Philological sciences are amongst the oldest academic disciplines. Teaching philological sciences to students aged between 15 and 17 is a real challenge. It's hard for the teacher to motivate children during their middle adolescency. The difficulties come from the fact that the teachers often tend to use too traditional approaches.
Philological sciences provide students with a broad knowledge of the language, among with the literature and the culture of the selected language. The teacher plays an important role in students' preparation for ethical use of their knowledge at work and in everyday life.
According to Article 1 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, every human being below the age of 18 is a child. Adolescence is a challenging stage of children's development. It begins around the age of 11 (for females) and 13 (for males), and it ends by the age of 22 when the individual achieves both emotional and financial autonomy, and the adult personality is developed. This is a period of rapid changes in the biological, cognitive, psychological and social characteristics of the individual (Ritakallio, 2008).
[...] Terms and terminology used in teaching philological sciences Due to the wide range of philological sciences, the teachers must highlight many terms to the middle adolescents. Table 2 comprises the general language and grammar terms that every student between 15 and 17 years of age must be aware of. Table 3 concentrates of the meaning of important terms in literature. Teachers' role here is to provide the students with correct and comprehensible information about the terms of language and literature. [...]
[...] The lines of laughter left their faces, and they waited with parted lips.” Source: Liz & Soars (1998) The improvement of philological sciences teaching depends on how effectively conversation texts and dialogues are used to introduce conversational phrases and idioms. In order the latter to be achieved, the teacher may choose a text from literature which contains dialogue and conversational phrases. This is very helpful for the learner to know some phrasing styles unfamiliar to her/him. It is better to teach new meanings through establishing association withing the target language rather than establishing such with the mother tongue. [...]
[...] The trachers of philological sciences have the additional responsibility of being innovative and creative to ensure that the students, especially in the second (third) language context not only understand but also internalize the texts. The middle adolescents are highly influenced by the attidude and the disposition of the teacher. In general, students' opinon is that language and literature are difficult and taxing and this could be partly attributed to the assumptions of the teachers about teaching focusing more on traditional class room role. [...]
[...] Questionnaire 2 (Questions concern students' knowledge of philological sciences material) 1. Anadiplosis is: a . a rhetorical device where a word or phrase at the end of a sentence or phrase is repeated at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase; b. where two near-synonyms are placed consecutively or very close together for effect c. a kind of understatement, where the speaker or writer uses a negative of a word ironically, to mean the opposite Hyperbole is : a. [...]
[...] o According to you, what's the most effective method of teaching philological sciences to middle adolescents? o Do you think your students like your methods ? o How do you assess your students' knowledge? Do you consider your methods were successful ? o Do you have any ideas for changes in your methods? Observations Observations took place during the winter term in two Greek high schools. The object of the observations was two classes from the schools. The observations lasted two days and included a various number of activites Results and analysis Questionnaire 1 Question a. [...]
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