CC BY
1УДК 81
Kabiyeva D.M.
Shakarim University (Semey, Kazakhstan)
MODERN PROBLEMS OF LINGUOCULTUROLOGY AND ITS ROLE IN THE LITERARY TEXT
Аннотация: the increasing demand for proficiency in foreign languages highlights the necessity for a shift in educational methodologies. An approach centered on competencies, emphasizing practical communication, cultural sensitivity, and social and information literacy, has emerged as a promising pedagogical strategy. Despite gaining recognition, many educational institutions persist in using traditional rote memorization techniques, impeding the development of crucial communication skills in learners. It is crucial to adopt a competence-based approach to equip individuals with the essential skills needed to navigate the complexities of communication in an interconnected world.
This paper explores the nuances of the competence-based approach, emphasizing its focus on practical application, cultural understanding, and the integration of social and information literacy into foreign language instruction. It compares this approach with traditional rote memorization methods, highlighting the limitations of rote learning in nurturing effective communication skills. The paper advocates for the widespread adoption of a competence-based approach, underscoring its potential to empower learners for meaningful cross-cultural interactions.
To effectively implement a competence-based approach, educational institutions must comprehensively review their curricula, instructional methods, and assessment practices. This involves designing learning experiences that encourage active engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving, while incorporating authentic materials and real-world scenarios to develop practical communication skills. Additionally, creating a collaborative learning environment that promotes peer-to-peer interaction and cultural exchange is crucial for fostering intercultural understanding and respect.
Ключевые слова: foreign language education, competence-based approach, communication skills, cultural awareness, social literacy, information literacy.
With the development of cultural and economic relationships between countries and communities day by day the demand for specialists with knowledge of a foreign language increases. Currently, one of the most important directions in the progress of education is the use of a competence-based approach, in particular, in the advancement of skills and abilities associated with the practical application of a person's communicative abilities, his cultural, social and information competencies. Despite the fact that this issue is widely discussed in the scientific and pedagogical literature, a cognitive approach prevails in schools and universities, and students are forced to memorize significant amounts of information instead of developing the basic competencies necessary for successful communication.
The subjects of the cultural elements in a foreign language are determined by the general global trend towards integration in the economy, culture and political sphere. In the educational sphere, this process determines the tendency towards the integration of subject knowledge aimed at learning a holistic picture of the world, and, in turn, gives wider access to information, creates opportunities for lifelong education.
However, experts note the insufficient level of proficiency in foreign languages by school graduates, and those who even have good knowledge cannot always effectively apply them in the daily life and professional communication. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge of the linguistic and cultural significance of another language, traditions and modern features of the development of different people. In this context, it becomes necessary to train students who are able to function as subjects of a cultural dialogue, since a foreign language is not only a system of linguistic knowledge, but also a system of knowledge about social norms, spiritual values, and the totality of relationships between people.
Learning a foreign language is challenging process aimed at improving foreign language competence of students, which in turn not only contributes to the removal of language barriers at the intercultural level of communication, but also the formation intercultural competence of which it is linguistic and cultural competence, which forms this research work.
A very important cultural reference point of modern foreign language education is linguoculturology as one of the most actively developing areas of knowledge in recent times.
The linguo-cultural approach in teaching foreign languages was formed in the 90s. What does linguoculturology study? This is a science that studies objects and phenomena of a particular culture, concepts. The subject of the study of cultural linguistics is the cultural background - a world perception which is specific to a particular nation, represented in mythology, legends, proverbs, sayings and in other forms of folklore in precedent texts. According to the researcher V.A. Maslova, the subject of study of linguacultural studies are the standards, stereotypes, symbols, images, speech behavior and speech etiquette [1].
The following methods of studying cultural concepts are distinguished: "analysis of proverbs, aphorisms, inner form of words, precedent texts, plots of works of art, psycholinguistic experiment with native speakers" [1, p. 37]. V.N. Telia considers linguoculturology as a part of ethnolinguistics, which devoted to the study and description of language and culture correspondence in their synchronous interaction.
Researchers note that, finally, that the merging of problems of linguistic knowledge into the one interdisciplinary field may lead to the fact that it will be possible to speak about linguoculturology not only as synthesizing, but also as systematizing science [1].
Linguo-cultural approach considers language as a carrier of culture. The study of culture involves the inclusion of background knowledge about the personality of a native speaker, acting as an object of studying cultural specifics into the context of teaching. This focuses on the understanding and development of a certain students' behavior. Cultural background knowledge can be considered as the basis for the development of students' intercultural competence. Modeling of the intercultural communication aims to use the language in various situations that are close to natural. The learner is required to present himself in a particular role. This makes it possible to
"compare the sociocultural background and the communicative style of behavior in the native and foreign language culture (cultural and pragmatic knowledge)" [2].
Linguoculturology focuses on a new system of cultural values which put forward by the new thinking, the modern life of society, to complete, objective information about the cultural life of the country.
The main unit of description for this approach is the linguoculture as a special complex unit that represents the dialectical unity of linguistic and extralinguistic (conceptual and subject) content and includes segments not only of a language (linguistic significance), but also of a culture (extra-linguistic cultural meaning), represented by an appropriate sign. In contrast to the word and the lexico-semantic version, the linguoculture represents both as a linguistic representation itself and an "extra-linguistic, cultural environment" (situation, reality) a stable network of associations. Therefore, the word signal will inevitably be in a person who knows the language, not only the meanings (as a hint), but the entire totality of the "cultural halo". The ignorance of the "cultural halo" of the word leaves the recipient at the language level, does not allow penetrating into the deep network of cultural associations, i.e., in the meaning of the statement of the text as a reflection of the cultural phenomenon.
As can be seen, the structure of the linguaculture is more complex than the actual linguistic units. Here, the cultural-conceptual component is added to the usual components (sign-value) as an extra-linguistic content of the linguoculure. Language mark as one of the components of linguoculture, i.e., as its form, signals not only its "superficial", proper linguistic meaning, but also the "deep" content (meaning) as a fact (element) of culture. A lingoculturema can be represented in one word, as a phrase, or an entire text (an extract from it), widely known to native speakers.
In this approach, "acculturation" occurs through the "cultivation" of language units, which leads students in the direction from the meaning of "guessing" to knowing and incorporating the sign-subject into the network of cultural associations which is characteristic to a given nation. Thus, it becomes obvious that with this approach, where culture is included as an object of study, the presentation of the material is based on the principle "from a cultural unit" and not from a language unit.
The ability to intercultural communication is the formation of secondary cognitive consciousness in students by mastering a foreign language, which can be achieved through linguacultural study of quite representative cultural fragments. In this case, with a linguacultural approach, culture becomes an object of knowledge, which responds to the psychological characteristics of the process of a foreign language learning in a language university, when the language is no longer recognized as an object of knowledge and becomes itself a means of obtaining information about the world.
As noted above in the linguacultural approach, the focus is based on the reflection in the language of a representative "piece" of national culture in the connection with specific cultural units found in foreign language discourse. Thus, it is advisable to present sociocultural information contained in language units or simply related to the discussed problem, in a systematic way, in blocks, organized by the topic. The choice of a culture fragment, the sphere of communication determines the course content. I.I. Khaleeva identifies four main macrospheres of communication, where a person interprets through consciousness and a language, real-life relationships in the world, accordingly, four macrospheres of language usage: the sphere of production activity is special speech, everyday life - colloquial (everyday) speech, cultural studies - literary and scientific speech, social activity - journalistic speech (including newspaper, public, television speech, as well as the speech of other media) [3].
Since the linguacultural approach includes a culture as an object of teaching a foreign language, the presentation of the material should be based on the principle "from a cultural unit" (linguacultural), and not from a language unit. In this approach, emphasis is placed on the point registration of certain cultural information, extracted from a certain language unit, and on the reflection in the language of a certain representative block of national culture in connection with the commented language (speech) units. The study of a specific fragment of a culture by the method "from culture" is carried out using the construction of a lingual-cultural field, understood as the hierarchical structure of a multitude of linguistic culture that has a common (invariant) meaning characterizing a specific cultural sphere. The predominantly
fieldbased approach to the study of objects in the field of culture stems from the general nature of the field as a synthesizing unit. Thanks to this phenomenon of the external world, the gaps in the conceptual system are so imperceptible. For the purposes of teaching a foreign language and culture, the field system should include minimally sufficient, but necessary linguoculture, which characterizes the difference between the two cultures.
The fiction texts record certain cultural norms, they are the source of cultural information. The text as a source of cultural background knowledge can be presented in different forms, to bear the author's world outlook, picture or image of the world, the meaning of past and subsequent cultures.
Currently, there is no unambiguous and generally accepted definition of text in linguistics and linguodidactics. The existing text definitions reflect the various scope and content invested in this concept. The text is considered as a structure, message, sentence flow, speech unity, a multidimensional phenomenon, a secondary semiotic communicative system, an upper limit in the hierarchy of language units, a speech product, lengthy syntactic units, a sequence of utterances, a speech work, a product of speech activity, a product of a written language variant, result of language realization, the work of human cogitative activity, etc.
In the fiction text can be identified a) conceptual, b) contextual, c) the actual text or informative plan, d) language plan, including a combination of different language tools. All this together allows us to consider a fiction text as a dynamic system creating a model of a foreign language culture. Considering the text from this angle, it is possible to build a linguocultural paradigm.
Each fiction text is informative and is able to transform and generate messages (Yu.S. Stepanov). In the fiction text, the national-specific picture of the world appears in the form of a cultural and pragmatic space: the world around us, the way of life, the stock of knowledge and the cultural foundation, representatives of a different linguistic and cultural community.
Thus, fiction texts are the source of cultural background knowledge. The principle of culturally related co-study of languages involves the isolation of cultural
values and the comparison of the selected linguacultural correspondences. A cultural material for the selection of texts should have a practical orientation, contain tasks that develop the ability to interpret cultural information, be fascinating and relevant and has a cognitive character. Textbooks in a foreign language can be supplemented with illustrations, photographs, music, audio materials.
In modern conditions it is important to teach the student to think creatively and freely navigate the cultural space of the native and foreign language culture. The personality must have not only the ability to intercultural communication, but also to the heuristic procedures of constant knowledge of new elements.
In our opinion, the choice of a fragment of culture for students to study, as well as the selection of cultural knowledge itself, should be carried out in accordance with the principle of cultural conformity proposed by V.V. Safonova material for educational purposes can be carried out taking into account the following provisions:
- determination of the value sense and significance of the selected material. The used linguistic and cultural material should form undistorted ideas about foreign cultural reality,
- determination of the extent to which the material used stimulates students to gain knowledge about key concepts of culture, such as: "cultural heritage", "cultural diversity", "dialogue of cultures", "cultural aggression", "Multicultural personality", etc.,
- taking into account the age and intellectual abilities of students in the selection of linguistic and cultural material [4, p. 17].
The next issue that needs to be addressed is the development of specific methods, techniques, and forms of implementation of this approach for practice. Teaching the linguistic and cultural aspect in foreign language vocational education should be carried out through the use of a wide variety of types of work of a communicative and research nature, for which we offer attribute:
- use of authentic materials (small reports, short news bulletins, video blogs),
- modern information technologies (educational computer programs and video games), mobile learning, participation in chats, videoconferences,
- acquaintance with folklore, phraseology, literature of the target language,
- contextual learning, problematic dialogue situations that are close to real and characteristic of English culture.
Successful intercultural communication is possible with adequate mutual understanding of the interlocutors, speakers of different languages, who belong to different linguistic cultures. Ideally, in intercultural communication, speakers of one or more foreign languages should not only linguistically competently decode what was received orally or a written message, but also promptly update stock of knowledge about a foreign language culture, which implies mastering knowledge of the linguistic picture of the world of speakers of a particular national language.
In our opinion, the formation of linguocultural competence is a mandatory component in teaching foreign languages to schoolchildren and students. It contributes to the solution of various socio-cultural problems, and also helps to cope with communicative tasks that arise every day.
The importance of cultural and cultural approach to teaching foreign languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan is associated with updating the methodology of foreign language education, with increased attention to languages and cultures. Implementation of the linguocultural approach in teaching a foreign language to students of non-linguistic specialties of universities should significantly change the practice of organizing the educational process and requires a clear modeling of the language educational process.
From the school walls, the formation of linguistic and cultural competence will become the basis for students for further learning English and will provide basic knowledge about the culture and language of the target language.
In conclusion, the competence-based approach stands as a transformative pedagogical strategy, ready to revolutionize foreign language education. Embracing this approach allows educational institutions to prepare learners effectively for success in an increasingly globalized world, enabling them to bridge cultural gaps and contribute meaningfully to cross-border communication and collaboration.
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