Шульгина Т.Г.
Одесский
государственный университет внутренних дел
Immersive Approach in Language
Teaching
Recent studies in methods of teaching English
as Foreign Language (EFL) are characterized by fixed attention to linguo-cultural
competence of students. The need of development of such competence poses new
challenges to teachers and requires from them a new understanding of learning
goals.
The value of linguo-cultural aspect in the EFL
teaching is indisputable since communicative and speech errors, as well as
errors of socio-cultural nature are all the result of ignorance of national and
cultural peculiarities of the English language.
The relevance of this approach lies in the fact
that creation of a linguo-cultural competence among international students
means not only a general knowledge of the English language and English culture
or just teacher's intention to lead f students to master an exemplary learning
speech, but also to develop foreign language skills in order to communicate on
the cross-cultural level and ability of adequate interaction with representatives
of the English culture.
The spectrum of opinions on the issue has
revealed that linguo-cultural competence is a set of special skills necessary
to operate in practice a system of knowledge about culture, embodied in a given
national language. In other words, a student has to develop an ability to recognize and to adequately
perceive and correlate a semantic content of a language sign with associative
and imaginative motivation of choice of a word through the prism of values and
attitudes of his proper national culture.
Recently, modern methodology science, when
refines linguistic foundations of the EFL teaching, first of all considers
cognitive and pragmatic and linguo-conceptual approaches. Linguo-cultural
competence is examined not only from the perspective of linguistic cultural
studies, but also in the focus of linguo-cognitive coordinate system. In the
process of training of students,
teaching techniques of linguo-cultural competence creation are based on a
cognitive activity aimed at developing by student of a system of concepts; and
on such a pragmatic component as a professional status of a student. Thus,
language becomes a sort of cognitive process, and competence is a capacity to
generate acts of consciousness. At the same time linguo-cultural competence is
directly related to the study of professional language as an integral part of a
professional competence. Linguo-cultural competence development of students
should be realized in organic connection of professional education with the
English language knowledge development within the core course studying.
As any professional group has its own
conceptual picture of the world, so the learning process effectiveness to a
greater degree will depend on a systematic development of a sphere of concepts,
which is relevant for this group and determined by their future profession.
Sphere of concepts is a structured knowledge, an information base of mental
images, consisting of universal object code units. The semantic language space
as a part of the sphere of concepts is verbalized in the system of linguistic
signs: words, phrase combinations, syntactic structures. It is formed by the
linguistic units’ meanings. A concept conceived as a unit of the sphere of
concepts reflects peculiarities of thinking, worldview and culture of people.
Any person can be “a concepts bearer”, as he or she has its own cultural
experience and cultural identity. Thus, individual verbal activity is
determined by the language sphere of concepts and national sphere of concepts.
Linguo-conceptual approach in EFL teaching
offers a vision that focuses on the concept and the sphere of concepts taken as
linguo-didactic units. The process of learning English language involves not
only traditional study of phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, but also the English
culture language mastering through its national concepts. Linguistic
consciousness of foreign students is as it were immersed in the sphere of
concepts of the English language. This allows them to acquire an integral ethno-cultural
knowledge of the English culture and language. So, already existing, but segmentary
linguo-culturological views transform into a cognitive integrity. There is an
interaction of different cultures through the spheres of concepts of the
English culture and the culture of a student, due to which he understands that
the language and culture he learns do not exist in isolation from his native
language and culture, but, conversely, are projected on them.
Representatives of different professions
categorize and verbalize same object in their own way. Therefore, it is
necessary to build a linguo-cultural competence of foreign audience with
concepts that meet its pragmatic needs. Those concepts should compose a
cognitive base of this given profession. Thus, the learning process needs to be
professionally oriented and should promote professionally meaningful types of
thinking of students.
Development of linguo-cultural competence is
based on the texts of different types and genres that present and record a
linguo-cultural information. Texts should include the notions correlating with
the basic concepts, which are relevant for international students. They should
be filled with specific content, so that to model a situation, to correct the
shades of a meaning of a word and to realize axiological cultural information.
Since structure of the cultural concept includes notional and figurative
elements, the text serves not only for a key notions semantization, but also for
creation of a particular image in the mind of a student.
Викладач кафедри Куранова І.Б. доповнила: Professionally-oriented sphere of concepts is
built gradually, within three main stages of teaching English language for
students. The initial stage of training involves understanding of basic terms
and notions of the English language and culture, which are neutral towards a
professional language. At this stage, there is a simultaneous development of
the terminology knowledge; lexical and grammatical competencies and speech
skills. Students observe a parallel between these terms and everyday realities
and realize a reflection of the naive world view in the mentality of native
speakers.
During the main stage of training teacher
extends the sphere of concepts by introducing a special terminology, which
corresponds to a professionally-oriented conceptual view of the world.
Linguo-cultural competence is based on texts of different types and genres, in
which there a complete image of a specialist or a profession is created.
At the final stage, a teacher introduces the cultural
realities and shows how semantic boundaries of words are expanded with a help
of a new cultural knowledge with national connotations.
Linguo-cultural competence development
through the concepts of the English culture involves an appeal to synonyms, antonyms,
paronyms, phraseological units. This contributes to the more efficient
evolution of vocabulary and stylistic skills and deeper understanding of the
text by students. The system of images fixed in the lexical fund of the English
language recreates in its semantics a long process of people’s culture
development, it captures the cultural attitudes and stereotypes, models and
archetypes, and accumulates the national world view, cultural and national
experience and traditions.
Reading, one of the types of receptive speech
activities, has a particular importance for the formation of linguo-cultural
competence during the main and final stages of training. The text as a source
of a linguo-cultural knowledge, and the reading, in the process of which the
language proficiency is progressing, - are two core scientific and
practical elements in the modern methodology of EFL teaching.
Литература:
1. Alexander, L.
Practice and Progress. Longman, 1980.
2. Cooper, D.
Philosophy and the Nature of Language. London, 1973.
3. Chomsky, N.
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, 1965.
4. Harmer, J. The
Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman, 1994.
5. Richards, J.
Language and Communication. Longman, 1983.