PECULIARITIES OF USING SONGS AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL FOR TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

The didactic potential of authentic song materials is disclosed in the paper. It is substantiated that, compared to other didactic tools, music has a number of advantages, namely: it causes emotional reactions and, through the emotional state, activates the cognitive processes and neuropsychic activity of students, has a beneficial effect on the physiological functions and emotional state of schoolchildren, is an important means of creating a positive psychological climate at the class. Using the song as an aid in language learning can be useful for introducing new vocabulary, reinforcing the rules of spelling, pronunciation and intonation, learning grammatical patterns, as well as in reading and listening comprehension exercises. All types and forms of work with the song help to stimulate schoolchildren’s interest in learning a language and maintain it throughout the years of schooling. An important condition for the successful use of song material in the educational process is didactically verified and methodically justified selection. We include the principles of authenticity, of influence on the individual’s emotional and motivational sphere, of availability, of the integrity of language material perception, of cultural relevance, and of methodical value. Depending on the methodical task, the song material is recommended to be used for phonetic training at the initial stage of the class; at the stage of presentation, primary reinforcement, as well as training lexical and grammatical material; as a stimulus for developing language skills and abilities at any stage of the class; as a kind of relaxation in the middle or at the end of the class, when students need a release that relieves tension and restores their working capacity. Learning resources should go beyond just the audio playback of the song. They should contain two important aspects that contribute to the improvement of language competence of schoolchildren, namely: visual information (static – in the form of pictures, or dynamic in the form of a clip) and text (text support of karaoke or subtitles in a music clip), that is, multisensory stimuli embedded in the song and aimed at auditory and visual perception. Forms of work with song material involve not only studying and singing a song, but also completing various exercises with song texts. Thanks to a well-chosen set of exercises, cognitive needs are stimulated, interest in the culture of the countries of the language being studied develops, foreign language speaking skills are formed, and language knowledge is deepened.