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Abstract: The purpose of the master thesis entitled Understanding the Grammatical Category Aspect in Present Tense Forms and Past Tense Forms in Primary School is to determine whether primary school learners associate the forms of the simple present and past tense with the simple/indefinite aspect and the forms of the progressive present and past tense with the continuous/progressive aspect. This is crucial for building grammar knowledge of elementary school learners and applying that knowledge in real-life situations. English is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives and in some cases is a prerequisite for achieving goals. Therefore, the need for learning and teaching English is also increasing. Teachers face the challenge of how to get the learners to actively participate and speak in a foreign language, and applying the grammar rules to achieve the understanding, not just the knowledge of rules. The theoretical part of the thesis presents English language on a global level with the distinction between L2 users. It further presents the language acquisition and language learning and the factors that affect the perception of the language. It describes different teaching methods, approaches and strategies that the teachers use in the classroom. Then the grammar is presented as various linguists describe and perceive it, based on the universal grammar hypothesis by Noam Chomsky. Further, the focus is on the indefinite and progressive form of aspect and the terminology of terminative and non-terminative verbs is presented. The formation and the uses of Present Indefinite/Progressive and Past Indefinite/Progressive are explained in detail as a base for the empirical part of the thesis. In the end of the theoretical part, the correspondences between the present and past tense referring to the universal truths and general statement, stative/dynamic verbs and limited actions is described. The empirical part presents the results of a research, conducted in March and April 2022 in two primary schools in north-eastern Slovenia. Learners of 7th and 8th grade were tested with the help of two questionaries. The first questionnaire (Present Simple vs Present Continuous) consisted of six questions plus one additional task. The first five tasks were completely practical; however, the first two tasks included a theoretical task, asking the learners to explain why the said time is used in that particular task. The last task and the additional task required a more complex thinking since the learners had to use their knowledge of grammar rules and their usage to successfully solve all the tasks on the questionnaire. The second questionnaire (Past Simple vs Past Continuous) consisted of six tasks in total. The first five tasks were practical, with task two and three additionally requiring the learners to write why they thought Past Simple or Past Continuous were used. The data was then analysed and presented in tables in terms of correctness/incorrectness and in the percentage of the answers given by learners. The results showed that learners learn grammatical rules according to the syllabus and mostly through drilling exercises, which resulted in the very high success rate of the practical tasks, but they achieved poor results on theoretical tasks, where they were required to show the understanding of those rules. The results also confirmed our hypothesis that learners relate the simple present and past tense with the simple/indefinite aspect and the progressive present and past tense with the continuous/progressive aspect. In the end, we compared the results of our study with the results of the study done by Kaja Podgoršek, since it covers a similar topic.
Keywords: teaching English, primary school, English tenses, English grammar, terminitative verbs, non-terminitative verbs
Published in DKUM: 16.10.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 4
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Abstract: The paper presents research on museum-school relationship from the point of view of teachers from secondary grammar and vocational schools. It explores their current and preferred interactions. The results show that teachers from vocational schools make field trips less frequently and are less satisfied with their relationship with museums. The characteristics of museum-school interactions are the same for both groups and form a model of low-intensity relations, with each institution maintaining its discrete authority, responsibilities and resources. Unlike the responses of the grammar-school teachers, those of vocational-school teachers do not indicate any development of the present relationship.
Keywords: Secondary grammar school, secondary vocational school, museums, museumschool partnership, models of interaction
Published in DKUM: 25.07.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 1
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Abstract: Education is a very important basis of sustainable development. That is why the selected learning objectives in the syllabus for geography in general grammar schools in Slovenia will be analysed within this contribution (general grammar school in Slovenia is a secondary school with a general-educational emphasis that does not provide vocational education, but prepares students aged 15 to 19 for further education at universities). We have selected learning objectives that relate to economic geography as a general geography topic, with special emphasis on learning objectives that refer to agriculture, rural areas and sustainable development. This contribution will present the results of generic comparative analysis of selected learning objectives in syllabi that were issued during the period since the emergence of Slovenia as an independent state (1992, 1998 and 2008). The results of the evaluation of quoted learning objectives from the viewpoint of social needs, educational guidelines and geographical science, as well as the results of the evaluation from the viewpoint of geography teachers in general grammar schools will also be examined. Educational problems associated with economic geography, sustainable development and rural areas will be highlighted accordingly.
Keywords: sustainable development, general grammar school, syllabus, Slovenia
Published in DKUM: 20.03.2018; Views: 1266; Downloads: 1266
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Abstract: The experience of practitioners has confirmed that primary and secondary schools in Slovenia do not pay enough attention to contemporary art practices. Teachers do not sufficiently (or not at all) include contemporary artists in art education. Consequently, students are not informed about experiencing and receiving contemporary art. They are often unable to define it and make their own opinions about it, as they have problems understanding and reading the content and force of expression regarding contemporary artworks. The current article shows a few examples of how grammar school teachers can successfully apply contemporary art practices in the visual arts curriculum. It presents the content-related, pedagogical-and-didactic planning and the possibilities of including contemporary art practices. The works of good quality, presented in the present article, have confirmed that contemporary art can be exceptionally interesting to students themselves, provocative and, above all, different from what they are used to.
Keywords: sodobna umetnost, kurikulum, gimnazija, likovna umetnost, curriculum, grammar school, visual arts
Published in DKUM: 10.07.2015; Views: 1992; Downloads: 37
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