Book
Homo Loquens: Актуальные вопросы лингвистики и методики преподавания иностранных языков (2014)
The article deals with the ways of verbalisation of concept “fear” and “joy” in diachronia based on the material of the German language. The language representatives of the concepts under consideration are analized, semantico-ethymological analysis is given to language units of German and other german languages that represent this concept and semantic shifts of the meaning of the observed lexical units are traced.
This article presents a detailed analysis of the nuances and niceties of a third generation textbook. It highlights the principal differences between the textbook under consideration and the textbooks of the previous generations. The article dwells on the methodological principles that form the basis of the third generation. The textbook "French for lawyers" is an example of these principles’ realization. The article analyses the textbook’s structure and the exercises used for all speaking activities types. It embarrasses a widely presented authentic and relevant material.
The article describes an effective method of automatic generation of word-formation exercises in the format similar to Cambridge certificate exams and Russian state exam. The input for the generation of exercises is English texts of arbitrary size and contents, which is especially relevant within the framework of teaching English for special or academic purposes. To generate the exercises, we use a dictionary of 11977 units: 2466 stem words and 9511 derivatives. The dictionary was compiled based on the most frequent word families from the British National Corpus. Exercises generated with the presented method can be used in preparation for taking the above exams, as well as in teaching / learning English, namely for developing lexico-grammatical and reading skills.
The anthropocentric concept in the modern science development is realized in the interdisciplinary research aimed at the course of life studies. Analysing biography and autobiography as the texts dealing with the critical events of human’s life may help understand the way the writer selects, combines and presents the facts demonstrating personality’s formation and development. Describing “framework” as the way the texts start and end with the tools developed by communicative grammar will help identify the author’s intensions and the ways they are expressed. The biography in reference books follows the clichéd structure with the informative register blocks. The choice of register in the beginning of the autobiography frames the reader’s expectations and shifts the text either to fiction or non-fiction. Final as the second part of the framework distinguishes the biography and autobiography as the former is viewed as a completed story, while the latter presupposes that it might be continued.
The article looks at the problem of designing theoretical courses delivered in a foreign language. The author describes a set of skills which form professional communicative competence and offers some recommendations concerning the structure of these courses and the main conceptual principles the courses should be bases on.
As a result of Russia’s efforts to join the global academic community, key professional competencies in higher education must be reevaluated. The main aim of this article is to explore the role of writing within a foreign university setting, as well as to study the current approach to teaching writing at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The results of our study reveal that, despite the increasing importance of academic writing and all related sub-skills, there is little evidence that the development of writing skills receives proper attention within the NRU HSE. The paper concludes with some ideas on how to better integrate academic writing into the broader university curriculum.
OPTIMISATION OF MASTERING ADVANCED GRAMMAR STRUCTURES IN ACADEMIC WRITING IN THE FRAME OF ESP AND ESAP UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS
The paper is dedicated to the preliminary research of the following texts: IELTS essays of the course books chosen for the NRU HSE programs, authentic academic juridical texts and NRU HSE second year students’ IELTS essays with the view of defining the frequency profile lines of advanced grammar structures in the texts. The research is undertaken to optimize the process of teaching grammar (grammar presentation and its further activation) in the frame of mastering academic writing. On the basis of systematic and comprehensive approach to ESP teaching in non-linguistic universities the authors suggest a balanced set of advanced grammar teaching instruments to intensify the process from the very beginning of studies to achieve students’ active and natural use of the grammar in writing in their interim papers and essays, term works and their diploma works as the final result of their studies.
The article touches upon the notion of frame, its types (literary and narrative) and its functions in fictional texts. The study focuses on the role of the frame in a prosaic cycle, which is disclosed on the basis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Legends of the Province House analysis.
The article aims at classifying academic writing microskills and strategies on the basis of competences developed in an English for Academic Purposes course. Activities to develop the microskills in focus are described. The importance of microskills related to the strategic competence is emphasised. Assessment criteria for written academic texts are suggested.
The main task of the article is to study the perlocutionary effect of cursing. After the analysis the author argues that cursing is not always a deliberate wish of harm or damage to the person, in cases of non-intentional curse the perlocutionary effect may be different from the traditionally expected one. In the last part of the article the author compares the speech acts of curse and menace, identifies their basic similarities and main differences.
In present article is analyzed sentence’s role in the realization of text’s main categories of integrity and coherence and author’s pragmatic intentions in A. de Saint-Exupery novels . In A. de Saint-Exupery novels, sentence keeps different types of information, it is a means of text modality’s expression, main factor of text’s integrity and coherence realization, one of main factors of literary communication’s efficiency and success.
The article explores the efficiency of using popular international standardized tests in teaching practices and assessing English for academic purposes (EAP) skills at university. It analyzes IELTS and TOEFL iBT test tasks to measure their validity as EAP assessment tools. The paper also identifies key criteria and modern requirements to tests' construct and content validity.
This article addresses modern teaching methods of foreign languages at universities: individualized education, communicative methods in teaching, active participation of students in study materials selection, developing academic skills, building vocabulary, combination of traditional and peer assessment, open tasks and information technologies in teaching. The project method of teaching English is concerned in the article. It is shown that with the implementation of this method major objectives and tasks set by modern education environment are achieved: communicative methods of teaching, individualized education and competence-based approach.
The article touches upon the problem of implementing evaluation in English texts on economics. Constant interest to scientific research of this category is easily explained by the fact of its multifacetedness, which in its turn gives to a human being an opportunity to capture all aspects of environment, but makes this understanding rather complicated in case of appealing to evaluation as to a scientific category. Theoretical base for evaluation scientific analysis is common recognition of the fact that evaluation content depends on people’s personal and social experience and, thus, culturally and socially confirmed. The author points out the ways of language objectification in evaluation research. The material analyzed is described in details, also future possible ways of research are mentioned. This is part of “evaluation” category cognitive study.
This study focuses on the assessment process and evaluation tools in a case study or a role play in a non-linguistic university. The multi-skill and multi-level communication activity assessment scheme is presented herein to enhance the students’ performance.
The article deals with the analysis of functional interaction of the verbal and nonverbal components in the process of achieving the illocutionary goal and perlocutionary effect in directive speech acts. Modern studies in pragmatics and developed field approach in classifying speech acts allow us to identify subclasses of the speech acts with fixed emotional component. Special attention is paid to the expressive ‘plea’ directive speech act which corresponds with the basic ‘request’ directive speech act. Verbal and non - verbal elements create expressive patterns as well as interpret intentions of the «plea» speech act. The article provides examples that illustrate ways of actualization of lexical units. The interaction of verbal and non verbal components results in enhancing the illocutive force of the speech act.
Nowadays the concept of academic culture is commonly used both in theory of education and in teaching practice. The term “academic culture” has different interpretations in Russian and foreign educational environment. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine this phenomenon using comprehensive approach.
The author attempts to clarify the definition of academic culture in accordance with the contemporary situation in Russian educational system and introduces this phenomenon in educational framework and individual academic development.
The author points out that only integration of such concepts as academic literacy, academic maturity, academic culture, academic freedom allows to retrace the individual academic development within the contemporary educational environment.
The need for detailed analysis and selection of both culturally and historically marked lexical units is caused by the objective demand in accurate and precise understanding of written as well as oral utterances of a foreign interlocutor. The article is devoted to the observation of the most widespread types of words with no direct equivalents in other languages and their specific features. The paper explains how the “equivalent” is understood regarding culture-specific words. The article also presents classifications of culture-specific vocabulary.
The article formulates a linguistic understanding of the writer’s self-presentation in the English-language written academic discourse based on findings of sociological and psychological studies of the phenomenon. The article postulates obligatory manifestation of the writer’s self-presentation in the current written academic discourse and relies in analyzing the self-presentation strategy on the self-presentation intentional structure described in social psychology. In compliance with the intentional structure of written academic discourse described by T. Kubrak, a model of the self-presentation communicative structure is suggested. It is assumed to contain the self-characterizaion strategy split into the communicative tactic of describing research findings and their significance and the persuasive strategy divided into the logical argumentation tactic and intensification tactic. It is concluded that the writer can use the self-presentation communicative tactics mentioned either deliberately or not.
This article is devoted to the importance of the aspect of speaking as an object of teaching a foreign language and ways to increase motivation to study English. It is based on the issue of difficulties which arise when exercising speaking in groups whose general level is Elementary. Communication in such groups is hard or impossible due to the lack of grammar and lexical knowledge. Different problems and opportunities to increase motivation are analysed as well as searching for interesting and motivating activities and creating a positive linguistic environment. Here an example of a highly motivating speaking exercise is given. It was called “Series ‘Friends’” by the teacher and students together. This exercise can be done at the board or it can be computer-based. The author also looks at the role of the teacher and points of assessment.
This article deals with the study of the plot invariant and its variability that occurs on the level of the linguistic structure of texts. The material of research is based on Middle English folklore texts. The author tries to show the notion of variation as a process taking into account literature and linguistic stability and variability of the folk texts. Becoming more resultative even in the theory of translation, the concept of invariant for an interpreter is the idea that should remain unchanged and understood as information to be passed on, while an expressed idea is becoming a variant already.
The form whose main function is to express indirect commands, called the third person Imperative, Jussive or Exhortative, when compared to the prototypical (second person) Imperative, shows semantic and formal similarities and distinctions at the same time. The study describes formal and functional patterns of Jussive and places this category within the typology of the related categories, such as Imperative and Optative, based on data from six East Caucasian languages (Archi, Agul, Akhvakh, Chechen, Icari and Kumyk). Five formal patterns of Jussive are attested in these languages, including a specialized form, constructions derived from want, from tell him to do and from make him do and the Optative. Jussive forms may express such meanings as third person command, indirect causation, permission, indifference towards the accomplishment of an action and an assumption. While the Jussive is crucially different from the second person Imperative in that it introduces a third participant, this article shows that it is the addressee, not a third person, who is the central participant of a Jussive situation from both formal and functional points of view.
Students' internet usage attracts the attention of many researchers in different countries. Differences in internet penetration in diverse countries lead us to ask about the interaction of medium and culture in this process. In this paper we present an analysis based on a sample of 825 students from 18 Russian universities and discuss findings on particularities of students' ICT usage. On the background of the findings of the study, based on data collected in 2008-2009 year during a project "A сross-cultural study of the new learning culture formation in Germany and Russia", we discuss the problem of plagiarism in Russia, the availability of ICT features in Russian universities and an evaluation of the attractiveness of different categories of ICT usage and gender specifics in the use of ICT.