THE PEDAGOGY OF HANDWRITING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF RESOURCES AND CHALLENGES IN SERBIA’S ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2023.15.7Keywords:
ELT, handwriting method, handwriting, cursive writing, writing strokes, English alphabet, letter formation, legibility, primary grades, Grade 1, Grade 2Abstract
Establishing good handwriting habits in the earliest grades is very important for the entire schooling. It affects school performance and promotes learning. In Serbia, pupils start learning Cyrillic letters in Grade 1, while the Serbian Latin alphabet is taught in the second term in Grade 2. When it comes to ELT, there is no official introduction to the English Roman alphabet and children are expected to acquire the new script from Grade 3 and use it efficiently. In this paper, we analysed the learning resources for English (student’s books and workbooks) used in Grades 1 and 2 to determine the type of writing activities given, whether they provide sufficient support to develop writing skills, and how they can be improved. Based on the results, recommendations are given to improve the teaching instruction.
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