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УДК 371.212 Н. О. Федорина
соискатель кафедры лингводидактики МГЛУ; e-mail: [email protected]
ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНОЙ И СОЦИОЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКОЙ КОМПЕТЕНЦИЙ В НАЧАЛЬНОЙ ШКОЛЕ
В статье рассматриваются понятия социокультурной и социолингвистической компетенции. Автор подчеркивает необходимость развития этих компетенций в начальной школе в процессе взаимосвязанного обучения языку и культуре.
Ключевые слова: коммуникативная компетенция; социокультурная компетенция; социолингвистическая компетенция; бикультурализм; вторичная языковая личность; кросс-культурные аспекты в обучении иностранному языку; взаимосвязанное обучение языку и культуре.
Fedorina N. O.
Post-graduate, Foreign Language Teaching Department MSLU; e-mail: [email protected]
DEVELOPING SOCIOCULTURAL AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCES AT PRIMARY SCHOOL
This article looks into the concepts of sociocultural and sociolinguistic competences and focuses on the necessity of developing these competences at primary school as a result of using interconnected language and culture teaching techniques.
Key words: communicative competence, sociocultural competence, sociolinguistic competence, biculturalism, second language identity, cross-cultural aspects in foreign language teaching, interconnected language and culture teaching techniques.
It is no secret one's social background influences the development of people, and the way we act is determined by the social and cultural aspects of our background. That is why every speech act implies a lot more than a set of words built up according to some grammar rules: it implies cultural and social features that are characteristic of the person who has produced this speech act. It means that a foreign language learner can interpret the meaning of any utterance only if he or she has developed sociolinguistic competence.
H. O. Oedopma
Russian scientists have been researching cross-cultural aspects in foreign language teaching for several decades. In the 1980-s L. V. Dudnik and G. D. Tomakhin laid the foundations of sociocultural studies in this country. I. L. Bim [2] made a great contribution into the notion of sociolinguistic competence interpreting it as part of a broader sociocultural competence. The latter was further researched by E. I. Vorobjeva, L. N. Zhirnova [4], G. G. Zhoglina [6] who focused on developing professional skills of foreign language students as well as M. A. Bogatyreva [3], M. M. Merkulov, O. M. Imenitova, V. V. Safonova [7; 8]; N. B. Shikhanyan concentrated on developing skills of students in high school. Other authors, such as E. G.Azimov, A. N. Shukhin, A. V. Guseva [5], U. V. Manukhina, M. F. Ovchinnikova, J.A. Sinitsa believe that sociocultural competence is an independent component of communicative competence and deserves priority and attention in the teaching process.
European scholars usually classify sociocultural and sociolinguistic competences as separate components of communicative competence. This point of view is shared by S. Savignon, J. A. van Ek and D. Hymes. They interpret sociolinguistic competence as an ability to vary one's speech activities in accordance with the situational context.
An important contribution to the issue of sociocultural and sociolinguistic has been made by I. I. Khaleeva [9] who insisted on developing foreign language students' second language identity The second language identity can be defined as a set of skills and abilities which ensure successful intercultural communication, i. e. adequate interaction with representatives of other cultures. If we focus on forming a second language identity, we make learners' sociocultural competence an issue, we want them to be able to organize their verbal and non-verbal behavior in line with the task of intercultural communication.
However, it is important to note that the above mentioned scientists have only focused on secondary and high school in their work. For instance, A. V. Guseva [5] described three levels of forming sociocultural competence, the initial stage starting in the 5th-7th grades [5, p. 107-108]. In other words, we are supposed to begin teaching students to consciously use specified knowledge about the culture of a foreign country as well as some intercultural communication skills in relevant and simple everyday situations only in secondary school. And we move up to the 11th grade constantly developing sociolinguistic competence in the foreign language
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classroom so that when students finish school they are not only able to effectively communicate in a foreign language but find ways to educate themselves using this language and develop their personalities in the future - individually as well as professionally.
This is a truly logical scheme, the only question is: why do we start so late? Why is it only in the 5th grade that we start forming sociolinguistic competence? In this country we start teaching foreign languages in the 2nd grade of primary school (and the 5th grade is already considered secondary school). Modern methods of teaching are based on interconnected, simultaneous teaching of language and culture. So if we start teaching a foreign language we are sure to come across a lot of cultural information -such as London as the capital of the UK, gentlemen as a cultural feature of the British people, various funny poems such as limericks, etc. Moreover, modern children travel a lot and by the 5th grade some of them might have already seen foreign films or visited the UK, or the USA, or other English-speaking countries. They might have already seen Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty and communicated with native speakers in their cultural context. So it really makes sense to start forming sociolinguistic competence as soon as we add foreign language into the curriculum - that is, at least in the 2nd grade of primary school.
Young children are ready for change, and it is easier to broaden their cultural horisons. Bilingual kids who are brought up by parents with different cultural backgrounds and languages tend to be more tolerant and accepting, curious and easily welcome new facts and ideas, which suggests that we should start focusing on biculturalism at an earlier age.
The question is: how shall we start and what shall we focus on at the initial stage? Before we answer this question, we must look at the components that make up sociocultural competence. A. V. Guseva [5, p. 28] singles out four components which ensure successful ande effective sociocultural communication:
• The knowledge of relevant elements that make up the domains and situations in which national cultures function;
• The knowledge of relevant interrelations among the components of a situation;
• The knowledge of specific aspects of non-verbal behavior patterns followed by native speakers;
• The knowledge of native speakers' typical character traits that affect verbal communication (speech etiquette).
It is natural that the earlier we start, the fewer and simpler the elements we can include into the teaching content are. Let us quote some examples of intercultural knowledge that we can add into the foreign language course in the 2nd grade. The examples are classified according to the above stated four components by A. V. Guseva.
• When we start teaching English we inevitably deal with some cultural (historical, geographical) facts. We tell our students where English is spoken and we introduce London, Big Ben, London Eye, Hyde Park as cultural phenomena. While we teach our young students how to introduce themselves, we mention some English names. And it might be interesting to compare Russian and English names like Kate &Катя, Ann & Аня, Pete & Петя, etc. It is exciting to compare the way they sound, for any child it is interesting to learn what they would have been called if they had been born in the UK.
• Utterances that usually require social feedback (such as 'Thank you - you are welcome'), grammatically essential set phrases that are often used in our speech but cannot be easily translated word by word from Russian into English ('У меня есть' - 'I have': Russian children try to translate 'у' then 'меня' as separate notions and get frustrated when they cannot think of any appropriate variants; 'Мне холодно' - 'I am cold', 'Сколько тебе лет?' - 'How old are you'). Phrases of this kind usually imply a different mentality (for instance, the Russian mentality is collective and we tend to avoid responsibility, maybe that is the reason why we have so many impersonal statements like 'Мне кажется' or 'Мне нравится' which are translated into English using the personal pronoun I: 'I believe', 'I like' - while Anglo-Saxons tend to have a lot of respect to one's individuality and personal space. Their mentality is reflected in the way they speak and even write: maybe that is why the personal pronoun 'I' is capitalized? If we start teaching the language focusing on culture and mentality, explaining the differences, it might be not only more interesting for our students to learn the language but it will develop their personalities.
When we learn to voice our ideas in a different way by means of another language, we come across not only unexpected grammar structures and vocabulary but also a mentality that is different from our own. And it is very exciting while we take a chance to have a look at the world from another perspective, we broaden our horizons and enrich our experience.
• During the first year of studying English children are taught to count (at least to 10). If we teach our students how to pronounce the
numbers and how to count in English we could also introduce counting gestures, which are different from those used in Russia and in the UK while we count.
Russian and English nonverbal counting gestures are different. For Europeans in general, the first digit to be counted (that is the number 1) is represented by the thumb. The index finger is used to count the number 2 and then they go on extending the fingers one by one and stop with the little finger as the number 5. This is the same with Russians, but while the English would usually extend the fingers while counting, Russians would fold them (it is interesting to note that the Japanese also fold their fingers while counting - it is especially exciting to compare our cultures while we are somewhere in between Europe and Asia).
There is also one more difference: the English might use their thumb, and index, middle and ring fingers to express the number 4 [10] while Russians are more likely to use their fingers, not the thumb. In this case if we teach not only the language but non-verbal behavior patterns we make our class real fun and more effective - while kids learn best by doing and by playing.
• When we speak of culture-specific character traits we can think of different idioms that reflect some typical native speaker's character traits. For instance, 'as cool as a cucumber', which is translated into Russian as 'спокойный как слон' or 'спокойный как танк'. It is not only amusing to compare some Russian and English idioms, but also useful in terms of learners' personal development.
Creative teachers can find lots of ways of integrating sociocultural information into their foreign language classroom. Various worksheets can be used additionally, authentic materials like videos and texts can be found in the Internet. It is, however, more effective if the issue of forming sociocultural competence becomes an integral part of student books.
Course-book compilers should pay more attention to sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects of teaching materials - and make sure they are well integrated into the plot and structure of the books. Some student books ("Friends" [11], for instance, have special Culture Corners -sections devoted to cultural aspects. We believe, however, that it is more effective to try and integrate sociocultural and sociolinguistic material into the very plot of the book.
Let us explain what we mean by giving an example. There are usually several main characters acting in the book: they talk to each other, write e-mails, solve problems, go out together etc. Let us imagine that
we open a student book for the 2nd grade and see an English girl called Kate walking with a Russian girl called Катя through London. It is Kate's native city and Катя is her guest. The vocabulary and grammar of the unit are devoted to counting, so they keep counting the houses, people and cats they are passing in the street and suddenly realize that they count using different gestures. After that they might get lost (to make the plot a bit more exciting) and start looking for a certain house number. Finally they might pass Big Ben and have a short discussion about it. If we look at the sociocultural aspects we have in this imaginary unit from an imaginary student book, we will see that the girls have different cultural backgrounds: they have different names, they use different gestures, they live in different cities with different tourist attractions, etc. In this unit two components of sociocultural communication are developed: the knowledge of relevant elements that form the spheres and microspheres in which national culturs function and the knowledge of specific aspects of non-verbal behavior patterns followed by native speakers.
In the above mentioned example language and culture are closely interrelated. Integrated language and culture teaching is extremely important and we must always keep that in mind while planning our lessons or developing really useful teaching materials.
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