According to the Educational Programme Framework for Basic Education, Czech Language and Literature is a compulsory subject. Comprehension of Czech language is a pre-requisite for successful life in the Czech Republic. As well as an understanding and grasp of Czech language students are also required to study the subject ‘People and their World’ which covers Primary Science, National Geography and Natural Science.

Czech Language Year 1

Teaching of Czech Language and Literature during the First Year focuses on developing speaking and vocabulary. Part of the teaching contains visual and aural exercises, listening to spoken fairy tales and dramatization. We lead our pupils in memorization and recitation of simple rhymes, poems and short narration. We develop the expression of pupils in Czech by asking questions with the aim to support their self-confidence in expressing answers to these questions.

In the First Year the pupils undergo a preparatory period for writing, when they acquire basic writing skills and perform not too demanding exercises with the aim of preparing them for writing letters. From the “pre-spelling-book period“ the pupils pass fluently to “spelling-book period”, which encompasses Language Education, Education in Literature and Communication and Stylistic Education. Behind these fancy sounding terms the following is covered:

During Language Education we teach

• reading comprehension
• writing of small and capital letters
• reading
• transcription of letters
• syllables, words and short sentences
• dictation of simple and phonetically clear words

During Literature Education we introduce our pupils to

• folk fairy tales
• counting rhymes
• rhymes
• riddles
• some of these are learnt by heart

Within the Communication and Stylistic Education we

• continue with developing vocabulary and expressing of pupils
• teach the pupils to creatively solve practical problems
• encourage politeness and respect to other pupils, parents and other
• use example scenarios
• teach children to express their thoughts and opinions with their

Czech Language  Year 2

During the Year 2 Czech Language course, in ‘Language Education’ the pupils learn to order words in accordance to the alphabet, get to know the sorts of sentences (declarative, imperative, interrogative and optative sentences), identify a sentence, a word and a phrase (simple sentence and compound sentences, opposite words, synonyms). Pupils learn the separate sounds of consonants and vowels, get to know sonant r and l, writing of y/ý and i/í after hard and soft consonants, with words containing dě, tě, ně, bě, pě, vě, mě.

In ‘Communication and Stylistic Education’ the pupils develop their use of addressing and greeting people, hold a telephone conversation, narrate and describe according to a structure. They hold conversations on a given topic, they get the task of finishing a story. The pupils learn to write greeting cards, an invitation, a letter and an address.

In ‘Literature Education’ they listen to literary texts and read recommended literature. They are taught to record basic information about a book (title, author, illustrator). They draw illustrations and become familiar with borrowing books from public libraries. They are assigned tasks to recite texts suitable for their age. Part of the curriculum involves visiting theaters, cinemas and concerts.