V. Kasyanova
Kostanai State
University named after A.Baitursynov, Kazakhstan
Selection of training material for
teaching professionally-oriented foreign language at non-linguistic faculties
According
to the program of teaching professionally-oriented English for non-linguistic
specialties a student after finishing the course of study must be able to read
with a dictionary and understand the special literature on the profile, have
the skills of oral and written speech in everyday and business communication,
in monologue utterance, and possess skills for business correspondence. Therefore,
the selection of lexical material is very actual and significant for achieving
the goals of learning. According to many researchers the problem of selection
of training material is not fully studied [3]. V.A. Slastenin considers that
the content of education should include the following components: vocational
and cognitive training, professional and practical training, professional
development, professional education, general education and personal
development. [3]
Without mastering professional
vocabulary (vocabulary minimum on profession) it is impossible to understand
speech of others or express own thoughts. Therefore, during teaching
professionally-oriented foreign language special attention should be paid to
the work on the lexical aspect of the language. Mastering the vocabulary of a
professional foreign language means:
1) to learn the meaning
of lexical minimum according to the curriculum;
2) learn to use
these lexical items in various kinds of speech activity;
3) learn to
understand this lexical minimum listening and reading texts.
In accordance with the program students
should learn at least 2,500 lexical items, including basic terminology on the
specialty. One part of the words (less) will be used for the development of
speech, and the other - to form the basis of competence to read and translate
texts on specialty. On the one hand, the ststement that for mastering
a foreign language a student should know 2.5 thousand foreign words has a
certain base as 2.5 thousand words are used in about 50% of cases, i.e. they
are the most commonly used. But this statement has some drawbacks:
- it is not clear
whether the students are required to know these words actively or passively;
- set phrases are
not taken into account, such as, for example, for engineering specialties: instrumental
panel, brake pedal, seat belt, internal combustion engine, final drive and
others.
For the last few years in Kazakhstan a
lot of auto service companies with equipment, tools and accessories of famous
foreign manufacturers have started to appear and we believe it is appropriate
to use such types of technical texts for engineering students as: scientific
and technical books on road service; catalogs and brochures for equipment,
instruments, devices, tools; the installation and operating instructions
supplied with the equipment and devices; passports to the equipment and
appliances.
Frequency of the use of certain lexical items can be determined by
analyzing the above texts with the help of the program Microsoft Word. Using
this program, you can find the frequency of the use of lexical units, and the
most common usage of contexts. The algorithm for determining the frequency is:
1. Enter the text
in the text editor Word.
2. Select the
desired lexical unit.
3. Press Ctrl - C
(separately).
4. In the option
"Edit" click on the button "Find".
5. Press Ctrl - V
(separately).
6. Determine the
frequency of the use of the introduced lexical unit.
The next stage of the selection of
productive lexical minimum is to identify functional relationships between
previously selected language units. The most universal types of semantic
relationships between words are paradigmatic relations, forming the basis for
grouping the words into semantic classes of units, identical in fulfillment of
their functions in the utterance, and syntagmatic relations in which units are
combined to build speech utterances.
Paradigmatic relations are
relations of synonymy, antonymy, conversion ratios gender - aspect / aspect-gender,
invariant - variant. Syntagmatic connections can be presented by syntactic and
lexical combinations of words in the text. The analysis of the literature on
engineering specialty made it possible to determine the following types of the
most common syntagmatic relations of words (abbreviations: N - noun, V - verb,
Adj - adjective, Prep - preposition, Adv - adverb): 1. N + Adj ( Adj + N); 2. N + Prep + N; 3. V
+ N (V + Prep + N); 4. V + Adj; 5. V +
Adv; 6. N + N + N.
Identifying systemic links between
words allows not only efficiently select lexical minimum, but use it as a way
of organizing the lexical minimum. Check of optimal selection, in order to
reduce subjectivity which is inevitably present during the selection of
productive and receptive vocabulary, is performed experimentally during training.
The adjustments are made accordingly after checking. Having
analyzed the material we found that the types of texts we selected are
characterized by certain grammatical structures, such as: modal verb + passive
infinitive, a noun in the function of an attribute, gerund, a verbal noun, and
the infinitive in the function of an adverbial modifier. These conclusions are
supported by conducted selection of lexical material. Thus, the algorithm of selection
of lexical minimum is:
- Selection of literature on the
specialty;
-
Check the frequency of use of lexical items;
-
Identification of functional relationships of selected
items;
-
The identification of the grammatical structures;
-
Check of optimality selection experimentally.
Literature:
1. Kolyadko S.V.
Language education in higher learning institution, edited by Kolkova M.K. SPb.: Karo, 2005
2. Karaulov Yu.N
Linguistic construction and literary language thesaurus Moscow: Nauka, 1981
3. Slastenin V.A.
Pedagogy of Professional Education M: ACADEMA, 2006