs to use language spontaneously, emphasis is placed on students' familiarity with the use of lexical items and phrases.
The Research Methodology
- The purposes and aims of the research
- The Research Design: Conducting Action Research
- The participants
- The procedure
- The methods of data collection
- The pre- and post- semi-strucutured interviews
- The pre-, while- and post-intervention tests
- The teacher’s diary
- The recordings
- The lessons: Instruction through Visual Arts
- Thematic Area 1 (Castle and Sun)
- Thematic Area 2 (The world of numbers)
- Thematic Area 3 (Life in the farm)
- Thematic Area 4 (Life in the jungle)
- Thematic Area 5 (The world of feelings)
- Thematic Area 6 (The four seasons)
The researcher exposed the participants of the experimental group to a new treatment (the effect of which the researcher was interested in) and compared their performance with that of the control group, whose participants received a standard treatment whose effects were already known (Thomas, 2020 ). Ultimately, the students had to work in pairs, adding to the content of the painting and creating a jungle construction that would be presented in class. Flashcards of the paintings for each student, as well as music, were utilized to support oral production in the L2.
Results and Discussion
The Research Questions: Discussion
- Research Question 1: How do visual arts enhance speaking skills in first grade
- Researh Question 2: How do visual arts enhance vocabulary learning and use in
- Research Question 3: How do visual arts enhance language chunks learning and
More specifically, all students produced the names of the jungle animals that were added to the painting (Appendix, XVIII, p. 217) in the post-talking phase of. With reference to the quantitative analysis, there were no statistically significant differences in the development of language chunks between the performance of the control group and the experimental group before the intervention stage: F= 10. However, participants in the experimental group scored on average higher than participants in the control group in the post language development test.
Conclusions and implications for further research
Limitations of the present study
Suggestions for further research
In fact, the particular findings suggest that art-based teaching can indeed have a remarkable linguistic and pedagogical value in the primary EFL class, testifying to a positive influence not only on the development of young learners' language skills and language awareness, but also on promoting learners' way of responding to and representing the world (Chapman, 1978). By facilitating young learners to master the required abilities and content knowledge areas through active exploration and hands-on learning experiences (Ruiz, 2010, Dewey, 1938), it becomes clear that arts-based instruction should be incorporated into the PEAP curriculum, as it has many. to offer not only the improvement of YLs' language skills, but also for a well-rounded development of young learners. The specific research aimed to investigate the impact of the specific approach using artistic elements on oral receptive and productive skills of learners in the first grade of a Primary School in a small provincial town in Greece.
The findings reveal a positive impact of visual arts instruction on the speaking skills of participants in the experimental group compared to those attending the control group. Test results and lesson observation showed that visual arts-based instruction also affected the areas of vocabulary development and word acquisition. Pre-A1 level in the Companion Book of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
Retrieved from: https://twinklestar.ro/using-art-as-a-mnemonic-tool-for-language- acquisition-in-the-efl-class/ on March 9, 2021. Using drawing tasks as a strategy creative for students in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Retrieved from: https://www.onestopenglish.com/general-english/using-art-in-the- classroom/550072.article on March 9, 2021.
New York, New York State Education Department Office of Tolingual Education and Foreign Language Studies/University of the State of New York.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTING THE PAINTINGS
Level of language development Is the art content able to improve students' negotiation of what they can see by prompting students. The criterion is related to the claim of the PEAP curriculum to provide students with rich and possible input in order to encourage language development and expose them to new words and structures (PEAP, 2004).
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING SPEAKING
THE PRE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (ENGLISH VERSION) . 74
THE POST SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (ENGLISH VERSION) 80
Did you enjoy coming to the board and looking at the paintings up close? . a)Yes b) No . 8. Did you enjoy having the opportunity to touch the paintings, point out things on them such as animals, colors, or different objects taught in class, or even place things on them that change the content? . a)Yes b)No. Did you enjoy making drawings and crafts inspired by the paintings you saw? . a)Yes b)No 14.
THEMATIC APPROACH: The contribution of visual arts to the development of students' speaking abilities in the English language. Do you think that learning new words and phrases in the English language through art pictures helped you learn and remember those words and phrases better? . a) Yes b) No. Did you like to present your drawing or craft to your classmates using English words or phrases? . a) Yes b) No 5. And if yes, why?.
Did you find it difficult to answer the teacher's questions about your own drawing or craft? Do you think describing your own drawing or craft helps you use more English words and phrases? Do you think working with the paintings helped you learn more words and phrases in English? . a) Yes b) No 17.
THE LESSONS
T gives the students the pieces of paper that were used in the while stage of the lesson (Activity 2). According to the guidelines proposed by the Greek Ministry of Education, the teaching of the English Language in the 1st grade is done orally. Now Ls are shown the paintings again and are invited to imagine themselves as part of the paintings.
Now Ls are given figures of the different animals and asked to come to the board and place them in the painting according to the answers they gave in the advocacy phase. They are also shown the flashcards of the other jungle animals and are asked to name the different animals. They are given figures of the jungle animals and are asked to draw a jungle and place the animals in it.
Learning aids/material for use: poster of the painting "The Four Seasons" by the Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis, parts of the violin concertos "The Four Seasons" by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Have the Ls look at the picture and try to guess what the people in the picture represent and identify each of them with one of the four seasons. L's are divided into four groups according to the favorite figure in the picture, which represents one of the four seasons.
Learners are asked to describe what they can smell and taste in the specific part of the painting in order to use phrases such as e.g. Each group should look carefully at their part of the painting for a few minutes. They wear winter or summer hats and they hold items according to the season they chose in the previous phase of the lesson.
PRE/POST-INSTRUCTION VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT TEST
PRE/POST-INSTRUCTION LANGUAGE CHUNKS DEVELOPMENT
WHILE-INSTRUCTION VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT TESTS
Ls are shown the above pictures in random order and asked to describe how many objects they can see in each picture. Oral recognition and creation of the names of domestic animals, which the students used in building their own farms. Students are given different jungle animal cards and asked to put them in their baskets according to T's directions.
WHILE-INSTRUCTION LANGUAGE CHUNKS DEVELOPMENT
THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE LESSONS
THE TEACHER’S DIARY
THE FINDINGS OF THE TESTS
PRE- AND POST- VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENCES
PRE- AND POST- LANGUAGE CHUNKS DEVELOPMENT
THE TEACHING MATERIAL SAMPLES SUGGESTED BY THE