Abstract:

In the study , we are dealing with analysis and comparison of Slovak primers with emphasis on such teaching methods, approaches and principles which motivate children not only to acquire learning skills but also to become good readers and discoverers of the beauties and possibilities of their maternal language. We are supposing that the contact of a child with the first educational book, a primer, significantly influences the character of the child's learning for the rest of its life and its attitude towards its maternal language. It is a very important guide in the inicial phase of learning and personal growth of a child and it is supposed to help the child, from the beginning, to acquire such learning strategies, attitudes and other psychological mechanisms which will form an inseparable part of the whole process of the child's education and self-education. In relation to still increasing students' problems in acquisition of basic communicative competences and literacy, in the educational system, there is absent such a plurality that would offer teachers a sufficient number of possibilities of effective methods emphasising individual condition of each first grade student so that every one of them could develop a positive attitude towards reading and writing. The plurality of methods achieved in both traditional and alternative primers should lead to a correct, fluent reading which would not become a mechanical, forced and spiritless activity, rather it should become a precondition for forming creative and critical reading and writing skills. Therefore, the goal of this study is to point out what a primer should contain, from both educational and contentual point of view, in order to sufficiently prepare first grade students of elementary schools for their further education, knowledge acquisition, personal growth and an adequate developemenet of reading literacy and communicative competences.

Keywords:

Primer, Slovak language, teaching reading, teaching methods, teaching principles.