CC BY
82
УДК 811.111:378.2
М. А. Салькова, О. А. Мачина
Салькова М. А., профессор МГЛУ, кандидат филологических наук, профессор кафедры грамматики и истории английского языка ФГПН МГЛУ e-mail: [email protected]
Мачина О. А., доцент, кандидат филологических наук,
доцент кафедры грамматики и истории английского языка ФГПН МГЛУ
e-mail: [email protected]
СОВЕРШЕНСТВУЕМ КУРС ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКОЙ ГРАММАТИКИ ДЛЯ БАКАЛАВРОВ ЛИНГВИСТИКИ: НОВЫЕ НАУЧНО-ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЕ ОРИЕНТИРЫ
В статье обсуждаются некоторые программные требования к преподаванию теоретической грамматики английского языка студентам ОФО ФГПН МГЛУ, обучающимся для получения квалификации «Бакалавр лингвистики». Поскольку современный контекст подготовки бакалавров предполагает выраженную практическую ориентацию всех учебных курсов, в том числе теоретической грамматики, в статье приводятся примеры адаптации учебного материала к задачам будущей профессиональной деятельности. При этом авторы не ограничивают свои интересы рамками учебной аудитории, т. е. обсуждением исключительно содержания курса: подготовка будущих педагогических работников предполагает формирование у них таких профессиональных качеств как толерантность и эмпатия, чему должны способствовать некоторые оригинальные задания, выполняемые на семинарах по данной теоретической дисциплине.
Ключевые слова: теоретическая грамматика; бакалаврский курс / образовательная ступень; функциональный подход / анализ / ракурс; ориентированность на практическую педагогическую деятельность (работу в учебной аудитории); критический анализ и пересмотр / переработка материалов учебника; усвоение профессиональных этических норм.
M. A. Salkova, O. A. Machina
Salkova M. A., Ph. D., Prof., Chair of Grammar and History of English, Department of Humanities and Applied Sciences, MSLU e-mail: [email protected]
Machina O. A., Ph. D., Ass. Prof., Chair of Grammar and History of English, Department of Humanities and Applied Sciences e-mail: [email protected]
NEW LANDMARKS IN THE COURSE OF THEORETICAL GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH (BA in linguistics)
The article discusses some requirements set to teaching Theoretical Grammar of the English language to MSLU students (BA level). As modern BA education
tends to become more practically targeted, the theoretical course in question included, the article exemplifies adaptations that are meant to meet the future professional needs of the graduates. In particular, the more explicit functional shift of the discussion has a relevant consequence: the revised contents of the course and the new tasks offered to students make it possible to go beyond the framework of the immediate interest in some theory. Students additionally learn to look critically at textbook materials trying to express their attitudes in a tolerant and professionally correct manner.
Key words: Theoretical Grammar of the English Language; the BA course / education; a functional turn / analysis / angle; classroom orientation of bachelorship; criticizing and modifying / improving textbook materials; perception of «professional dos and don'ts».
In the recent years, the course of Theoretical Grammar of English taught to students of the Department of Humanities and Applied Sciences at MSLU has been subject to many modifications. The changes embrace the contents of the course and the teaching mode, both the methodology and resources used. We have expanded the course framework, concentrating mainly on the modern dimensions of grammatical description, and presented a new outlook on English grammar through the 20th century expansions of sentence syntax, functional and cognitive theories, theories of reference and functional grammatical synonymy. This approach gives our students an opportunity to grasp the essence of existing theories and methods, discuss their input into the general knowledge of the language theory and elaborate their own opinion of the means and ways of language study. We have introduced the visual multimedia support to lectures in the form of Microsoft PowerPoint slides, which proves to be remarkably helpful: they profoundly deepen the understanding of logical connections between grammatical elements, created thought-stimulating images of English morphological and syntactical units and categories, and highlighted strong and debatable points in various theories relevant for the discussion.
We elaborated and re-elaborated the practical assignments to discuss at seminars with the aim of ensuring deeper understanding of the studied material through personal practical involvement [9; 10]. The same task pursued by the Student's Workbook on Theoretical Grammar offers a different form of activity: summing up and answering questions about the theoretical problems dealt with in the course [11].
What remains unchanged, though, was the streamline of the course teaching. We strive at enriching the students' theoretical background information on the grammatical structure of English and methods of its
exploration, as well as developing their cognitive skills. The latter are recognized as one of the main goals and achievements of the course, both intentionally by us and intuitively by students [8].
Introduction of a two-stage university education system (BA and MA) required additional effort in designing the teaching and learning process. Simple division of the course material into two parts which was planned earlier [7] proved to be insufficient. Plain omission of the discussion of contemporary linguistic theories and methods that were supposed to constitute the essence of the MA programme in theoretical grammar resulted in the lack of integrity and need for "modernization" of the BA course. Additionally, according to the objectives set to the first level, BA education tends to become more practically targeted. The competences that must be developed are determined by the vocational aspirations of our students - they are trained either to become schoolteachers of English or to continue their education for a Master's degree in linguistics or other field that requires knowledge of the foreign language and ability to use it in communication. Thus, as we understand the goals, the BA course of theoretical grammar must be shaped so as:
- to improve the language awareness of our students - creating the integral image of the grammatical structure of modern English viewed as a system that embraces units of morphological and syntactical levels;
- to develop the students' communicative skills - describing the elements of the system in their functioning, i.e. in interaction with language units of different levels (lexical, prosodic) in real discourse activity, where they are used to express functional grammatical categories;
- to prepare the students for transition to the upper educational stage (MA) - introducing elements of grammatical analysis based on a variety of scholarly approaches;
- to upgrade the students' professional teaching competence -developing their ability to explain and exemplify the use of language (particularly grammatical) elements, note and correct grammatical errors, select and evaluate classroom-teaching material.
Such changes presuppose not simply shifting accents, but revising the contents of the whole course, introducing elements of discourse analysis, highlighting the importance of various factors of inner and outer context, and
regarding elements of language in their mutual interrelation, the relations of same-level and cross-level synonymy included. It follows from all said above that the direction of the study takes a functional turn in all that concerns the scientific knowledge of the language grammatical structure and practical application of this knowledge. A functional approach to the grammatical theory is the most appropriate here because it unites grammatical meaning, grammatical (morphological and syntactical) form, and other possible language units which may not be related to the grammatical layer of language but, nevertheless, participate in the expression ofcommon semantic functions. Consequently, the basis for the discussion is the functional category - a link between a notional category (meaning) and concrete language means of its expression. Let us illustrate how this approach is applied to language description with the example of the category of aspect.
Traditionally, the description of aspect concentrated on the morphological opposition that builds up the mentioned category. Thus, discussion of aspect was conducted alongside other analytical forms, such as passive and perfect, and comprised the following questions:
- what morphological forms should be recognized as aspect ones (see, e.g. [2]);
- whether indefinite (common / simple) and perfect forms can be included in the aspectual opposition (see, e.g. [1]);
- what the meanings of the continuous forms are.
We analyzed the structural side of the continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms, coming to the logical conclusion that two opposed aspect meanings cannot combine in one form1, so the existence of the perfect continuous excluded the perfect from the list of possible aspect forms and made it a constituent of a special morphological category. The exploration, therefore, took a purely formal, if not scholastic, turn, out of all the questions listed above only the last point being more or less valuable for the development of language skills.
However, if we start with the discussion of aspect as a functional semantic category and see, to be more precise, what functions can be distinguished within it, makes the question of the status of the morphological forms secondary, if not irrelevant, as long as the forms act to express aspectual semantics:
1 Like a form cannot express past and present time simultaneously.
What is important for students to understand here is that aspect is different from tense. The latter deals with primary temporal features of an action, i.e. gives an action a certain time reference (past, present or future). Unlike it, aspect shows the development of action in time within the time limit set by tense. As a practical consequence of this, expressions of tense and aspect combine within one morphological form. Let's consider, for example, the present continuous that shows time reference (present) by means of the category of tense and, say, single incomplete durative character of the action through the category of aspect, as in the sentence:
With the huge diversity that characterizes English, we are left to choose what is best according to the context in which we're communicating (http://www. macmillandictionaryblog.com/tomato-tomato-its-all-english).
The morphological forms whose categorial semantics is purely aspectual and, are the Common and Continuous. The difference between them forms the basis of their opposition.
At the same time, such understanding develops a certain professional mobility of students. The status of perfect forms is viewed only as a matter of "proper description", moreover that in different textbooks it is treated differently and will-be teachers must be ready to cope with such discrepancies. They will understand now that attributing perfect the status of aspect forms by itself does not make the book less valuable for practical teaching purposes as long as it suggests a good explanation of
their functioning in speech. Perfect forms can express aspectual semantics, too, in the sense that they show, that the action is complete, e.g.:
Linguistic inventiveness is an intrinsic part of Carroll's works for children, and some of his coinages have become part of the language (http://www. macmillandictionaryblog.com/your-favourite-portmanteau-words).
They also have another element in their inherent meaning, however, -that of priority - which brings about a special discussion further1.
Now that we have identified the range of aspectual semantics, it is time to turn to language means that can express it. Here we face the fact that being a functional category, aspect can be revealed not only by morphological forms, but also through inner verbal semantics (the so-called aspectual classes of the verbs) and syntactical constructions, primarily complex sentences with time clauses. In addition, essential for proper understanding is the fact that means of different levels interact in order to express the aspectual character of the action [6]. First and foremost, this concerns the lexical meaning and the morphological form, because the actualization of a verb in a concrete utterance is impossible without both.
1 The meaning of priority is also temporal, and on this ground, the morphological aspect opposition may be recognized as three-fold: Common vs. Continuous, Common vs. Perfect, and Perfect Common vs. Perfect Continuous. This opinion has the right to exist, but we believe that it will needlessly complicate the description, therefore we find it more reasonable to divide the temporal features into aspective and phasal, and thus distinguish two separate morphological categories: aspect and phase.
Aspectologists have suggested different classifications of verbs (see, e.g. [12, 13]). However, in the classroom we find it more appropriate to use the traditional one, which divides verbs into terminative, durative and stative. The reason for the choice is purely practical: it is this classification, that our students will be using in their future teaching profession, other divisions being too complicated to explain to schoolchildren. True, in some cases this distinction is insufficient to understand how the aspective character of the utterance forms, so some elements of other classifications may be introduced and explained, e.g. punctual verbs by A. Schopf.
Next come the meanings of the two morphological forms, Common and Continuous. It makes sense to start with the categorial meanings of either, the invariant meanings that receive their concrete realizations in individual utterances. Analyzing these invariant meanings we will see two important things.
1. Though formally opposed, the Common and Continuous forms overlap in part of their semantic spheres1. In the cases of semantic similarity, the two forms must be acknowledged as functional synonyms. Thus, the natural question that arises is what governs the choice of this or that form.
2. The semantics of the English morphological aspect and Russian вид are different. Relying on the Russian translation with perfective / imperfective aspect will cause mistakes in the use of aspect forms.
The notion of functional synonymy, though excluded from the BA course as a theoretical problem, still leaves practical traces of the kind described above. The very notion of synonymy must not bring about any difficulty in interpretation as it comes in accord with the long familiar concept of lexical synonymy, only referring to more abstract, grammatical notions, such as aspect. Ifthe choice of synonyms is illustrated with concrete examples (see below), the language material itself will demonstrate the influence of factors of inner and outer context in cases that allow variation of morphological forms [5]. Among these factors, we can highlight the role of the following:
- the adverbial of duration or manner which shows the development of the action;
- the adverbial of attendant circumstances, expressed by participle I;
- repetition of the adverbial of manner;
1 This situation is explained historically, and revising how the Continuous forms evolved the students find another proof that language is not a stern system of symbols, but, like a living being, develops and changes in time.
- the use of a phrasal verb with the adverbial particle on;
- the presence of a shorter action to which the longer one is background.
There is a strong possibility (but in no case a rule!) that if one of these contextual elements is present, the choice will be made in favour of the Common form. At the same time, the role of the factors of outer context, such as information flow, type of discourse activity, language and social conventions (cf. I wonder... and I was wondering...) can be decisive.
There are also cases in which the chosen morphological form will modify the lexical meaning of the verb. This will attribute an unusual aspectual character to the verb and / or change the aspectual features of the utterance [4].
As for syntactical constructions, aspectological investigations have shown that those more relevant for the current discussion are complex sentences with time clauses that can reveal the aspectual character of the utterance via the semantics ofconjunctions. However, some conjunctions are polysemantic (the most common is when) and here other factors, primarily functional sentence perspective, will rule the use of morphological forms [3]. Therefore, the decision as to which form to use again cannot be based on the individual utterance without considering the context of its use.
Presented this way the functional analysis will, on the one hand, systematize the students' knowledge of the grammatical structure of
How different language means interact to express the aspectual character of an event
An incomplete single action in progress A single repeated action
* A.litmînjtjvr/durativ» * Gf^ontinuoui • A №mi(U1iw/duMl№r » Gf Common {nontnt ot b* ground knowrMce)
• &:duntiw ♦ Ciiommon • A: itatfc* * Gf :Con tinuoui v-r -, ? - g a • A: ttfflikutlw * GF: Common * M*r. mjnrwr o*duration . .-à-,m , h *n ilhirtr St» rwn long • A tefmtotte/durjtte ♦ Gf Common ♦ Aàv. htqwmy h- rum wry • A: punctual * Of Continuous ■ ' dy • A:t«mirutivr/dufjtivr * Gf rConlinuout *
• |MC : Common / ContimttUt) ♦ wNle tSC Continuous / Common) îh» tund pfrwd/ ■ unr whir I ffi»*vii£«nB I • NP ♦ (V| * Vt) * Gf : Common sNr u.'iu-^ Adv. Iitqutncy v.j > ■ ■■ kxi> 1 ( f< I t r |Gf kn combtaulkon with Adv Afch iprcilc tmotiWMl cokwdng)
English and, on the other hand, deepen their understanding of the use of various language means that express grammatical meanings and develop their communicative competence, i.e. ability of self-expression.
Another topical issue that required revisiting was the course schedule. The dramatic time cut (32 academic hours instead of 76, and still fewer in reality taking into account public holidays and students' teaching practice) determined the shift in types of activity balance with laying more stress on individual / autonomous work. Therefore, we have redesigned the course dividing it into five independent modules with similar structure: 2-3 lectures, a seminar and an individual assignment in the form of a written report or oral presentation presumably accompanied by a slide show. The latter two are assessed, and the mark is included into the general course assessment scheme. The module system has proved to be very effective and motivating: the material discussed at the lectures is still fresh in the students' minds and it is easier to apply it to practical exercises, expand and deepen the theoretical knowledge thus ensuring better performance in the subject and a better end-result.
6 | ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ ГГАНИЛТИК* АНГЛИЙСКОГО Я1ЫК*___НОГ»ОЯОГИЯ | 7
Could you play chess in your childhood *
Мог ли ты играть и шахматы в детство?
121 Собирательные (CoUectfwe S'tmns): army, people, group, party. team. campus, collective, nation, class, etc.
All ww played football well.
Bee команды играли в футбол хорошо
Основными признаками существительного шляются артикль, ттреллог, существительное в притяжательном ВЛ-жжс. притяжательное или указательное местоимение:
a house, an apple, the earth, on the table. In our street, my flat, his son, those mm, this building, Ann's parr tits, etc.
Существительные в английском языке имеют
I ■ Ли ЧИСЛЯ — СДИНСТНСИНОС И М1ЮЖССТВСННОС [Singular
end PtmnU dumber) a book — books, a lamp — lamps, etc
Wfc have пилу Ыюк\. whal book would you like?
У вве много книг, какую книгу Вы хотите?
2, Два пялежя < падеж — форма существительного, которая выражает связь последнего с другими членами предложения):
в) Обишй иялеж (the Common Case)
Существительное в общем подсосе не имеет окончания. его отношение к другим словам в предложении (если нет предлога), определяется занимаемым им в предложении местом. Например: если оно стоит перед сказуемым, то является подлежащим: если после сказуемого. то это — прямое или косвенное дополнение
The students need dictionaries.
Студентам нужны словари.
b) Притяжательный падеж (the Aulvss/vt Case)
Существительное я притяжательном падеже обозначает принадлежность предмета и отвечает на вопрос: Чей?
Прнтяасателышй падеж существительных в единственном числе образуется прибавлением окончании т.е. надстрочного знака апострофа * икос запятой "и бух-яы .t) ту sister's room — комната моей сестры, the bay's cap — кепка мальчика, etc Is I he your brother's house? Это дом твоего брятя?
Притяжательный падеж существительных во множественном числе образуется прибавлении только од|«ио апострофа * our parents' car — машина нашил родителей, eic.
These are the gfrlt' hookv Это — книги девочек,
Если существительное во множественном числе не имеет окончания J, то притяжательный палеж образуется так же. как И »единственном числе - прибавлением - V. Не ii ihesc children's faiher, Он — oreti jths детей.
Множественно« число существительных
I) Большинство английских существительных образуют множественное число с помощью окончания -i book — books, plana - plants. шЫе - tables
There are many 1ar$e plants in our country В нашей стране много крупных заводов
Apparent classroom orientation of bachelorship cannot but concern the theoretical course in question. Bridging theory and practice, a new activity type has been introduced in our work: criticizing and modifying / improving textbook materials. In offering this assignment, we proceed from the assumption that our students are trained to be schoolteachers of English, so for them evaluating teaching materials is an essential professional skill. This skill may become still more important when newly qualified teachers are cornered by the demands of a particular curriculum: more than often schoolteachers have no choice as to what textbooks to use. In a more teacher-friendly situation, the skill activates mistake-alertness and ability to comment and explain things to younger learners of English.
The students receive copies of a chapter from existing (anonymous) textbook and are supposed to evaluate the theoretical information and the exercises from the point of view of their relevance, and foresee possible mistakes that could arise from inadequate or insufficient theory. Here is the example of such assignment (the Internet abounds in samples of textbooks of different quality that can be used in the suggested activity).
In analyzing the given sample devoted to the category of case of the English noun, the students discover that the description lacks the following important theoretical points.
1. The semantic groups of nouns that form the genitive case are not specified; restrictions on the use of the genitive case with inanimate nouns are missing.
2. There is no mention of the meanings the genitive construction can express except that of possession.
3. Structural types of the genitive constructions are not listed, neither are there any examples which would illustrate "the group genitive".
Ignorance of this information will lead to language mistakes, which will find their way into exercises offered by the author of the textbook (see below). For instance, having no idea of subjective and adverbial genitive students won't be able to translate some structures in ex. 12 pp. 17-18 (e.g. country's national economy, yesterday's news, a month's salary). Some inanimate nouns from exs. 13 and 14 pp. 18-19 will be erroneously used in genitive constructions (e.g. *their clock's hands, *the room's windows, *the Unites Nation's Organization).
16 nPAKTHMICKA* rnU4HATMKA AMTJIMACHOrO OUMA
M0P*OAOrMH 17
houiewiw)? 9. There ire no (waif, wolves) in our forcu 10, Don'l cut youraelf. the (knife, knives) are veo sharp 11. All I he (data, datum) have been processed 12. Several (cargoes, cargo) were shipped yesterday 13. The wotted carried (brick, brick*) in thcr hands 14. Hasthc President's (speech, speeches) impressed you? IS. The round wu as bird as (stone*. «one) 16. {Coal. coats) ts still used lo warm some houses. 17.1 regularty clean my (teeth. tooih). IS, Whose (prac, goose) ¿sites1 19 Some (passer-by, passers-by ) topped lo listen lothai wonderful music. 20. All the (gate, fat») are cloacd. 21. (10« beautiful these (forgive-me-not. forgive-me-nots) are!
»9. >kdjn
12) co6*/ntm*4i***
Moscow, table. silk t Australia, money, interdependence, on. timer sea, bookcase, men. dictionary. Monday, honesty, people, housewife, pride, water. Ann. physics, party, worker, child, knowledge, ink. classmate, forgive-rnc-not. paper, darknes&, car. potato. Smith, hero, village, monkey, glass, freedom, fat her -in- la», chief, pot, Ireland, peace, love. Big Ben. engineer, tower. Virgo, business, wisdom, river, coal, feel,
YnpunrHNC 10, f^iwdunf damur QiiranHKiuur M ckuu fitu > a juruw. mw uutt un aw idSpa kmuhu a anptdt-tttmt t wt u npatwAcu
Appointment, construction, understanding, coexistence, heroism, disarmament, passage, complexity, distribution.
disconnection, appearance, fortress, reader, revolution, poultry, saying, treasure, illness, inaccuracy, agriculture, treasure, recreation, cooperation, immaturity, illegality, concentration, drawing, breakage, leader.
y«p*unm 11. №«tu>*a ^uhtm, a6pa ryitmr npou wodn*te c) nepftdumt itx wpyccxitiixiHX.
C cj^hkumh; ws, tr/ot, thm, ht, Mp, mem, tf/y, hood, im, tit, (M, fljcr, dam, mnrr/ enfr, sivn/ swm, mrr.
Assist, build, dark, happy, meeting, act, develop, free, organize, work, dictate, improve, educate, govern, friend, an. cold, agree, dark, child, assemble, king, cultural, many,social, examine, able, honest, science, move, important, complcx,
C hHhikcimii: db, im. u, in, mis, rr, mm, u.
Construction, armament, owner, comfort, author, information, literacy, understanding, advantage, print, building, form, fortune, employment, morality, agreement, operation, reality, legality, convenience, taste, count, possibility, appointment, creation.
I) Your father's house* 2) our doctor's glasses, 3) today's new*. 4) their sons' toys, 5) this teacher's book, 6) these girts" mother, 7) her parents' car, K) our engineer's plan, 9)rny sister's son, 10) Helen's best friend. II) my children's room, 12) Britain's main industries. 13) this month's events, 14) the girl's voice. 15) Mrs. Brown4* husband. 16) Sam's younger
1 8 npa kt h hicmas tpamkatmka ahmmftckoro a3wka
MOp*oaorHH 19
brother. 17) the company's staff, 18) the clock's hands. 19) our friends' names. 20} Rostov's main street, 21) Lrrmomov's best poems, 22) their son's bouse, 23} this country's policy, 24) Russia's heroes, 25) yesterday's information. 26) Moscow's sights, 27) my best friend's nephew, 28) our country's national economy, 29) his father's letters, 30) our director's study, 31) this book's chapters, 32) our country's veterans, 33) the doctor's prescription, 34) a month's salary
VnpMJWmK 13, ynorrptfame cjo*o * crca6*ax« Hp^muKameit^ mom ftadexte u jmjkwtfcm nprdaamtttut
(Mikefc
i MJtr"i«rli*ra
I. (Peter) Hat is in the center of t lie cit y, 2, This (woman I sons air little. 3. (Helen) best friend ts a sailor. 4, It is my (parent*) car, 5. Are you that (man) son? 6. (>fcsterday) information wasn't very important. 7. W: tike your (daughter) dog very much. 8 U your (grandmother) ha use large or small? 9. There are many rare and interesting books in my (father) library. 10. The (clock) hands are made of some new metal. 11. What are your (sons) names? 12. I am your (sister) daughter. 13. V* were greatly impressed by this (city) sights. 14. (Today) confcrcnccc has been a great success. 15. Our (relatives) children are now grown-ups. 16. (Tomorrow) meeting will take place In our club, 17, (Ann) (husband) name ts Nick- IS, The (fox) tall was rather long
1. The (operator) cab is very comfortable. 2, Mary is my (brother) wife 3. This (town) «reel* were rather narrow. 4, 1 think it is (the city) only cinema. 5, (Russia) exports exceeded several billion roubles. 6. What is this (car) number? 7. ts tltis
man (Kate) father? 8. (Andersen) life was full of hardships.
9, The (ship) crew consisted of young sailoiv 10. Our (teacher) name is Mr. Smith. II, Your (cat) eyes are green. 12. This (singer > voice wasn*| familiar to me, 13.1 am sure (our boss) birthday is in April. 14. VVill you show me your (daughter) pictures? 15. The (Queen) levee was a success, 16, Where is my (son) room? 17. It is our (father) watch. 18. The (room)
HAftpauep: The passport of nn. / This in I. New friends of our daughter. 2. The parks and squares of my city. 3. The house of hks parents. 4. Famous sportsmen of Russia. 5, The sights of London. 6. The photo of my son. 7. The birthday of the famous writer. 8. The capital of our country 9. The staff of this company. 10. The voice of my favourite singer. II. The main industries of Britain, 12, The events of this month-13, The hands of this clock. 14. The heroes of our land. 15. The achievements of our scientists. 16, The elder sisters of Ann, 17. New shoes of our father. 18. The main street of our city. 19. The days of the week- 20. The names of all my friends. 21. The library of our Academy, 22. New songs of this com po*et 23. The hands of the boys. 24. The Undeiground of Moscow 2S. The best show* of our group, 26. The money of my parents. 27. The reports of our teachers. 28. Bright lights of their car. 29. Numerous pets of my grandmother, 30. The largest cinema of our city. 31. The poems of Byron, 32, The life of this writer. 33. The camps of tourists. 34. The course papers of our students. 35, The Organization of the United Nations
20 J nPAlfTHUCKAW MMJ4HATHMA AHfBHflCWQfQ _
Vupuowwir IS- Hfpfitedumf m ^wid tin» ctetfyHmue fl«
1, The collc|t students. 2. The World championship.
3. Spring days 4, The rocket industry. This country climate conditions. 6. The city monuments. 7. The State Univcisiiy faculties. 8, The school time — table. 9. The picture gallery. 10. A sandwich coursc student. 11. A school wall newspaper. 12. The clock minute hand, 13. The research work results. 14. The government powers. 15. A book shelf. 16. The maga/inc page«. 17. The USA traditions and customs. IS. The Globe nations. 19, The October weather. 20. A football icam. 21. The clone wall. 22. The dinner time. 23. The world exhibitions. 24. The summer months., 25. A bank branch. 26. The student campus. 27. The part-time department. 28. The rest day. 29. A power station. 30, Consumer goods. 31. An iron bridge. 32. Exchange rate, 33, The cane sugar, 34. The school reform, 35, Animal products. 36. The UK Parliament.
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1. Russia u the wdd's largest country. 2. The sun rise was very beautiful. 3. Lasl week our family went to the seaside.
4. Today 's information will be a surprise for the Smiths.. 5. Are they all your brothers? 6. My mother gave me a cup of tea. 7. Are these books written by your friend? 8. VSt shall speak to his father tomorrow. 9. In the west and in the south Russia borders on different states. 10, The city sights attracted crowds
of people. II. This girl is an engineer by profession. 12. Agriculture is this country economy important sector. 13, The postman will de liter all newspapers in the morning. 14. As a rule, the train leaves Roston-on-Don at six o'clock. 15, hud's bosom friend » a well — known writer. 16. Are these boy* twins? 17. Tbe student* will attend all our seminars next month. 18, There will be a new stadium in our city. 19, She lefl the key on the table. 20 Please, put these books on the shelf. 21. The latí leaves fell from the trees. 22. Js this fellow а reponer or an operator? 23. My son's room it large and comfortable. 24. Where is your father now? 25. The copy of this contract was sent to our partners some days ago. 26, Did you like our new play? 27, The house roof was covered with snow. 28. Are you a teacher?
Упражняли 17 Найдите и исправьте ошибки.
I. All childs in our family are rather tall. 2. Peter, try to improve your knowledges. 3. This bookcase has many sheik. 4. Asa rule, this postmen comes in time. 5, Ycs<erday the tourists visited a gallery picture. 6. Ann elder brother is an pilot by the profession. 7. Our parents'* house is large and comfortable. 8. In this region we saw many sheeps. 9. There was a interesting article in our newspaper school. 10. There was some exotic fruits on the plate. 11. M any mans of our club can play fool bal I well. 12. This women is one of my mother' friends. 13. Are there many goose in this village? 14, The stones wall was very high, IS. How much money* have you? 16. In what pert of our country do the nonh deers live? 17. This factory produces pianoes of different kinds. 18. Are these datum registered? 19. The child hair were brawn and very soft. 20. The leafs of the trees were dark green. 21, How many people Ihe on i£orth today? 22. Where did Mike hurt ha foots? 23. Usually I go shopping
Viewed from a functional angle, the book under consideration requires considerable reinforcement if used for the development of its users' communicative skills: both the theoretical description and the practical exercises offered in it definitely aim at extending the formal knowledge of the grammatical material but are insufficient for the needs of real communication. A fair amendment to ex. 14, p. 19 - explanation of the purpose of case construction transformation - may be added for students to avoid misinterpretation of such transformation. Otherwise, it must logically follow that the two constructions are synonymous, as the principles of choice of the case (genitive or common with a preposition) are not defined at all. Still further, their difference from the constructions with the attributive common case must also be clarified before doing ex. 15, p. 20. So, performing their analysis of the chosen fragment, students are guided to arrive at the following conclusions.
No doubt, there is no such thing as an ideal textbook. So, learn to value the material a textbook offers: there is always hard work behind it, and as
long as you have what to teach ready-made for you, respect the author's creativity. A least, learn to be tolerant, as nobody and nothing is perfect. However, what must be definitely avoided is insufficiency of description that makes the study of grammar practically pointless in the sense that the knowledge of elements of the grammatical structure of the language is not in any way tied to their role in the achievement of communicative goals. To avoid the above-mentioned discrepancy, don't follow the print blindly. Planning your work with the book you don't find completely satisfying, keep asking yourself about what must be added, reviewed, revised for the textbook to start working the way you expect it to. Remember, there are no bad books, there are lazy teachers.
Anticipating possible objections, we would like to comment on the passage above. Generally, setting examples of practical application of the knowledge, which so far has been felt to be purely theoretical, we believe that such type of activity will provide our students with hands-on knowledge of selecting and evaluating teaching material. This is a valuable professional skill for a will-be teacher. However, we also noticed: there is something more to such discussions than ordinary brainstorming, which accompanies routine work in motivated audiences performing challenging tasks. As textbook diversity is a seemingly endless debate, students at first are likely to abuse negative criticism. They are further taught that even if they discuss imperfections of some author's teaching solutions, criticism must not sound snide and mean-spirited. They must know better than making unnecessary jibes about the way things are presented in a book. Professional loyalty claims for congenial assessment and curbs appalling experiences to have drawbacks mocked. So, developing perception of "professional dos and don'ts", students gradually come to realize that negative criticism intersects with other prejudices and criticizing someone's work says a lot about the person making criticism, either favorable or not.
By way of conclusion, we would like to put our message clear: teaching theoretical subjects to university students today is becoming more and more challenging. Pure theorizing looks inappropriate these days, instead, a more flexible strategy must be adopted. Changes are welcome at every step of teaching process, including the choice of the major scholarly approach, the mode of presentation of matter, the choice of tasks and their contents, etc. The demands of a competence-based paradigm and two-stage university
education system affect all courses of the teacher's training programme, Theoretical Grammar of English being no exception. As a fundamental professionally oriented subject, Theoretical Grammar must live up to the trainees' expectations: whatever material is discussed, it is supposed to have a broad classroom orientation. This seems to be the only way to help overcome the shortages of a reduced overall training period.
Apart from the serious preparatory work that involved renovation of the reading material as well as application of modern information technologies, we also strive to modernize our students' way of treating language theory. To provide a consistent professional background to our students, we vote for functionalism at work. As a result, debatable issues come to look more like everyday classroom cases we have to discuss and explain in connection with mastering our pupils' communicative skills.
Looking at modern teaching realistically, with its non-stop cirriculum variation and a vast range of audiences, new examination formats, numerous textbooks flooding the book market, incessant access to the Internet sources, etc., we are also trying to give our graduates useful tips as to how they can critically review materials for the classroom. To approach this task, routine for any teacher, they must have a reliable reference point, some position that makes criticism consistent and workable. Studying theoretical grammar from a functional (i.e. descriptive, real life) perspective via careful analysis of authentic textbook writing makes a good ground for sorting out doubts and insights, which, in the long run, develops cool professionalism and mobility expected from a university graduate.
REFERENCES
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2. Ильиш Б. А. Строй современного английского языка. - Л. : Просвещение, 1971. - 367 с.
3. Мачина О. А. Функционально-семантические и дискурсивно-прагмати-ческие особенности средств выражения аспектуальности в американском варианте английского языка XIX - начала XXI вв. : дис. ... канд. филол. наук. - М., 2004. - 300 с.
4. Мачина О. А. Некоторые аспекты взаимодействия семантики глагола и грамматической формы // Когнитивно-функциональные аспекты исследования англоязычного дискурса. - М. : ИПК МГЛУ «Рема», 2008. -С. 38-47. - (Вестн. Моск. гос. лингвист. ун-та; вып. 545. Сер. Лингвистика).
5. Мачина О. А., СальковаМ. А. Учимся употреблять видовременные формы глагола: проще, чем кажется // Английский язык в школе. - Вып. 4 (28). -Обнинск : Титул, 2009. - С. 22-27.
6. Салькова М. А. Темпоральный профиль события и полифония как аспекты содержания нарратива // Грамматическая семантика в англоязычном дискурсе. - М., 2002. - С. 5-20. - (Вестн. Моск. гос. лингвист. ун-та; вып. 469. Сер. Языкознание).
7. Салькова М. А., Мачина О. А. Перспективы обучения теоретическим дисциплинам: степень «бакалавр лингвистики» vs. Степень «магистр лингвистики» // Многоуровневое лингвистическое образование: ремесло или профессия? Тезисы докладов конференции. - М., 17-19 ноября, 2008. -С. 26-27.
8. Салькова М. А., Мачина О. А. Инновационные образовательные технологии в современном учебном процессе: преподавание теоретических дисциплин // Грамматические исследования: когнитивно-коммуникативная лингвистическая парадигма и ее отражение в лингводидактике. - М. : ИПК МГЛУ «Рема», 2010. - С. 175-194. - (Вестн. Моск. гос. лингвист. ун-та; вып. 27 (606). Сер. Языкознание).
9. Сорокина Т. С., Салькова М. А., Брылева Н. П. Методические задания к семинарским занятиям по теоретической грамматике английского языка. - М., 2002. - 176 с.
10. Сорокина Т. С., Салькова М. А., Мачина О. А. Методические задания к семинарским занятиям по теоретической грамматике английского языка. -М. : ФГБОУ ВПО МГЛУ, 2013. - 170 с.
11. Сорокина Т. С., Салькова М. А., Мачина О. А., Селиванова Е. Е., Григорьева Ю. Б. Рабочие тетради по теоретической грамматике английского языка. - М. : ИПК МГЛУ «Рема», 2010. - 58 с.
12. Shopf A. The Past Tense in English // Aspects of Tensing in English / Ed. by A. Shopf. - Vol. 1. - Tubingen : Niemeyer, 1989. - P. 177-220.
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