Akadēmiskais centrshttps://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2023.49 | 616-631 | PDF
Integrating the Study of Family History in the Process of Learning the Latvian Language
Kristiāns Jakubovskis1, Anna Vulāne2
1 Zemgale secondary school, Latvia
2 University of Latvia, Latvia
Abstract. Latvian language and literature, like the history of the nation and country, is an essential basis of national and cultural development, and an important part of civic education. One of the problems we face daily is related to the fact that many of young people do not perceive the Latvian language as a value, and do not want to learn some part of the curriculum, because it seems to them too far from reality, useless and irrelevant. To create more interest in language learning content, it should also include topics that may be personally meaningful to students or should be viewed in a context that is engaging to them.
The purpose of the paper is to justify the need to include the study of family history in the learning content of the Latvian language, ensuring the connection between subjects, and to characterize the developed linguo-didactic material. The author’s experience in creating family trees and involving students in this work in interest education classes shows that this not only creates interest in young people in the set of personal names of their family and the motivation of their choice but also promotes the desire to more fully learn the history of the Latvian language and the language as a system, to develop their language and communication skills.
The research was conducted in the 10th grade using the methods of document analysis, case analysis, pedagogical observation, and pupil’s survey. The research concluded that the study of family history can be successfully included in Latvian language lessons. The students were interested in lessons related to the topic of family history, admitting that they find the lessons more interesting, where it is possible to acquire not only theoretical knowledge of the Latvian language but also additional information about their family members. For the work to be more successful, students should already at the stage of primary education develop persistent habits, the skills of independent work, information acquisition, compilation, and analysis, as well as age-appropriate linguo-cultural tasks should be included in the curriculum, which would promote the study of language learning as a cultural phenomenon.
Keywords: education, family history, Latvian language, linguo-didactics, personal name.
Kristiāns Jakubovskis, Bc. paed., is a teacher of Latvian and literature at Zemgale secondary school.
Anna Vulāne, Dr. philol., is a professor of the University of Latvia, leading researcher at the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia, expert in linguistics at the Council of Sciences of the Republic of Latvia.
In: Human, Technologies and Quality of Education, 2023. Proceedings of Scientific Papers = Cilvēks, tehnoloģijas un izglītības kvalitāte, 2023. Rakstu krājums
Riga, University of Latvia, 2023. 796 p. Ed. L. Daniela
https://doi.org/10.22364/htqe.2023
ISBN 978-9934-36-116-6