The functional role of the national and cultural factors in teaching (learning) a foreign language



We shall consider briefly rules of language as historical and didactic purpose which are studied by the teacher and the student in cooperation. It is generally agreed that learning a foreign language as a result of spiritual needs not only develops a person but also helps him to be aware of the events taking place in the world in due time. What puts the article in a class by itself is that learning a foreign language acquires socio-economic, cultural and political significance. These conditions require structural and functional approaches to the issue of education. If the explanation is not carried out in the language of education (native language), but in foreign language then the cultural basis for social development is improved. In teaching foreign language it is necessary to pay a special attention to the enrichment of the contexts used as teaching aids with national cultural colors. It can be explained as «defending educational information from different kinds of threats». It should be noted that ethno-cultural feature, the interaction with them helps prevent negative phenomena. It is necessary to emphasize that we have carried out content analyses of social background of 112 respondents. The method of our research is we give a list of the most important educational contents in teaching a foreign language. The description of special educational content given in the article. Taking as a basis this ethno-cultural features the learner of foreign language begin to act according to the following formal sequence of conditional actions. It can be well concluded that it is required to formulate correctly the goal of teaching a foreign language and to direct the main focus onto attaining the spiritual maturity of a person. Thus it requires from the language learner to gullier information on the nationalculture whose language he is learning.

Key words: teachers, students, factors, structural approaches, functional approaches, a foreign language, education, ethno-cultural features

It is worthwhile speaking of education to understand, educational goals, objectives, structure and capacity in terms of systematized knowledge, the process of mastering abilities and skills, and the results achieved by enlightenment. As for the process of teaching (learning) a foreign language, it is important to take into consideration educators’ (teachers’) and educates’ (students’) activities carried out in cooperation according to the established order. In this process the main objectives of the didactic purpose combine educates and educators and serve for the provision of education. In foreign language teaching, the productivity of the activity means mastering of specific phonetic, morphological and linguistic structures, that is to say the ability to use the target foreign language in personal and social communication. Here, the study of the cause-and-effect relations in the language is conducted by the teacher as a process. Thus, rules of language, as historical and didactic purpose, are studied by the teacher and the student (S↔S connection mode) in cooperation. The didactic purpose refers to the interrelated activities between a teacher and students. If the activity is considered to be managed by the way of consciousness belonging only to man, and appearing as a result of needs to be met, and aimed at studying processes taking place in the outside world. Leaning a foreign language as a result of spiritual needs not only develops a person but also helps him to be aware of the events (from the primary source of the original context, without commentaries) taking place in the world in due time.

When different religious denominations and other destructive forces increased their efforts to win the human mind, leaning (teaching) a foreign language acquires socioeconomic, cultural and political significance.

First, the increase of the importance of teaching foreign languages is related to the expansion of the labor market, second, due to the special attention paid by the customer (employer) to the professional qualities and the specialization of workers of different fields considered as the model of proficiency. Third, it can be explained by the growing demand (the degree of accuracy, content, importance, etc) for the quality of work.

These conditions, in turn, require structural and functional approach to the issue of education, namely, to its planning and implementation.

According to Doctor of Philosophy R. Samarov, «Education has its own history, and in each region it is developed on the basis of the impact of the current resources and conditions, and has a hermeneutic meaning.

As changes in the quantity and quality of data take place in the educational process, especially in the learning process of the subject.

As a result, the leaner develops into a subject who not only comprehends but can also explain his experience (reacts, expresses his opinion)». [1]

If the explanation is not carried out in the language of education (native language) but in a foreign language (English, Chinese, French, German and other languages), then the world's linguistic landscape, the very natural language tool is depicted, and the cultural basis for social development is improved. They say that «The Language shapes the knowledge of man about the world and is the tool ensuring his existence».[2] Man not only watches the dynamics of different processes taking place throughout the world during his life, but also depicts subjectively with the help of words the reality which he understands. Speaking about the result of studying this process S. Terminasova said, «Scientific texts like this create the language picture of the world» [3].

In every social community, the purpose of education is formed with regard to needs and requirements which should be solved. To be more precise, as a social customer, the public sets a task before education. The volume of the task, its capacity, and the duration of validity are directed to satisfy the demands raised in the community. The language of education plays an important role in this process. Because it forms values at different levels, and while serving to create their meanings, it also forms a notion of them.

Every language, including a foreign language, in accordance with national perception reflects the world’s structure with the help of different «combination of colors».

The interests, needs, expectations and aspirations of the speakers of the language are reflected in «the combination of colors».

In teaching foreign languages, therefore, it is necessary to pay a special attention to the enrichment of the contexts used as teaching aids with national cultural colours. It can be explained as «defending educational information from different kinds of threats».

Because the meanings described in such a context consists of a set of views, which is the product of the creative work reflecting national interests.

The hope, history, culture of native speakers and their attitude to the representatives of other cultures are reflected in it. For example, we asked the Karakalpak youth to respond to the question «How many ethnic groups do you think live in Karakalpakstan?» The study involved 450 respondents, out of them 57 % responded that representatives of Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, Russian ethnic groups live in Karakalpakstan, while 22 % of the respondents answered that representatives of Karakalpak, Kazakh, and Turkmen cultures live in their area taking into account the cultural structure of the district where they live. However, according to the official statistics representatives of 112 ethnic groups live in Karakalpakstan. Only 21 % of respondents pointed out that the representatives of Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen, Tatar, Korean, Russian, and Uighur ethic groups live in Karakalpakstan.

The person’s awareness of the ethnic groups living in the area (social media) where he lives has an impact on his individual behavior. This, in turn, prevents such phenomena as ethnocentrism and cultural centrism. In other words, they know that their area is inhabited not only by the people belonging to their culture but also by people who belong to other cultures. They also have their own rights, cultural values and social norms, which mean that they also contribute to the development of culture and universal human values. If we take into account this ethno-cultural feature, the interaction with them helps prevent negative phenomena, that is, ethnic and religious conflicts namely, ensure cultural tolerance. Therefore, during the research into the topic «The role of the national-cultural factors in the study of a foreign language», we have carried out content analysis of the social background of 21 % respondents, who in their responses fully named all kinds of ethnic groups living in Karakalpakstan, in order to determine the ways, which ensure sustainable social and cultural relationships.

Content analysis revealed that 6 % of them are from families in which father or mother belongs to another ethic group (Uzbek, Russian, and Karakalpak), and two languages are used in the household which means that they are bilingual. Spouses of 4 % are of another ethnic group. Their unique cultural feature is that they recognize belonging to two cultures. And more than 11 % of the respondents have learned a foreign language besides their mother tongue. It goes without saying that the natural language serves as a tool to get acquainted with the type of spiritual life developed in that language and at the same time to understand the culture.

During the study of a language, a person becomes acquainted with the samples of the material and spiritual culture created in that language, and enlarges his scope of knowledge as a result of cognitive activity. Thanks to it a person gets new information on cultures and regions, traditions and values.

Apparently for this reason V. Jarov and Yu. Taratukhina in their monographic work «Pedagogical constructivism in the cross-cultural environment» pointed out that several approaches can be used in implementing the cultural classification.

Here we give a list of the most important of them taking into account their educational content and usefulness in teaching foreign languages:

− semiotic approach;

− existential and cultural approach;

− cognitive-linguistic approach;

− active approach;

− contextual approach;

− systematic approach [5].

We consider these approaches to be also appropriate to teaching a foreign language. Having a clear purpose and meaning each approach can guarantee an efficient learning of a foreign language. For example, the content of semiotic approach consists of a sequence of cultural features, where social information is stored and transmitted to the destination. The natural language develops as the «crown» of culture. The language is considered to be the primary modeling structure, all the other elements of the culture being the secondary structure. According to Yu. Lotman, «They (the secondary structures, that is, material culture — I.M.) are built/constructed on basis of the model of the natural language /» [6].

Their function is storing and systematizing information.

Culture, in terms of its functional features, forms the environment and its utility, and combines various samples and separates them in accordance with their importance. In other words, it divides the culture into material and spiritual parts, and determines materialization of spirituality. This, in turn, shows that it’s impossible to portray the culture of the world separately, without relying on the language. For this reason, the semiotic approach has a practical benefit in teaching a foreign language, each character distinguishing itself by explaining an intrinsic meaning in a certain culture.

If we carry out a fragmentary analysis of an ethnic or religious conflict, we can understand that conflicts are caused by the failure to recognize the cultural environment, discrimination or as a result of ignorance.

Existential and cultural approach requires such concepts as culture, entity, time, nature, universe, characters — archetypes, horizontal / vertical measurement, and differentiation in understanding of the creation of the world. Differentiation of culture in this way helps to achieve productivity in the process of teaching a foreign language, namely in making up samples of exercises and allotting time needed to solve them. It provides productive administration of the aforementioned educational process, and creates conditions for the learner to compare the images embodied in his culture with the foreign language which he is learning (another cultural sample). For example, such cultural concepts as frankness, honesty, and truthfulness may be important in the system of relations among the representatives of Karakalpak national culture, whereas among the representatives of another national culture the result of relations that is achieving or not achieving one’s goal may be important. This ethno-cultural feature, in turn, requires from the learners of foreign languages to act according to the following format (sequence of conditional actions): «1st the impetus for the fulfillment of the action which has a clear cut goal (a goal to get acquainted with another culture) ↔ 2nd a desire to learn a foreign language (if I learn a foreign language, I will get acquainted with another culture, world) ↔ 3rd understanding of the purpose of learning a foreign language (the goal is synthesized and socialized) ↔ 4th coming to conclusion to use resources to learn a foreign language (time, strong ones, etc.) ↔ 5th conflict of motives which arises in the process of learning a foreign language which can be expressed like «complicated», «I am suffering», «Do I need it? 6th exerting cognitive effort to learn a foreign language will take place. ↔ 7th expression of the words and phrases learned in the process of exerting cognitive effort will take place».

In teaching a foreign language familiarization with the various aspects of the culture is required as an important factor. This, in turn, requires from the language learner to gather information on the national culture and about the representatives of the culture whose language he is learning, carry out analysis, generalize and divide into groups. It should be noted that if the process of mastering a foreign language is conducted with the help of traditional, modern and effective teaching methods and techniques enforced with the means of audio-video materials, the rate of progress in studying (according to the achievement test scores) will be ensured. In this process, it is advisable to conduct learning of the educational materials in the instructional-communicative way that is in the form of dialogues. Here a dialogue with a subjective meaning is thought to serve as a tool for the learner of a foreign language to use individually learned vocabulary words in practice.

However, the learner should have his own established opinion not only on social processes but also on the events related to culture. Along with the performance of various tasks, dialogues also have an influence on the formation of a person.

Therefore, it is required to formulate correctly the goal of teaching (learning) a foreign language, and to direct the main focus onto attaining the spiritual maturity of a person. This, in turn, requires using of national and cultural factors as a complex tool in teaching a foreign language. In foreign language teaching language learners should use the spiritual heritage created in their native language, and should be able to explain their practical use in every day life and social relations in the foreign language, which they study.

To improve individual learning skills of each learner, to bring into accord with social and cultural requirements their subjective — cognitive experience, and to help them to be aware of their individuality as a person, the educational technology, which consists of teaching the techniques of how to identify the ways of demonstrating their current skills, should be used.

This technology serves to define the opportunities of the learning environment:

− taking into account the language learner’s capability, the educational activities will be provided in an integrated manner, and will ensure the direction of the used methods and tools to the development of the learning activities of the student;

− creates conditions for having subjective experience in the language learning process, provides the conditions for the language learner to speak in the target language and makes possible to see the role of spiritual values.

References:

1. Jarov V. K., Taratukhina Yu. V. Pedagogical constructivism in cross-cultural environment. — M.: Janus-K. 2015.
2. Lotman Y. M. Culture and Explosion — M.: Gnozis; Progress, 1992.
3. Samarov R. The structural and functional aspects of Defining the Content of Education (In terms of Individualized Education) // magazine, Modern Education, 2015, №. 12.
4. Samarov R. The Methodological Bases of Security (monograph). — Tashkent: Academy, 2010.
5. Ter-Minasova S. G. Language and Intercultural Communication / Tax book. — M.: Slovo, 2000.