PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 2 / 2012

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Stanisław Dubisz, Beata K. Jędryka : Teaching teachers of Polish as a foreign language – description of the situation and teaching implications
    Polish as a foreign language and as the second language has been gaining popularity in the European Union and beyond. This involves increased interest in the Polish language teaching in nearly all Polish academic institutions. The diversity of educational curricula, handbooks and other teaching resources encourages to reflect on the specificity of the role of the teacher of Polish as a foreign language and teaching methods. The major value and aim of this education profile should be the teaching efficiency based on the following three principles: a) valorisation of teaching methods, b) economy of teaching techniques and resources, c) effectiveness of results.
  • Zygmunt Borowski : How to teach Polish grammar to a foreigner
    The present paper is addressed to the learners of Polish as a foreign language both at the elementary and advanced levels; it is intended to serve as a mini vade mecum. As early as at the elementary level, when introducing the basic verbs and forming simple sentences (syntactic relationships in a sentence) noun declension occurs, e.g. Jestem nauczycielem (Nom. sing.) [I am a teacher], Widzę nauczyciela (Acc. sing.) [I can see a teacher], Nie mam czasu (Gen. sing.) [I do not have time] etc. I would like to emphasise that I do not use terms such as soft and hard stem nouns or verbs since these types of phenomena do not occur in German and would not be understandable to a foreigner. In the practical teaching of Polish it is necessary to introduce paradigms (popular declension and conjugation models/patterns), e.g. with respect to the noun and verb – type 1 at the elementary level and subsequently, depending on the advancement level of the learner, that is their practical command of the language, the remaining types, the adjective and pronoun inflection, the prepositional government, and the future and past verb tenses (Präteritum – the designation for both aspects).
  • Marta Kotarba-Kańczugowska : Multilingualism in education based on observation of language teaching curricula in Austrian kindergartens and primary schools
    The author participated in a Study Visit in Vienna (Austria) from 4 to 8 April 2011. The subject of the visit was the lower primary education in a multilingual community. Many children whose mother tongue is other than German are taught in primary schools in Vienna. Therefore, attempts are continually being made to find solutions that can streamline the teaching process in multilingual and multicultural pupil groups. During the visit the author had the opportunity to familiarise herself with the solutions employed in Austria in the field of teaching mother tongues and foreign languages to children aged 6-10. The paper discusses the issues of multilingualism and multiculturalism in education, which are analysed with focus on language initiatives related to teaching modern languages in grades 1–4 of primary school executed by the Vienna Board of Education and other solutions promoted by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur).
  • Magdalena Trysińska : Language teaching in upper-secondary schools – why is it necessary?
    The paper provides the reasons why language teaching is necessary at all the stages of Polish language teaching, with particular emphasis on the final stage – the upper-secondary school. On the examples of pupil utterances the author proves that insufficient linguistic competence translates into low text generation competence. Upper-secondary school pupils cannot use the academic and erudite styles skilfully. They have problems with lexical connectivity, with manipulating the meaning, with utterance precision. This obviously results in a considerable number of linguistic errors in the pupil written assignments. The analysis of discursive essays proves that the teacher may not resign from language teaching at any of the educational stages. It is important at the same time that the teaching goals and matched methods are clearly defined at each stage. The knowledge and skills obtained at the earlier stages should be systematically developed at the subsequent stages.
  • Ewa Kowalewska-Kuczkowska : The first grade pupils’ awareness of utterance aesthetics

    The essence of the paper is to observe to what extent first grade pupils pay attention to the word aesthetics. The author of this paper, who was interested in the answer to the above question, conducted research among 20 pupils of the first grade of a primary school in Gdańsk. The research took place on 15 December 2008 in one of the classrooms. Each of the pupils was subjected to the research individually by receiving the same set of questions.

    1. Do you know people who speak Polish in a nice manner? Who are they?
    2. Why do you think these people speak in a nice manner?
    3. Do you know people who speak Polish in a clumsy manner? Who are they?
    4. Why do you think these people speak in a clumsy manner?

    The first grade pupils managed to answer the asked questions surprisingly well. They paid attention to multiple significant factors which influence the aesthetics of the utterance, including the emotional factor, which is the source of numerous unaesthetic utterances.

REPORTS, NOTICES, POLEMICS

  • Elżbieta Awramiuk : Fostering literacies. Teaching and learning in heterogeneous environments. International academic conference, Hildesheim 2011
  • Stanisław Drewniak : Dziewierzowa spadli z drabiny [≈ Dziewierzowa fell from the ladder], or on the names of our relatives and kins

REVIEWS

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRIES AND MEMOIRS