Η συμβολή του παραμυθιού στη διδασκαλία του γλωσσικού μαθήματος στην πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση
Authors: Ντοροπούλου Μαρία 
Published: January 2014

The present thesis studies the contribution of fairytales in the teaching of the written language to primary school students. The research critically studies the way in which the students handled the various types of written activities presented to them. At the same time, the research assesses the degree of their familiarity with the context and structure of the texts of the fairytale and evaluates the dexterity of the students involved to duly construe and infer the context and the meaning of the fairytale utilizing the written language, the degree of control exerted in the spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as the scope of the vocabulary they chose in their articulation. The thesis also considers, in an evaluative manner, the mentality and the predisposition of the students towards the written language. The research also concentrated on their personal predispositions and their attitudes as authors. The research concluded that the fairytale contributes functionally to the process of language development and learning because it cultivates the vocabulary, it strengthens the functions of learning of the specific type of Greek used and it assists the student to conceive the structure of the sentence. Through fairytales, students demonstrated that they could be more effectively familiarized with specific cultural and linguistic characteristics, namely with language cliches, selection of words, phrases and their meanings, as well as with the various structures of sentences and periods, that could be employed in their written and oral speech. The research also showed that fairytales constitute an important form of social and cultural expression that brings about a social familiarization as well as cultivating the dexterities and the language reserves of the students interconnecting and inter-correlating the genre with the morphology of language. Over and above the psychological parameters, however, the dissertation demonstrated that there exist strong socio-economic data that influence the quality of performance of the students, as well as external variables that are related to the students’ gender, the economic situation of their family, the suburb they have originated from, the general characteristics of the families of the students and their cultural infrastructure. The study showed that the teaching implementation of the fairytale did not cultivate equally all language dexterities, mainly because of the fact that the students under survey did emanated from different cultural and social environments. The research persuasively ascertained the function of conclusive differences of gender in socio-economic favourable regions as against the non-favourable suburbs, regarding the reading preferences of the students and their psychological predisposition that apply to the specific type of literature. There exists a serious difference in the factors of affinity between the semantics (meaning) and morphosyntactic characteristics, a fact that allows us to conclude that the abstract, vague and dynamic of meaning, that is the degree and extent of the cohesiveness, attract the lowest measurements of affinity, if compared with the more stable morphology and syntax structures that become clearer and more perceptible by the students. The fairytale teaching significantly reinforces the communication dexterities of the students with the cultivation and development of the topic, the cohesion and cohesiveness of the context and the enrichment of the students’ vocabulary, while it cultivates fewer skills that concern the style of the text. Particularly beneficial is the role of the teaching of the fairytale as it concerns the configuration of the structure of the sentences, but less in the improvement of grammar and syntax. The application and performance of adjectival pronounces of the students was particularly poor. Although the frequent usage of adjectival pronounces is characteristic of the fairytales, it does not seem that this phenomenon has influenced the students’ linguistic mode of behavior. Broadly speaking, the teaching of fairytales has been proven to be both useful and indispensable from a linguistic and pedagogical point of view for primary school students.