UMETNOST GOVORA – INTONACIJA U MLAĐIM RAZREDIMA OSNOVNE ŠKOLE

In the making of an utterance, both words and prosodic devices play an important role. Prosodic features, particularly intonation, are crucial for conveying information and the meaning of a statement. Although the concept of intonation is not explicitly mentioned in the curriculum, its role is highly significant in the field of language and speech culture. The main goal of the paper was to show in which ways the concept of intonation can be incorporated, even implicitly, in the field of grammar, literature, and language culture. Therefore, it was necessary to analyze the curriculum for the first cycle of education to determine in which areas of the curriculum it is possible to devote special attention to intonation practice. Then we moved on to the analysis of the teaching units assigned by the curriculum in the textbooks and to find examples that would represent the best basis for acquiring knowledge related to intonation. It has been shown that the acquisition and practice of intonation can be worked on already from the first grade of elementary school, and that dramatic texts that are covered in literature classes are especially suitable for this. Although the concept of intonation can be challenging for students in the lower grades of elementary school, we believe that by using various speech exercises or stage performances of dramatic texts, students can intuitively see how important it is in the context of communication. In this way, teachers would additionally influence the development of students’ speech culture and enable them to participate in all communication situations actively and successfully.