The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a cognitive –oriented program designed to achieve some objectives of teaching English at the pre-school level.To achieve this purpose, criteria for determining suitable objectives and appropriate linguistic skills of teaching English to pre-school children were identified. Accordingly, two questionnaires were designed for some pre- school EFL teachers ( N= 54). The first questionnaire was about the objectives, and the second was about the linguistic skills. Based on the review of literature, the criteria, and the findings of the two questionnaires , an appropriate program was designed for ( kindergarten( K.G. II ). A teachers' manual was also designed. The suggested program was taught – for two months- to the experimental group (N= 73). The control group (N= 73) was taught the current text book in use ( My English, Book II ) in the normal way. The results of the study revealed that the experimental group achieved better performance over the control group. It was concluded that the suggested cognitive- oriented program has been effective because children needs and skills were identified prior to its design. Cognitive skills can best be enhanced with clear and suitable objectives. |
