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2018, том 2 № 5 (8)
Казанский вестник молодых ученых Профессионально-ориентировное обучение иностранным языкам
УДК 372.8
СТРАТЕГИИ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИМ ТЕРМИНАМ Ш. Урунова
Аннотация. С ростом английского языка в профессиональной и технической областях обучения стратегии обучения лексики считаются одним из важнейших факторов успеха студентов в обучении техническому английскому языку. В этом статье рассматривается вопросы, касающиеся некоторых подходов к распознаванию технической лексики и обсуждает некоторые стратегии изучения лексики.
Ключевые слова: метод сопоставления корпусов, компонент словаря, высокочастотные слова, академические слова
There are several approaches taken to the identification of technical vocabulary. One of the approaches is to use the intuition of a subject expert. This can be done in main three ways, by using a rating scale as used in this study [1, p. 95] by using a technical dictionary compiled by a subject specialist or group of specialists [8, 103], and by making use of clues that the most relevant specialist, the actual writer of the text, used to mark the words considered to be important for the message of the text, since when new terms are introduced in a text, the writers deliberately provide contextual clues to help readers manage new terminology [2, 170]. Another way is to use a corpus-comparison approach by comparing word frequencies in a given technical text with those in a different corpus. Technical words should be much more frequent in the technical area. Research on technical vocabulary has shown a significant underestimation of the role played by technical vocabulary in technical texts and a lack of information about how technical vocabulary relates to other types of vocabulary.
One description of the various levels of vocabulary with the goal of designing the vocabulary component of a language course [8, 106] divides vocabulary into four following levels: high frequency words; academic vocabulary; technical vocabulary; and low frequency words. High frequency words are the most frequently used 2,000 words of English. West (1953) called these words a general service vocabulary because they were in use (or service) no matter what the language was being used to do. This vocabulary typically covers about 80% of the running words of academic texts and newspapers, and about 90% of conversation and novels. It includes virtually all of the function words of English (around 176 word families), but by far the majority of high frequency words are content words [9, 13-16]. For learners with academic goals, the 570 word family Academic Word List [9, 17-19] is like a specialized extension of the high frequency words. It covers averagely 8.5% of academic text, 4% of newspapers and less than 2% of the running words of novels. This vocabulary has been called academic vocabulary sub-technical vocabulary or semi-technical vocabulary. There has been lots of discussion and some research on academic vocabulary. This vocabulary is common to a wide range of academic fields but is not what is known as high frequency vocabulary and is not technical in that it is not typically associated with just one area. It is however more related to high frequency vocabulary than to technical vocabulary. It was thought that the third level of vocabulary, technical words, covered around 5% of the running words in specialized texts, and was made up of words that occurred frequently in a specialized text or subject area but did not occur or were of very low frequency in other fields. Technical vocabulary is largely of interest and use to people working in a specialized field. The fourth level of vocabulary consists of all the remaining words of English, the low frequency words. There are thousands of those words and they typically cover about 5% of the running words in texts.
The most obvious technical words are those which have Greek or Latin origin and which do not occur outside of the specialized area. In the applied linguistics text, these included words like multicolinearity, interlinguas, connotative, and BICS, and in the anatomy text, words like perichondrium, ramus, synchondrosis, and viscera. In a separate part of a larger study that this article is drawn from, it was found that for over half of the different technical words in
2018, том 2 № 5 (8)
Ш. Урунова
СТРАТЕГИИ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ТЕХНИЧЕСКИМ ТЕРМИНАМ
the anatomy text, the writers provided clues that the word was special in some way [3, 75-78]. These clues included: (1) the word being defined in the text, (2) the word being written in bold or italics, (3) the word appearing as a label in a diagram. Readers need to be aware of these clues. Definitions can take a very large variety of forms, and some of these may be difficult to notice.
The presence of such definitions is a very strong clue that the word is technical. Recognizing such definitions is particularly important where a common word is used in a specialized way with a restricted meaning, for example negotiation or input in applied linguistics. The definition signals that this known word is now being used with a restricted meaning. Definitions may be accompanied by some typographical marking (using bold or italics as in the examples below) of the technical term being defined.
• The xiphoid process — the smallest and most variable part of the sternum — is thin and elongated.
• In young people, four stern brae — primordial segments of the sternum — are obvious. Repetition also provides a clue that a word may be technical. Technical vocabulary typically
occurs much more frequently in a specialized text than in general usage. When a word is used often, learners should check if it has a restricted meaning in that subject area.
Vocabulary knowledge is often viewed as a critical tool for foreign language learners because a limited vocabulary in a second language impedes successful communication. Underscoring the importance of vocabulary acquisition, Schmitt (2000) emphasizes that "lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence and to the acquisition of a second language." Adding to this, I consider that learning vocabulary concerning to the certain field like technics, medicine or other fields should be unrepeatable unit of language learning.
Литература
1. Baker, M. (1988). Sub-technical vocabulary and the ESP teacher: An analysis of some rhetorical items in medical journal articles. Reading in a Foreign Language, 4(2), 91-105.
2. Bramki, D. and Williams, R.C. (1984). Lexical familiarization in economics text, and its pedagogic implications in reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 2(1), 169-181.
3. Chung, T. M. (2003). Identifying technical vocabulary. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.
4. Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.
5. Flowerdew, J. (1992). Definitions in science lectures. Applied Linguistics, 13(2), 202-221.
6. Martin, A. V. (1976). Teaching academic vocabulary to foreign graduate students. TESOL Quarterly, 10(1), 91-97.
7. Moore, K. L. & Dalley, A. F. (1999). Clinically oriented anatomy. (4th edition) Philadelphia:Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
8. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Nation, I. S. P. & Coxhead, A. (2001). The specialised vocabulary of English for academic purposes. In J. Flowerdew and M. Peacock (Eds.), Research perspectives on Englishfor academic purposes (pp. 252-267). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Oh, J., Lee, J., Lee, K., & Choi, K. (2000). Japanese term extraction using dictionary hierarchy and a machine translation system. Terminology, 6, 287-311.
Сведения об авторе
Урунова Шахло, преподаватель, Андижанский машиностроительный институт, e-mail: lovelysh@mail.ru TECHNICAL VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES Sh. Urunova
Abstract. With the growth of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the professional and technical fields of study, vocabulary-learning strategies are considered one of the most important factors for student success in learning technical English. This article deals with the issues concerning to some approaches of identification of technical vocabulary and discusses some strategies of learning vocabulary.
Key words: corpus-comparison approach, vocabulary component, high frequency words, academic words
Data about the author
Urunova Sh., lecturer, Andijan Machine building Institute, e-mail: lovelysh@mail.ru
