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70ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ. ОБЩАЯ ПЕДАГОГИКА, ИСТОРИЯ ПЕДАГОГИКИ И ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
УДК 378.016 DOI: 10.26907/2658-3321.2020.3.3.254-264
ПРЕПОДАВАНИЕ ИНОСТРАННОГО ЯЗЫКА: БИЛИНГВАЛЬНЫЙ И МУЛЬТИЛИНГВАЛЬНЫЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ ОПЫТ СТУДЕНТОВ
И.Г. Кондратьева irina. kondrateva.67@mail. ru Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, г. Казань, Россия
Аннотация. Процессы глобализации, происходящие в мире и быстро развивающиеся современные технологии, положительно влияют на изучение иностранных языков. Данное исследование посвящено проблеме обучения иностранным языкам в билингвальной и мультилингвальной среде и анализу опыта изучения языков студентами. Результаты исследования показали, что изучение лингвистического опыта студентов - билингвов и мультилингвов может учитываться для изучения лексики, грамматики и других языковых аспектов. Особенности лингвистического опыта студентов позволяют исследовать такие вопросы, как межъязыковая интерференция. Преимущества студентов - билингвов - беглое использование лексики, но, при этом наблюдаются фонетические ошибки. В статье также рассматриваются билингвальные и мультилингвальные подходы к обучению, явления билингвизма и мультилингвизма в Высшей школе иностранных языков и перевода Казанского (Приволжского) федерального университета.
Ключевые слова: иностранный язык, студент, билингвизм, мультилингвизм
Для цитирования: Кондратьева И.Г. Преподавание иностранного языка: билингвальный и мультилингвальный лингвистический опыт студентов. Казанский лингвистический журнал. 2020; 3(3): 254-264. (In Eng.)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM BACKGROUND I. G. Kondrateva
irina. kondrateva. 67@mail. ru Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Abstract. Globalisation and forthcoming technologies are of considerable interest because they intensify the process of learning languages. This study represents an attempt of implementing bilingual's background or students' experience in language learning process and analyses the effectiveness of such knowledge in teaching languages. The main results that appeared were as follows: linguistic experience is applicable and actual to study lexicon, grammar and other language aspects. Features of linguistic experience and background also allow exploring such linguistic issue as language interfering. Advantages of bilinguals are the ways to follow the smallest variations in language gaining. Using of a national language or the first and second languages in teaching raises learners' interest and let down hesitation in using vocabulary but transfers
phonetic errors. The paper covers bilingual and multilingual learning approaches, their current and future requests in the learning process of Higher school of foreign languages and translation studies of Kazan Federal University.
Keywords: foreign language, student, bilingualism, multilingualism, communication
For citation: Kondrateva I.G. Foreign language teaching: bilingualism and multilingualism background. Kazan linguistic journal. 2020; 3 (3): 254-264.
Teaching foreign languages in multilingualism conditions is characteristic of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, where there is a certain specificity of the interaction of two large spoken state languages: Russian and Tatar. Modern scientific literature defines the complex phenomenon of multilingualism, taking into account the concepts of psychologists, sociologists and linguists, as various terms explained by different scientists. One can find the concept of multilingualism, bilingualism, polyglotism, triglossia, etc.
Considering the concept of bilingualism, we agree with U. Weinreich that this is knowledge of two languages and their regular use [12]. In our case, these are Tatar and Russian languages, which are equally spoken in the Republic of Tatarstan. The Tatar language rank as the second in Russia in the number of speakers (more than 5 million people) and belongs to the Volga-Kipchak subgroup of the Kipchak group of the Turkic language family. Around the world, about 7 million people speak the Tatar language (including 5.3 million people in Russia) [10]. We consider bilingualism in the Republic of Tatarstan as a natural condition, since it is characterized by the perception of two languages from early childhood, even Russian speaking families live, communicate and in Tatar language medium and society. Multilingualism can be defined as full knowledge of any language on an equal basis with one's native language, for example, Tatars know their native language - Tatar and one more - Russian. We attribute them to be simultaneous bilinguals, since these languages are studied at school and have the same number of academic hours per week. Learning two foreign languages in Russian schools, mainly English and another foreign language (more often other languages are German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian in Tatarstan, as they are popular here) is compulsory. European schools offer the second foreign language at school from the early years (35) of the educational process due to the closeness of countries.
Across the world, the number of bilinguals is continuously increasing. Today, about half of the world's population is considered to be either bilingual or multilingual [7].
A person who knows more than three languages is considered a polyglot. V. Cook calls such people multi-competent [8]. There are scientists who reflect bilingualism as knowledge of three or more languages, since not every next language changes the problem of bilingualism and calls this phenomenon repetitive bilingualism [9]. As many students of Higher school of foreign languages and translation studies know three and more languages, we may consider them multi-linguals.
In our study, we shall consider multilingualism as knowledge of more than three languages. When entering the university, graduates, as a rule, know the first foreign language at the levels of A1B1, and the second foreign language at the level of tourist minimum. The Higher School of Foreign Languages and Translation studies of Kazan (Volga region) Federal University has three foreign languages in the curricular of bachelor's program and two foreign languages for master students. They can increase proficiency in already familiar languages, as well as learn a new foreign language.
Studies in the field of teaching and learning languages show that bilingualism has positive prerequisites in the mastery of a subsequent foreign language, regardless of the level of proficiency of students in previous languages. The parallel development of two speech mechanisms - the first and the second languages, favors the study of the third one under the conditions for rational management of student educational and social activity, language situation and the dynamic nature of bilingualism [6]. Multilingualism also enhances linguistic experience, accelerates language forecasting and has a positive impact on the development of language skills [1].
The methodological basis of the research predetermined the analysis of the works of the following scientists in the field: M. Fomin, V. Vinogradov, L. Shcherba, I. Zimnaya and N. Baryshnikov. M. Fomin praised the interdisciplinary approach to multilingualism. He divided various terms of this phenomenon into linguistic, social, historical, sociolinguistic, didactic, pedagogical, psychological
and psycholinguistic approaches. According to the linguistic approach, "bilingualism" and "multilingualism" are differentiated. "Bilingualism" and "language contacts" are synonymous [4]. From psychological point of view, the term "bilingualism" is used [3]. In the didactic and pedagogical aspects, the terms "bilingualism" and "multilingualism" are used [2].
The aim of research was to find out the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism, so the language experience of our students was studied.
According to I. Bim, language experience has three components: linguistic (informative), linguistic (operational) and speech (motivational) [2]. The linguistic aspect can be a positive transmitting source, the meaning of which is the recognition and comparison of vocabulary, grammar of a foreign language with the first two languages. An operational aspect is semantic text processing, by which students can compensate insufficient language proficiency. We can consider these aspects of the language experience of students as reserve opportunities for learning other foreign languages. As for the nature of linguistic interaction in bilingualism and multilingualism, we must emphasize the acquisition of the second and the third languages, which brings about real changes in the structure of linguistic consciousness due to the existence of two or more linguistic systems. The most pressing issues in this area are positive and negative interference. It is important to emphasize that bilinguals of related and unrelated languages have different interference. Typological, structural, psycholinguistic correspondences and differences in the languages in contact determine the nature and number of interference phenomena taking into account foreign languages and the bilingualism of the national language [12].
Research in this area has shown that multilingual students have a wide outlook due to comparison and experience in expressing thoughts in different languages. Multilinguals have verbal behavior with a faster response to the perception of grammatical constructions, a wealth of acoustic associations, language guesses and an easy transition from one language to another [11].
There are objective reasons why the educational process at the Higher School of Foreign Languages and Translation studies of Kazan (Volga region) Federal University may have advantages: a multilingual person is ready to study a foreign language within the framework of his language experience, realizing the fact that there are different methods of thinking and such students consider the specific grammatical features of the new language obvious [11].
At the same time, teaching foreign languages in multilingualism conditions also has shortcomings. The difficulties of studying foreign languages at the Higher School of Foreign Languages and Translation studies in the conditions of various types of bilingualism and multilingualism have their own characteristics. This may be due to ignoring the diverse language experience of students, their priorities in choosing languages. The survey was carried out to define kinds of difficulties of students in the process of learning languages. 2018 students of all four courses of bachelor program and 54 students of master program of the Higher school of foreign languages and translation studies took part in the survey. The results are various and can be seen in the Tablel.
Table 1.
Difficulties of students while learning languages
(in %)
Grammar Listening skills Speaking skills Translation skills Phonetics Vocabulary
49% 54% 36% 47% 51% 46%
Two thousand students from 27 countries (Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, Tajikistan, Syria, Colombia, Moldova, Algeria, Congo, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Ghana, Ecuador, Armenia, Afghanistan, Japan, Taiwan, China, Ukraine, Turkey, USA, Germany) know and speak various foreign languages. Some of them are monolinguals, bilinguals and multilinguals.
259 Table 2.
The Quantity of bachelors at Higher school of foreign languages and translation
studies (in %)
Monolinguals Bilinguals Multi-linguals
12% 37% 51%
Table 3.
The Quantity of master students at Higher school of foreign languages
and translation studies (in %)
Monolinguals Bilinguals Multi-linguals
0% 63% 39%
Interviewing of students showed dissatisfaction with chosen combination of languages sometimes. About 17 percent of students are not satisfied with knowledge of studying languages. Sometimes it was parents' wish to choose one or another language as they thought was more popular and spoken in the world than others.
Combinations of learning languages are different and are united as two European languages and one Asian for any student of any group. The studied languages are: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Turkish, Hindi, Korean, Japanese and Swahili. That is why all of the students of Higher school and translation studies learn three foreign languages during bachelor course and two foreign languages during master course, so even monolinguals become multi-linguals by the end of the bachelor or master course. To reduce difficulties, the teaching staff conducts research of this issue and divides the language experience of students into two categories: philological and linguistic. In philological experience there are two aspects: linguistic and psychological. The linguistic aspect is the ability of learners to determine similarities and differences in learning foreign languages with the help of a university teacher. The psychological aspect is the translation of skills from one language to another foreign language [11].
The interaction of languages depends on the level of bilingualism of a student. The influence of previously learned languages depends on the language aspect. It is known than more often the first language affects the phonetic system of other languages; the combined influence of the first and second languages affects the grammar and vocabulary of other languages.
Having studied the terms "bilingualism" and "multilingualism" and the modern conditions of the question in the scientific world and the educational process of the Higher School of Foreign Languages and Translation studies, it can be concluded that multilingual conditions in the case of the Republic of Tatarstan may have positive and negative aspects. Methodological management of the educational process of the second and third foreign languages can open up additional opportunities for bilinguals in terms of their language and operational experience and certainly requires further research.
Research in the sphere methodological concepts of teaching foreign languages proved that nevertheless there are many well-known and effective approaches of teaching languages; university graduates are able to fulfil monolingual or bilingual tasks in professional communication. It must be stated that teaching techniques are characterized as traditional system of consistent teaching of foreign languages. Dominant position is occupied by English language. It is obvious that there is deficiency of complete domestic methodological systems existing in multilingual digital continuum, developing multilingual communication and establishing international connection and contacts. New educational paradigm supposes new task - forming multilingual communicative competence. One of possible solutions is creating of complete methodical concept which is taking into account domestic and foreign experience and science and developing multicultural personality in the epoch of digital multilingual communication. The process of modelling such system consists of the aim of education, contents, methods and techniques, forms and results of education. It is complicated educational and humanitarian concept which is aimed at formation of multilingual and multicultural personality as participants of intercultural professional communication, understanding
representatives of foreign society. In the logic of our proposed system of training, the boundaries of the indicated strategic goal are expanded by the formation of not just "harmoniously developed and socially responsible," but a multilingual multicultural personality, educated, on the one hand, on the principles of patriotism, love and respect for the native language, historical and national-cultural traditions of our country. On the other hand, based on the recognition of the existence of cultural and linguistic pluralism and the realization of itself as a part of the multilingual communicative space of the era of universal digitalization.
The methodological system of multilingual education of students is level, differentiated on the basis of taking into account the psychological, individual, personal and intellectual characteristics of students, universal in the logic of training both Russian and foreign personnel in the conditions of a domestic higher school. It is based on a multi-lingual approach to foreign-language training and allows the real formation of multi-lingual communicative competence among future specialists of the Russian Federation, rather than declarative.
Multilingual education of university students will be effective if:
- The essence, specificity and regularities of the process of multilingual education of higher school students in the context of the modern educational paradigm are determined and on this basis a methodological system of multilingual education of university students is developed, representing a holistic set of interrelated, mutually agreed and mutually reinforcing components subordinate to the strategic objective.
- Methodological design was carried out on the basis of the unity of multilingual and other methodological approaches, the leading instrumental role among which is assigned to personal activity and competent approaches to foreign language training.
- Developed a structure of multilingual communicative competence of a university student, including basic and complementary structural components, and used in the practice of multilingual training.
- Creation and use in the educational process of multilingual educational complexes for students, including textbooks, dictionaries, directories and other educational materials on paper and digital media.
- Multilingual learning technologies have been developed and put into practice, implementing the goals and objectives of the developed methodological system of education and contributing to the formation of a multicultural multilingual personality of a university student.
- Criteria and methods of diagnostics are defined and used at all stages of training, which make it possible to evaluate the results achieved by the trainees and to identify the success of the proposed methodological system.
Литература
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8. Cook V., Bassetti B. Language and Bilingual Cognition, Psychology Press. New York, 2010. 608 p.
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10. Sabirova D., Khanipova R. Innovative approaches to teaching and learning English as second and English as foreign language in multilingual education. Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews, 7(6), 2019. Pp. 4548 // URL: https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.7610/
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References
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(In English)
заведующий кафедрой иностранных языков Head of foreign language department
Авторы публикации
Authors of the publication
Кондратьева Ирина Германовна к. пед. наук, доцент
Kondrateva Irina Germanovna -Candidate of Pedagogics, Associate Professor
Казанский (Приволжский) Федеральный
университет
г. Казань, Россия.
Email: [email protected]
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University Kazan, Russia
Email: irina.kondrateva. [email protected]
