Methodic approach to the predicate in the elementary school and high school

Abstract

This paper deals with the methodic approach to the predicate. The introductory part of the paper gives a brief overview of the syntax and grammatical structure of the sentence, but the emphasis is on the basic grammatical features of the predicate as the main part of the sentence. Predicate categories are given in this part of paper, as well as definitions of verb and noun predicate and the predicate sentences. The central part of the paper deals with the representation of the content of the predicate in the Curriculum for the subject Croatian language for primary and secondary school and in primary and secondary school textbooks. The contents of the Curriculum and textbooks for the 7th and 8th grade of primary school and the 1st and 2nd grade of gymnasium high school are compared in this part. Also, there is a brief overview of the contents processed from the 3rd grade of primary school to the 6th grade of primary school that are crucial for the adoption of predicate features since they relate to the verb that is the main part of the predicate, morphological categories and noun words which are key to understanding the structure of a noun predicate. The final part of the paper gives a proposal for methodic processing of predicate in the 1st grade of high school. The predicate and types of predicates need to be practiced on an interesting text that is saturated with action, so the joke is suggested as the text of linguo-methodic template, and since students have processed most of the content in primary school, the teacher uses an analytical-explicative system, therefore, through heuristic conversation, he directs the student to discover grammatical phenomena analytically and independently derive definitions and rules. The importance of adopting the content of the predicate for understanding the grammatical structure of the sentence is emphasized because grammatical knowledge of the sentence is the basis for the development of communication skills in general, but also the content needed to take the state exam in Croatian that marks the completion of high school education.