THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL TEXTBOOK IN LESSONS ON WORD ACCENTS

Abstract

Results of an investigation on the use of the text book, particularly on word accents and tonicity, in the pedagogical practice of two 4^th and 5^th grade primary school teachers is provided. Although several studies have shown that the algorithmic and memorizing pedagogical approach is not adequate in the learning of spoken and written language, there is still the supposition that teachers are still linked to the above. Lesson reports on the contents mentioned above and school text book analyses were undertaken. Reports showed that the text book is always given paramount importance, that little time is allowed for the exposition of contents and that the text books fail to distinguish between the two linguistic modes (spoken and written). In fact, the teaching of word accents by graphically accented words is given priority. A conceptual confusion exists in both cases since the tonic syllable is an aspect of speech whilst word accent is directly bound to writing. Data suggest that, as an aspect of grammar rules, word accent should be taught as a grammatical algorithm within a process of grammar norms.Key-words: education; tonicity; word accent; teachers’ training; school text book.