Metody stymulowania rozwoju słownictwa w języku polskim u dzieci dwujęzycznych na emigracji
Methods of stimulating Polish vocabulary development in bilingual children living in an English-speaking environment

Author(s): Kamila Kuros-Kowalska
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Education
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: bilingualism; vocabulary; emigration; methods of developing lexis; methods of teaching Polish abroad
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this publication was to study the effectiveness of the original methods of stimulating Polish language vocabulary development in bilingual children living in an English-speaking environment. At the beginning of the research, the initial level of Polish language competence in Polish bilingual children living in England was assessed. The next stage of the study was to establish what change could be seen a year after the traditional and modern methods of stimulating vocabulary development were introduced. The results achieved by the bilingual children from England were compared with those of the monolingual children living in Poland. The publication consists of five chapters. The introduction is followed by a theoretical chapter dealing with the methodologies employed in the study. The second chapter focuses on the particular aspects of multilingualism which were recognised as essential to present a complete picture of the issues raised in this work. The third chapter provides a description of the research tools used in the study. One of the tools, “A child’s vocabulary test” (Test Słownika Dziecka) by professor Zbigniew Tarkowski, is already known in the world of science. Two other tools, referred to as a traditional method, which involves short stories accompanied by questions, and a modern method that is a multimedia program, were created by the Author exclusively for this research. The fourth chapter presents the development of the tested children’s vocabulary based on the analysis of the results obtained by the children from the youngest age group taking part in the research. The fifth chapter features the prospects associated with the use of the research tools. The research on lexis, whose level influences communication efficiency, brought a number of observations. They concerned the choice of particular vocabulary made by the children, problems (e.g. relating to defining), linguistic mechanisms applied by the bilingual children to develop their vocabulary. Moreover, the research enabled the Author to make observations with regard to the challenges faced by the bilingual children and bilingual families living in England. The results of the research allow to appreciate especially one of the methods which is broadly discussed in the chapters describing the tools and the results of the research.

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