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МЕТОДИКА ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ЯЗЫКОВ METHODS OF TEACHING LANGUAGES
УДК 811.161.1 ББК 81.2
Санкт-Петербургский государственн ый университет
канд. филол. наук, доцент кафедры теории и методики преподавания искусств и гуманитарных наук Кожевникова Л.П. Россия, г. Санкт-Петербург, тел. +7(911)0140242 e-mail: [email protected] ст. преподаватель кафедры междисциплинарных исследований в области языков и литературы Репина Т.Ю.
Россия, г. Санкт-Петербург, тел. +7(812)320-07-25 e-mail: [email protected]
St.Petersburg State University The chair of theory and methodology of teaching arts and humanities PhD, associate professor KozhevnikovaL.P. Russia, St.-Petersburg, + 7(911)0140242 e-mail: [email protected]
The chair of interdisciplinary studies
in the field of languages and literature
Senior lecturer
Repina T.Y.
Russia, St.-Petersburg,
+ 7(812) 320-07-25
e-mail: [email protected]
L.P. Kozhevnikova, T.Y. Repina
SEMANTIC APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH-SPEAKERS RUSSIAN PREPOSITIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF SPACE AND LOCATION
In teaching Russian as a foreign language at an advanced level, prepositional constructions conveying the meaning of locativity cause certain difficulties, which results from the shift in teaching patterns with specific, sensory-confirmed semantics to collocations with figurative meaning, and also by focusing on the variation in the choice of prepositions to denote particular locative semantics. The object of analysis is the semantics of prepositions in the prepositional and case constructions which express concepts of space and movement. The authors systematically present thoroughly selected prepositional and case collocations which are common in the Russian language, but the use of which, as years of teaching practice show, becomes a serious challenge for English-speaking students coming from the USA and Great Britain to study at the Russian language courses at SPbSU. The functional and semantic approach with its the priority of meaning over form and teaching prepositional-case structures only in context has been applied to the analysis of this linguistic material. Special emphasis is put on studying the perception of prepositional and case constructions and determining options of defining the semantic field of these prepositions, which empirically often causes difficulties to explain comprehensively and explicitly enough.The use and meaning of all the presented locative prepositional constructions are illustrated with relevant examples and are accompanied by lists of most frequent verbs.The authors also substantiate the importance of consistently expanding the lexical repertoire of students as the level of the language being taught increases. The need to advance teaching methodology and modify the syllabi content is also proposed. The presented study of the Russian locative constructions can become the foundation for foreign students to activate and consciously use locative prepositional-case constructions in their Russian speech and to focus the attention of teachers and researchers on further studying this linguistic aspect based on intercultural interaction.
Key words: Russian as a foreign language, locative prepositional and case constructions, semantics of prepositions of location and space, teaching Russian at an advanced level.
© Кожевникова Л.П., Репина Т.Ю., 2018
Л.П. Кожевникова, Т.Ю. Репина
СЕМАНТИЧЕСКИЙ ПОДХОД К ПРЕПОДАВАНИЮ ПРЕДЛОЖНЫХ КОНСТРУКЦИЙ ПРОСТРАНСТВА И МЕСТОПОЛОЖЕНИЯ В РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНЫМ УЧАЩИМСЯ
В преподавании русского языка как иностранного на продвинутом уровнепредложные конструкции со значением локативности вызывают определенные сложности. Это обусловлено переходомот обучения моделям с конкретным, сенсорно подкрепленным,значением к случаям абстрактного употребления, а также сфокусированностью на вариативности использования предлогов для передачи определенной семантики пространственных отношений и перемещений. Предметом анализа являетсясемантика предлогов в составе предложно-падежных конструкций для выражения понятий пространства и местоположения. В статье отобраны и системно представлены предложные конструкции с семантикой пространства и местоположения, употребление которых характерно для русского языка, но по результатам многолетних наблюдений создает трудности для понимания англоязычными студентами, приезжающими из США и Великобритании на курсы изучения русского языка в СПбГУ. Для анализа языкового материала используется функционально-семантический подход, отличающийся приоритетом смысла над формойи рассмотрениемпредложно-падежных конструкций исключительно в контексте. Особый акцент сделан на конструкциях смешанного типа и выявлении вариантов толкования семантического поля предлогов, часто представляющих сложность в эмпирически ясном и достаточно определенном описании. Все случаи употребления и значение локативных предложных конструкций рассмотрены на конкретных примерах и сопровождаются характерными лексико-семантическими группами глаголов. В статье также обосновывается необходимость постоянно расширять лексический репертуар учащихся при повышении уровня преподаваемого языка, предлагается совершенствовать методику преподавания и содержание учебных программ. Предложенный разбор пространственных конструкций русского языка может стать основой для активизации и осознанного употребления локативных предложно-падежных конструкций в русской речи иностранных учащихся и акцентировать внимание преподавателей и исследователей на дальнейшем изучении данного языкового аспекта с позиции межкультурного взаимодействия.
Ключевые слова: русский язык как иностранный, предложно-падежные конструкции локативно-сти, семантика предлогов места и пространства, преподавание русского языка на продвинутом уровне.
Teaching grammar is an indispensable part of any foreign language course. Although there are hardly any objections to accept it as a certainty, there remains an unsolved issue how grammar is to be taught to better suit the specific requirements of learners with a particular linguistic and cultural background, since the latter can significantly affect the effectiveness of the foreign language acquisition.
Considering the ways of introducing grammar, the foreign language teaching methodology offers two main approaches. One is known as the systematic-language or structural method, where phonetics, vocabulary, word formation, morphology, syntax are studied separately and in detail, and the functional-semantic one. The latter develops the idea that such semantic categories as space, time, belonging, subject, object, conditionality, modality and others exist in almost every language and they have their own, inherent in this language, modes of expression [3; p. 241]. In the structural approach, where the development and refining the linguistic knowledge comes first and foremost, learners acquire grammar forms and patterns, but they are often not able to effectively use them in their real-life communication. In contrast, teaching grammar based on functional-semantic approach focuses students' attention on linguistic form placed in context. Essential forms and natural patterns are introduced and practiced while leaners are involved in communicative interactions, which in the long run can be more effective than decontextualized grammar lessons [6]. Both approaches to teaching grammar on condition that they engage some form-focused instruction can be beneficial, depending on the target language feature, characteristics of the learner and the learning conditions.
The methodology of Russian as a second or foreign language has long been actively applying the functional-semantic approach to teaching grammar. The authors' research based on the survey of the existing literature and their experience on the Russian language teaching to English-speaking students show the benefits of combining semantic knowledge and functional or communicative grammar in learning prepositional constructions of the Russian language. The findings presented in this article are aimed to prove that teaching a foreign language should not rely on automatic and uncritical copying of a specific semantic category representation only because it is believed to be correct in theory or otherwise to be perceived as universal. Moreover, when a particular grammar construction is being introduced, it requires a context-based explanation of its meaning which is adapted for the foreign, in our case English-speaking audience.
This article discusses the specifics of teaching prepositional constructions of space and location to English-speakers and highlights some difficulties that can be encountered while teaching grammar to students with the B2 level and above.
Before proceeding on to our main topic, the concept "locativity" is to be specified. In "Theory of Functional Grammar", locativity is defined as "a linguistic representation of the semantic category representing a linguistic interpretation of the mental category of space". [1; p. 5]. The main mode of expressing the notion of location and space is described there as "the correlation of the predicate with preposition+case and adverbial locative markers." [1; p.5]. In this article we will focus only on preposition+case constructions. This will leave out other means of expressing locativity like adverbs, simple, compoundand adverbialprepositions.
Vladimir Gak says that "spatial relations are easier to perceive than the temporal ones" [2; p. 6]. This simplicity can be attributed to the fact that in a space filled with objects one can accurately enough define their mutual spatial arrangement, i.e. determine their location. Nevertheless, when teaching how to express spatial relations by means of preposition+case verbal constructions it no longer seems so simple. Difficulties arise because it is impossible to refer learners to a definitive system of usage of prepositions, taking into account the possibility of interpretation in any system, as well as the combinability of prepositions with certain semantic groups of verbs. It should be noted that the choice of the case as an element of the locative construction does not play a significant role at the specified level of the Russian language proficiency, since most of prepositions are firmly "tied" to a particular case, and only 4 prepositions - B, HA, ЗА, ПОД - differentiate the meaning of the locative construction by means of the changing the case of the following noun. The understanding of the constructions with the latter group of prepositions is related to the opposition of expressing dynamics and statics: бросить под диван - лежать под диваном; войти в автобус - сидеть в автобусе; спешить на работу - гореть на работе; положить руки за голову - стоять за домом.
The classification of locative constructions has been studied extensively by the method-ologists of the Russian as a foreign language. This classification is based on the principle "statics" - "dynamics", or in simpler words «WHERE?» shows statics, «WHERE TO?» and «WHERE FROM?» shows dynamics. Stative constructions are generally associated with intransitive verbs: Его жизнь прошла за границей. (He spent his life abroad.) Мы любим бродить по Невскому проспекту. (We love to walk along Nevsky Avenue.) Наш факультет расположен на Васильевском острове Петербурга. (Our faculty is located on Vasilijevsky Island of St.Petersburg.)
When teaching stative constructions to students with the language level B2 and above, a tangible methodological gap has been identified. The crux of the matter is that students are offered practically the same list of verbs to make sentences as they would use at a lower level of the Russian language proficiency. Therefore, it seems essential to expand the range of verbal lexicon, which does not just continuously repeat the verbs of location such as лежать, стоять, сидеть, висеть, находиться, быть, but introduce new verbs and verbals like рас-
кинуться, возвышаться, быть воздвигнутым, простираться, тянуться, and others. Of course, this will require the teacher to carefully search the dictionaries of the Russian language for new items. For students at this level, the list of verbs to make sentences should be expanded by adding verbs with the meaning «where from?». To the more common list of вынимать/вынуть, брать/взять, снимать/снятьwords with the prefix «ВЫ-» can be added: вытащить, вырвать из тетради, выскочить, etc.
Vladimir Gak offers one more productive way to classify particular spatial relations: "The main geometric positions are spontaneously reflected in the language forms ... The basic concepts are the point, the straight line, the circle." [2; p. 9] The point is placed by V.G.Gak in a three-dimensional space; the line can be represented as such or as a plane, and the circle as a sphere or an arc. To explain grammar, language teachers often refer to this classification. For instance, «вокруг», «справа от», «далеко от» and some others are the type of prepositions which very accurately present the position in space. Nevertheless, it often happens that the issues quite acceptable for theoretical reasoning can require methodical interpretation and more detailed explanations for practical usage. Moreover, there are prepositions, the meaning of which refer to some other system or require a more complex geometric positioning: Толпа побежала во все стороны. (The crowd scattered in all directions.) It means moving from one point into different directions. Катя бродит по поселку. (Kate is wandering around the village.) (Does it mean in a circle or straight ahead? Or maybe it's just a haphazard, chaotic movement.) Мы быстро шли навстречу своим друзьям. (We were going fast towards our friends.) Obviously this is a linear movement, but it is performed by two active participants, people by implication. There are also metaphorical usages - Можешь ли ты идти навстречу своей судьбе? (Can you move towards your destiny?)
Teaching Russian at the В2 level includes revision, practice, and further study of 42 prepositions. Many of them are reintroduced by adding their new meanings. Below we give a list of prepositions just for reference, so there are no illustrative examples:
вдоль+ родительныйпадеж (hereafter р.п.), вокруг + р.п., до + р.п., от + до + р.п., из(о) + р.п., из-за + р.п., из-под + р.п., между + р.п./творительныйпадеж (hereafter -т.п.), мимо + р.п., от + р.п., от + р. п. +к + дательныйпадеж (hereafter д. п.), около + р. п., поперёк + р.п., напротив + р.п., с(о) + р.п., посреди + р.п., среди + р.п., у + р.п., к + д.п., по + д.п., навстречу + д.п., в + предложный (hereafter п.п.)/ + винительный (hereafter в.п.), за + т. п/ в.п., на + п.п./ в.п., о/об/обо + в.п., по + д.п., под(о) + т.п./ в.п., сквозь + в.п., через + в.п., над(о) + т.п., перед(о) + т.п., при + п.п., рядом с + т.п., возле + р.п., справа от + р.п., слева от + р.п., далеко от + р.п. недалеко от + р.п., близко от + р.п., неблизко от + р.п., вблизи от + р.п., в центре [4;p. 218]
More relevant though will be to focus on some of the difficulties the topic "Constructions of Space and Location" poses to the teacher. Perhaps these reflections may seem somehow subjective, yet they are based on the empirical data, and the authors' examples well support their conclusions.
The preposition «вдоль» is easily associated with a linear movement: Пёс трусил вдоль ряда неприветливых серых зданий. (The dog was trotting along the row of unfriendly looking gray houses.) However, some difficulties of perception arise when dealing with the stative constructions: Вдоль побережья - много маленьких и дорогих магазинов. (There are many expensive shops along the seashore.) Он сделал бутерброд из разрезанного вдоль батона. (He made a sandwich from a loaf of bread being cut along.)
Students tend to associate the preposition «поперёк» with the preposition «через» in dynamic constructions: Мне пришлось идти поперёк проезжей части, так как поблизости не было пешеходного перехода. (I had to walk across the road, as there was no pedestrian crossing
nearby.) The meaning of moving "breadthways" is not obvious to learners of Russian. Moreover, they are unfamiliar with the another connotation, which means "placing a subject or an object across the width of something resulting in occupying some space and consequently making it difficult to get around / go round": Огромная псина развалилась поперёк дороги, не давая пройти. (A huge dog has stretched across the road, not allowing passing by.) Поперёк коридора были свалены вещи, и все соседи вынуждены были перешагивать через них. (Things were piling across the corridor, so the flat mates had to step over them on their way.) A Russian person immediately understands that some stuff is left in the way of people going along the corridor and is blocking their passage.
The preposition «по» covers an impressive variety of types of movement and location. It's not just moving straight ahead within some sort of outlined space like Я иду по улице. (I am walking along the street.) Игорь спустился по эскалатору. (Igor moved down the escalator.) or a forward moving along a more complex trajectory Марина с подругой гуляла по Кремлю. (Marina with a friend was wandering around Kremlin.) It also has other meanings like 1) to spread all over the surface: У неё сыпь по всему телу. (She has a rash all over her body); 2) visiting many places with or without planning ahead: Мы весь день проходили по магазинам, но так ничего и не купили (We spent the day shopping around, but failed to buy anything.) Волонтер ходил по квартирам, собирая подписи. (The volunteer was going door to door, collecting votes.); 3) an arrangement of many objects on the surface: По полу квартиры после нашего возвращения из командировки были разбросаны ве и. (After our return from a business trip all things have been were strewn upon the floor in our flat).
Prepositions «через» and «сквозь» can be perceived as synonymous. In most cases (excluding idiomatic usage), the substitution with «сквозь» really does happen with apparent ease. 1000 examples found in the National Corps of the Russian language prove it well enough: Партизаны прошли сквозь густой лес и вышли к пункту сбора. (The partisans passed across/through the dense forest and arrived at the assembling point.) Nevertheless, the very existence of this preposition suggests that there are shades of meaning. For the preposition «сквозь» they are: 1) to move through some unpleasant, dirty, impenetrable obstacle. Сквозь утренний туман ничего не было видно. (Nothing was visible through the morning mist.) Чтобы добраться до выхода из метро, нам нужно было пробиться сквозь толпу футбольных бо-лельщиков.(To get to the exit from the metro station, we had to force our way through the crowd of football fans.); 2) to be visible through a small hole (Дети пытались разглядеть льва сквозь решетку клетки. (Children were trying hard to see the lion through the cage bars.); 3) to be visible through something transparent. Сквозь прозрачную крышу вагона были видны крупные звёзды. (Large stars were visible through the transparent car roof.); 4) overcoming / not being able to overcome the "absolute" obstacle. Я не вижу сквозь стены - я не экстрасенс. (I cannot see through the walls - I'm not a mentalist.) Свободная пресса не могла пробиться сквозь железный занавес (The free press could not break through the iron curtain.); 5) to be partially or incompletely visible. Сквозь мутную воду было видно, как рыба резвиться в пруду . (Through the muddy water one could see fish swimming gaily in the pond.) Сквозь тонкую промасленную бумагу можно было разглядеть некоторые буквы послания. (Through the thin oiled paper, it was still possible to make out some dim letters of the message).
Students should receive a short list of verbs indicating the difficulty of overcoming an obstacle: пробираться/пробраться, продираться/продраться, пробиваться/пробиться, пролезать/пролезть, проникать/проникнуть, and incomplete appearance: проступать/проступить, проявляться/проявиться, проглядывать, просвечивать, etc. The preposition «через» as well as «сквозь» signify a dynamic process, but not always of a linear nature. For example, «через» can sometimes mean moving in an arc. Дети легко перепрыгивали невысокий заборчик. (Children easily jumped over the low fence).
The preposition «из-под» in its primary meaning «where from?» meaning a linear movement from a place under something is perceived fast and easy. Кот недовольно вылез из-под стола. (The cat reluctantly got out from under the table.) Из-под корпуса машины были видны только ноги механика, который её чинил с самого утра. (From under the car just the legs of the mechanic, who has been busy repairing it since early morning, were visible). There are minor difficulties in understanding this locative construction when (1) we talk about clothes or human body parts: Из-под его заросшей чёлки не было видно глаз. (From under his overgrown fringe, his eyes were not visible.) Из-под свитера виднелись рукава старой рубашки. (From under the sweater, the sleeves of the old shirt could be seen.); (2) the sentence contains a toponym: Масло привезли из-под Вологды. (The butter was brought from outside Vologda). Students usually receive a number of patterns, for example, with the Russian words meaning hair, eyebrows, glasses, a scarf, a skirt, a sweater, etc. to analyze the meaning of the constructions.
In studying the locative constructions per se, it is impossible to avoid including into the course materials such phrases where the meaning of space and location is expanded by adding some extra meaning, thus creating mixed type constructions.
The preposition «в» with a noun in the prepositional case can create the following meanings: (1) a state/condition characteristic: Я была в шоке. (I was in shock.) В горести мы все одинаковые. (In sorrow we are all the same); (2) surface or appearance characteristics: Все лицо её было в прыщах. (She had pimples all over her face.); (3) process characteristics: Ребенок плакал во сне. (The child cried in his dream). The location and the quality semantics get combined here.
The preposition «от» with the meaning « where from? » denotes the source of appearance not only of information or objects, but also of something immaterial: От бомжа шёл жуткий запах нечистот. (There came a foul smell of sewage from the bum). In this sense «от» can compete with the preposition «y» with the possessive meaning, allowing for a permissible synonymy between them. У печеных яблок был этот незабываемый запах детства. (The baked apples had this unforgettable smell of childhood.) От печеных яблок так замечательно пахло детством. (The baked apples so pleasantly smelled of childhood.) The latter impersonal construction requires further study.
The preposition «при» can also indicate both a "pure" meaning of location - При магазине была парковка. (There was a parking lot by the supermarket.), as well as the semantics of a mixed type: При школе была отличная волейбольная площадка. (The school had an excellent volleyball court). In the latter sentence, the semantics of location is combined with the semantics of possessiveness.
The preposition «о/об/обо» with nouns in the accusative case denotes a place of contact with some surface when an accidental movement leads to some negative result: Всегда я спотыкаюсь о порог собственного дома. (I keep on tripping on/over my house doorsill.) It is the usage of the accusative case that surprises students first. Then they get impressed with a rather long list of verbs with a meaning of a negative effect caused by such kind of an accidental action: ударяться/удариться, ушибаться/ушибиться, биться/разбиться, обжигаться/обжечься, пачкаться/испачкаться, раниться/пораниться, резаться/порезаться, спотыкаться/ споткнуться, шлёпаться/шлёпнуться, etc.
To sum up, it should be mentioned that this paper relies primarily on the authors' insights and observations elicited from the empirical data collected while teaching prepositional collocations to English speaking studentsfrom Western Europe and the USA and should be further developed and elaborated both in theory and in methodology. The findings have lead us to a relatively universal realisation that some problems in teaching the Russian language usage may be effectively dealt with if a conceptually new approach based on a better understanding of the differences in communicating the notions of space and direction in the native
(L1) and target languages (L2) is applied [5; p.XV]. Obviously, learning Russian space and location constructions cannot be limited by simply and mechanically adding prepositional patterns to language usage of students, but rather it requires conscious and graded enrichment of their lexical repertoire of verbals and nouns with the focus on their semantic meaning in the constructed prepositional collocations and colligations. Also relevant changes should be considered both in the teaching practice and curriculum development.
References
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