The article is dedicated to the problem of shaping linguacultural competence in learning English. And also described contents and structure of linguacultural competence, formed on the base of audio texts, the main types of competence, knowledge and skills, falling into its structure, and some methods and acceptance, directed on its shaping.
Keywords: competence, linguacultural competence, formation of linguacultural competence, media file, audio text
The development of higher education and the emergence of new technologies have led to the entry of (CEFR) the European education system into Uzbekistan. That is why the importance of foreign languages has increased significantly. The purpose of the education system is the formation of the personality of students, where its implementation is possible by relying on the competence approach. One of the main problems in teaching a foreign language in high school is now to prepare for cross-cultural communication.
It’s obvious that a need of forming the linguacultural competence in the foreign language classroom it’s a system of knowledge about the culture and set of skills to operate this knowledge in a particular speech situation. The effectiveness of communication, knowledge of the language depends on many factors, conditions and culture of communication, the rules of etiquette, knowledge of non-verbal forms of expression, social norms of verbal and nonverbal behavior, the presence of deep background knowledge, and others.
Overcoming the language barrier is not enough to ensure the efficiency of communication between different cultures. To do this, you must overcome the cultural barrier. Therefore, in my view, the learning process should be submitted to the national cultures of specific components. The main areas of culture transmission components are: verbal (language) and nonverbal (body language, gestures) behavior, clothing and appearance, life values and norms, kitchen, superstition, attitude to work and the relationships of social groups. All of these areas need to pay attention to the process of learning a foreign language. But it is also important to warn students against stereotyping, as sources of stereotype rather complicated and likely formation of a false stereotype. [1, p.19]
The stereotype is not based on personal experience and communication with representatives of a people, but rather on someone else's stories. There are ethnic, gender stereotypes and, mainly, they are emotionally colored. For example, a typical Englishman, according to Uzbeks — polite, restrained, meticulous, hypocritical, unsociable, unflappable, conservative, careful, conscientious, arrogant, cunning and cleverly leading a secret diplomatic games. An American, in the representation of Uzbeks, has a very high quality of life, technology and science.
Linguists have always payed attention to realias, because in them the most seen is evident affinity between language and culture. Under realias there are understood words denoting objects and phenomena that are unique to the investigated countries and cultures, such as the names of national holidays, historical sites and events, culinary specialties and other artefacts. There is a sufficient number of well-known realias of the UK, such as Big Ben, Piccadilly, cricket, bank holiday, the Times, the Beatles, scouts, which do not cause problems in understanding spoken or written text. There are so same category denoting the realias that exist in the UK and Uzbekistan. Some of them can be quite easy to understand by the meaning of words forming the nomination. Realias as alphabet soup, open day, zebra crossing, piggy bank, sleeping policeman can be understood with the help of the translation of meanings of words in phrases — alphabet soup (with pasta in the form of letters of the alphabet), open house, pedestrian crossing «zebra», pig- piggy bank, «sleep / sleeping policeman». But in our opinion, there are a much greater number of nominations, which leads to a lack of understanding or cause confusion at the destination due to mismatch values and nomination values of its individual components, or the lack of background knowledge. In consideration of these realias, we would like to dwell in more detail. In English, there are a number of words — which we call «false friends» of translation — similar in spelling or sound, but have completely different meanings. For example, the word advocaat, cracker, pantomime, pensioner, pinta, province, stipend, most people do not think they are translated as a lawyer, a cracker, a pantomime, a pensioner, pint, province, scholarship. But the fact that these words of the English language display completely different British realias.
Advocaat — the name of an alcoholic drink made of grape alcohol, egg yolks and sugar; cracker — Christmas “poppers”; pantomime — Christmas show for children; pensioner, as it turned out, it is not a pensioner but a student at Cambridge University. Word pinta British call a glass or a bottle of milk, and the stipend — not scholarship of students, but salary of the priest. Even the word dollar has a different meaning in the UK. In addition to the official name of the US currency, the dollar coin is called a large (one crown — till the 2nd World War, but now — a coin 50 or 25 pence). Therefore, without a special linguacultural vocabulary, reflecting the concept of the country's culture, a correct, accurate translation cannot be possible.
Besides the «false friends», there are also words or phrases, the usual meaning of which is not consistent with those realias in question. Thus, they represent the indirect nomination, formed by similarity, referred to as associations with the subject. These nominations need a special approach — they are difficult to translate or understand without a linguacultural Dictionary. Thus, the expression pair of spectacles (glasses) is a zero score in the game of croquet as glasses resemble two zeros; spotted dog — not spotted dog and boiled pudding with raisins, as raisins like a speck. Phrases pea soup(er) British call a thick fog, especially in London, because it still has a yellowish tint.
Agro-boys in Britain — not the guys involved in agriculture, and the skinheads, «irritated guys» (from aggravation — irritation + boy — boy, man). Nomination angels-on-horseback (the angels on horseback) indicates the kind of appetizer — oysters and bacon on toast, and «easy» to translate the phrase plum cake or plum pudding does not mean finding plums (plum) or prunes in the cake or pudding. In the English cooking word plum means raisins, so these nominations mean cake or pudding with raisins and currants. In ordinary English-Uzbek dictionary we could not find translation for nominations of these data, the correct translation of the information contained only in the linguacultural Dictionary. This means that students need to explain the importance of using linguacultural dictionaries, as well as the teacher should try to enter the nomination realias of the countries which the language is studied in the process of studying various conversational topics. Thus, the study the topic «Education in the United Kingdom», except the simple facts about primary, secondary and higher education, it is necessary to acquaint the students with the school name, school events, traditions and way of life of pupils, students and teachers. Besides the most famous primary, secondary, public, private schools, there are also aided schools, approved schools, open-air schools, special schools, etc., and the meaning of words is not always clear what is hidden behind an each name.
Phrases aided schools are called schools for grants (half of their expenses covered by local public education); approved school — reform school for juvenile delinquents (since 1971 called the state reform school for juvenile offenders [community home]); open-air school — a special school with spacious classrooms and large windows for children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis; special school — primary or secondary school for children with mental or physical disabilities. Children study in common three-deckers (three-floors), secondary schools, where on the first floor of an elementary school student, on the second — women's high school, and the third — male high school. Teachers, who are called assistant master or assistant mistress — a teacher in a private school and assistant teacher — a teacher in a public school, who put the students marks credit (successful); distinction (very well); pass (satisfactory) or fail (unsatisfactory). Students of parallel classes (stream) are often involved in competitions for spelling (spelling bee). One of the most solemn and memorable day is a speech-day (day of the assembly), the day of delivery of certificates, when in the presence of parents' — the guest of honor makes speech and presenting certificates and awards to students. Such regional studies material is always at the interest of students.
It is optimally organized that teaching process can prepare a person learning to perceive a foreign culture, to the «blurring» of inappropriate stereotypes and create a positive and respectful attitude to the nation of the target language, the system of its cultural values, which in turn will lead to a successful communication between the communicants of the various national communities. As the above shows that linguacultural competence plays an important role in learning a foreign language, for the formation of which is necessary to understand the similarities and differences between the culture of the home country and the country of language’s studied. A large number of students can obtain information from media files, for example — audio texts. However, in the English speech perception encountered problems associated with lack of understanding of cultural facts. Well-formed linguacultural competence allows students to overcome the language and cultural barriers.
Thus, the main objectives are:
‒ The formation of the ability to interpret the meanings of cultural manifestations;
‒ The skills and abilities necessary for successful communication in an intercultural level;
‒ Education of the language of the person that is capable of cross-cultural interaction. For the purposes of linguacultural competence can be defined as the totality of the system of knowledge about the culture, which finds reflection in language, willingness to interpret the linguistic and extra-linguistic facts, as well as analytical and communicative skills when meeting with ethnic cultural values of the country the language is spoken. [2, p.167]
Well-formed linguacultural competence based on audio texts involves students' ability to communicate, which is based on:
‒ On the knowledge of lexical units from the ethnic cultural semantics;
‒ On the knowledge of specific behaviors characteristic of the culture of the target language of the country;
‒ The ability to use the knowledge necessary to establish cooperation with the representatives of other linguacultural community.
This linguacultural competence represents a system of signs that reveal the cultural realias of the country the language is spoken. The structure of linguacultural competencies includes the following:
‒ The body of knowledge of the country of studied language (history, rules);
‒ A body of knowledge about the national culture of the country the language is spoken;
‒ Understanding of the signs and symbolic information contained in audio texts. Linguacultural competence in the framework of English language on the base of audio- text includes the knowledge of students as followings:
‒ Key concepts specific to the English linguacultural community;
‒ On the national dignity of the country the language is spoken;
‒ English-speaking precedent phenomena.
Several kinds of skills are allocated in the structure of linguacultural competencies that are needed to work with audio-texts:
‒ Cognitive forming skills — a skill that aimed at gaining knowledge of linguacultural competence, which is necessary for cognitive communicative activity (this group of skills also include the ability to determine the causal communication and cultural phenomena that are expressed in the language; the ability to allocate national marked vocabulary, symbols, precedent phenomena)
‒ Axiological analytical skills necessary to accumulate linguacultural information contained in audio texts;
‒ Commented and assessment of English culture phenomena displayed in the language;
‒ Analysis of the mental and moral characteristics contained in audio texts;
‒ Defining and analyzing the set of values, as reflected in the audio text;
‒ Analysis and definitions of values and norms of the images, which are peculiar to linguacultural paradigm of English-speaking countries;
‒ Creative design skills (ability to create a situation of dialogue on the basis of the information basis audio text;
‒ Ability to engage in dialogue, based on the information contained in audio texts;
‒ Ability to freely use the vocabulary in a variety of communicative situations;
‒ Ability in the communication process based on cultural background of audio texts. [4, p. 190]
One of the basic methods and techniques that are necessary for the formation of students' competence based on linguacultural audio texts at English language classes, include: project of methods, method «cultural capsule», commenting, visual-associative reception and so on. Visual-associative method can be used for fixing the studied material. The essence of this technique lies in the fact that the teacher offers students cartoons or commercials that serve as clues. Offered cartoons must be on the same theme as the Audio Texts used in the lesson. All this contributes to the reconstruction of the student in mind the necessary chain of associations and the background knowledge needed to further build foreign-language expressions. The method of «cultural capsule» can also be used to secure the stage when students are asked to analyze several caricatures that represent the core of the concept, which is very important for the English mentality. Then linguacultural information that reflects the cultural background of this concept is entered. For homework, students can be asked to write an essay in which the essence of this concept, based on the images in cartoons.
In conclusion, we can say that the English-speaking audio-texts represents the central core of the methodical system, around which are grouped a number of skills that are aimed at achieving the final result — the formation of linguacultural competence of students. So, in the article we describe the content and structure of linguacultural competence, formed on the basis of audio-texts, core competencies, knowledge and skills which comprise its structure, as well as some of the methods and techniques oriented to the formation of it.
References:
- Александрова А. Е. Лингвокультурологический аспект концептуальной области возраста и его учет в обучении русскому языку американских студентов: автореф. дис. … канд. пед. наук. — СПб., 2007. — 19 с.
- Алефиренко Н. Ф. Лингвокультурология. Ценностно-смысловое пространство языка: учебное пособие. — М.: Флинта, 2010. — 288 с.
- Белова И. В., Хрипунова И. Г. Иностранный язык как средство развития коммуникативной компетентности // Новосибирск: Изд- во НИПК и ПРО. — 2009. — Вып. 2. — С. 19–22.
- Воробьев В. В. Лингвокультурология: теория и методы. — М., 1997. — 331 с.
- А. Р. Рум., Великобритания: Лингвострановедческий словарь. М., 2000.
