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14УДК 372.462
Т.Г. Гуковская, И.П. Витренко
Луганский национальный университет им. Владимира Даля Луганск, 91034 e-mail: vitrenko. ir@gmail. com
К ВОПРОСУ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ ЛЕКСИЧЕСКИХ ФРАЗ ДЛЯ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ПИСЬМЕННОЙ РЕЧИ
В статье рассматривается роль изучения лексических фраз при обучении письменной иноязычной речи. Лексические фразы являются организующими элементами письменного высказывания. Их изучение способствует развитию навыков понимания письменного текста и, впоследствии, создания собственных письменных высказываний. В условиях постоянного развития языка необходим творческий подход к выбору лексических фраз для изучения.
Ключевые слова: письменное высказывание, лексические фразы, дискурс, маркер.
T.G. Gukovskaya, I.P. Vitrenko
Lugansk National University named after Vladimir Dahl, Lugansk, 91034 e-mail: vitrenko. ir@gmail. com
THE PROBLEM OF LEXICAL PHRASES USING FOR WRITTEN SPEECH TRAINING
The role of studying lexical phrases in teaching written foreign language speech is analized. Lexical phrases are the organizing elements of a written statement. Their study contributes to the development of skills of understanding the written text and, subsequently, the creation of their own written statements. In the conditions of continuous development of the language a creative approach to the choice of lexical phrases for learning is necessary.
Key words: written statement, lexical phrases, discourse, marker.
Any person learning a foreign language can't deny that learning to write well is a difficult task and it takes much time to master this type of activity. It is important for many people especially for those taking a Master degree course, studying a foreign language to learn how to write in English. That is why more and more attention is given to teaching writing. Writing may be considered as a process of mastering a foreign language as well as an opportunity for students to develop confidence in using language. On the other hand, writing is a creative process and it helps to learn to communicate one's ideas clearly. To become a proficient in writing one needs a lot of practice.
One of the problems facing English language teachers is to teach future specialists writing and to be more precise to teach scientific writing. Writing may be considered as a language production similar to speaking in that it uses the same lexical phrases. Nowadays, a lot of researchers view the written text as the result of co-operative process and not as structural products isolated from the context. Writing is a social process which is used, like a speaking, to exchange information. Many researchers consider that writers and readers discover the meaning of the written text through a process rather than finding appropriate structures to fit the already developed ideas. Different types of business and personal letters, memos, and notes present interactional writing because their main aim is to maintain social relationship. On the other hand, such examples of written language as newspaper articles, scientific papers, essays, reviews, reports, and other types of students' writings are mainly aimed at conveying factual information to readers and not meant for maintaining social relationships. That is why lexical phrases which are used in written language reflect this purpose.
Lexical phrases which are used in written language are those that function as signaling the general direction and organization of the written text; marking relationship between topics, evaluations, and indicating the flow of the text. Lexical phrases denoting conversational maintenance are used not so widely in written language as in spoken language. They are usually used to introduce the topic and to close the discourse. Lexical phrases used to clarifying something, shifting topics, checking comprehension are also introduced into a written language.
Международная научно-техническая конференция
Lexical phrases used in writing are somewhat distinct from those used in spoken language. For example, to shift the topic in writing we usually fine such phrases as Let me start with ...; What I's like to say is.. Conversational clarifies in written language become less personalized: it means, it is considered to be, is taken to mean. This may be explained by the fact that writer, unlike speakers, do not have any direct contact with their audience and can't establish immediate meaning during their written communication. Writers can only anticipate the reaction of their readers, so they should consider how much background and clarifying information should be provided for the written message to be interpreted in the right way. They should be sure that the message they write is integrated to a high degree.
Writer spend much more time to edit their writings that is why they use longer and more complicated phrases. Written language is characterized by complex noun groups, parallel phrases, sequences of prepositional phrases, and relative clauses. Integration in written language is characterized by phrases which evaluate statements by phrasal logical connectors: because of ., in spite of .; by impersonal evaluators: make us believe that something is more important than.; and by subordinate clauses.
As far as writing cannot depend on immediate context and its purpose is to transfer information, it uses language that shows its distance from writer and reader. So, writing is characterized by detachment. The detachment is shown by passive phrases such as: is reflected in., has been noted.; by literary phrasal constraints: is conductive., is equal to.. Some lexical phrases show writer's mental processes and are intended to clarify something: you know., I mean ., and are characteristic both to speaking and to informal writing.
Such lexical phrases can be considered as organizes of the written text. They signal the organization of high-level information: mark topics, signal the shifts in topics, present summary of topic, specify relationships between topics and present evaluations and qualifications.
Organizers which signal the high-level information in transactional spoken or written discourse should be distinguished from signals of low-level information such as well, I see, sure and alike which can be considered the words to fill the pause.
The problem facing the teachers of foreign language is the problem of using the lexical phrases approach in teaching comprehension and which is even more difficult in comprehension of written discourse. One of the major applications of organizers functions in comprehending discourse is the comprehension of written academic lectures. It should be stated that these organizers are not used in the same way as they are commonly used. They are mainly used as organizers of more formal, literary type in written texts, and not of the more informal conversational type. In the given article we have made an attempt to look at this problem from a lexical phrase approach and to investigate in what way he students' knowledge of lexical phrases can help them to improve comprehension of written texts.
In majority of cases, written academic presentations conform to the description of oral presentations. They are mainly transactional and contain many phrases that serve as clichés. These phrases function as important signals because they indicate how the information in the written text is organized and how it should be evaluated.
The discourse of written academic presentation just as any other transactional discourse is a mixture of transactional and the interactional. In written academic presentations there is little interactional phrases consisting of greetings, partings, and other social discourse.
In the transactional phase of the written academic presentation other organizers occur from time to time in order to serve as a frame for the general outline of the content which shows how the parts of the written presentation are interrelated. The lexical phrases used for these purpose are more literal and they have less variability. For example, such organizers as: if you look at . you will find ., now look what is going here ., let's turn to ., that bring us to ., so the theory goes., are common in written presentations discourse, especially in science presentations. So students should be aware that such organizers are very important for the purpose of comprehension of written academic presentations and other transactional discourse. That is why the students should learn them as useful vocabulary for the purpose of written presentation comprehension. They should be taught to recognize and analyze lexical phrases and they should learn how to segment and construct new lexical phrases based on the knowledge of lexical phrases. The emphasis should be made on lexical phrases which usually occur in written academic discourse and not on those which are used in ordinary conversational discourse.
It is advisable to teach higher-school students to recognize lexical phrases and their functions as organizers in written discourse instead of learning how to produce organizers. It could be done through integration of such lexical phrases into reading and vocabulary classes. To provide an appropriate con-
text one may use academic presentations transcripts. Through the analysis of complete transcripts, students can be taught organizations patterns and paraphrasing. The teaching of lexical phrases should be done systematically. The students could start with some of the most widely used but simple ones which occur in the transcripts they are working with. The students should be encouraged to recognize and analyze new lexical phrases on their own in a way they did it in the classroom.
As it was shown in the article, lexical phrases are basic units in written language production which proved to be significant guides for mastering written language. Further investigation of the usage of lexical phrases which occur in written discourse and how they are used in particular situations are required. Some researchers state that the structures used in text-books for certain functions may be very infrequent in transcripts. Very often quite unexpected structures actually occur. Another problem is that language is continually changing to fit the situations in which it is used that is why we should keep in mind that lexical phrases can be an effective means showing the language changeability.
Literature
1. Brown K., Hood S. Writing matters. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
2. Spark R. Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text. - New York: St.Martin's, 1990.
