WORKING WITH TEXTS BY LOCAL AUTHORS IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

The article highlights the significance of using texts by local authors in developing the language competence of primary school students. It analyzes various approaches to interpreting texts in linguistic studies and examines the text as a complex linguistic, speech, and communicative phenomenon. A text is seen as a language unit of any length, consisting of a linearly arranged set of sentences united by thematic and structural integrity; a product of oral or written speech characterized by unity of topic and intention, completeness, internal structural-syntactic composition, and association with a particular style; and as both a process and a product of communication between a communicator and a recipient. The importance of using works by local authors is substantiated as a means of deepening the understanding of the native language, fostering emotional sensitivity, aesthetic perception, and nurturing patriotic feelings and love for the native word. Using the pedagogical experience of Tetiana Bondar, a teacher at Kherson Lyceum No. 51, the article illustrates the implementation of texts by Kherson-based authors in the second and fourth grades. It demonstrates how the literary works of Mykola Bratan, Dniprova Chaika, Anatolii Kychynskyi, Valentyna Nyzheholenko, Lyuko Dashvar, and other Kherson writers are integrated into the educational process through interactive activities, quests, creative assignments, and elements of critical thinking. For example, in the second grade, work with poetic miniatures by Mykola Bratan involved various didactic exercises, from working with jumbled texts to interactive tasks aimed at developing reading skills, critical thinking, memory, and attention. In the fourth grade, an interactive quest lesson titled “Literary Kherson Region” was conducted, which introduced students to the works of several local writers. The students completed tasks such as restoring authors’ surnames and pseudonyms, selecting apt words, solving riddles, and working interactively with geographical maps. The proposed methodological approaches demonstrate the effectiveness of using texts by local authors to develop students’ speech skills, reading literacy, and patriotic education.