FUTURE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING IN ORGANIZING EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of training primary school teachers to organize extracurricular activities in a foreign language. The author notes that the transformational changes which are taking place in modern Ukrainian society and the European integration processes make it necessary to pay special attention to teaching a foreign language. It has been found that developing primary school children’s foreign language communicative competence requires efficient methods and forms of learning that correspond to the development of pupils’ age-specific features.
 In this context, extracurricular activities in a foreign language become crucial for the realization of the communicative goals of mastering a foreign language. It is emphasized that extracurricular activities have a number of significant advantages, in particular, greater freedom for pupils in the course of completing assignments and the initiative of children in various creative types of work. In addition, children behave casually and emotionally. They look for their own methods of expressing thoughts. In this regard, special attention is paid to the organization of extracurricular activities as an essential component of the formation of younger schoolchildren’s foreign language communicative competence, which contributes to the creation of such an atmosphere that would promote positive communication and stimulate pupils’ speech activity. 
 The author analyzes the interpretation of the category «extracurricular activities» presented in the scientific research of Ukrainian scientists. The characteristics of various forms of extracurricular activities in a foreign language, in a particular individual, group, and mass are presented.
 The main components of the preparation of future primary school teachers for the organization of extracurricular work in a foreign language are highlighted. Thus, future teachers are introduced to the general principles of organizing extracurricular work in the process of studying the professionally-oriented academic disciplines «Introduction to the Specialty Primary Education»Є, «General Fundamentals of Pedagogy», «Didactics of Primary Education», «Theory and Methodology of Education». The specifics of the organization of extracurricular activities in a foreign language are mastered directly in the course of studying the discipline «Methods of Foreign Language Education». 
 The practical training of future primary school teachers takes place in the course of practice at school and doing assignments in the «Methods of Foreign Language Education» module. Students are offered to conduct an extracurricular event in a foreign language, in particular in the form of a quest.