EntranceLexical and grammatical material in English. Lexical approach
What do you need to know and be able to do at each level of English proficiency?
We have already written about what levels are, where they come from and what they mean for a student of any European language. Now let's figure out what exactly we will study at each level of the English language.
Almost all colorful authentic textbooks, where there is a new book for each level, are compiled approximately according to this table - from simple to complex. The only caveat: in such textbooks, the grammar is presented fragmentarily (although some have an explanatory reference book at the end) and is presented implicitly. That is, grammatical rules and exercises are easy to miss or not notice, and even easier not to understand, because they are immediately in English. Therefore, I advise everyone to take a separate grammar textbook or search on the Internet for rules in an accessible presentation in Russian.
As you can see from the table below, at the beginning there is more grammar and less vocabulary, and towards the end the grammar gradually ends, and more and more vocabulary and speaking skills are required. At level C2 there is no new grammar at all; here we already study stylistics, original literature of different genres, and practice writing in different styles.
If we are preparing to take the CPE, then we already need to be able to complete difficult tasks and keep a lot of information in our heads at the same time, as well as easily understand different accents of the English language by ear. Working at level C2 is similar to working with my native language, because no one is interested in how I distinguish between simple and continuous; examiners care about how I can work with information: perceive, reproduce, compare, highlight the main thing, process and produce new information.
Level A1 - Beginner/Elementary |
|
Grammar:Present Simple (+, -, ?) |
Vocabulary and speaking skills:everyday life conjunctions: and, but, because |
Level A2 - Elementary/Pre-Intermediate |
|
Grammar:Present Continuous to express action in the future |
Vocabulary:everyday life |
Level B1 - Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate |
|
Grammar:Future Continuous |
Vocabulary:expression of understanding unions of cause and effect, comparisons, etc. linking words to describe successive events in the past |
Level B2 - Upper-Intermediate |
|
Grammar:Future Continuous |
Vocabulary:criticism, reviews unions of cause and effect, comparisons, contrasts |
Level C1 - Advanced |
|
Grammar:future tenses (repetition) |
Vocabulary:acknowledgment that the interlocutor is right |
Who will have an easier time speaking English: a person with a wide vocabulary and poor knowledge of grammar, or a person with a good understanding of grammar but a narrow vocabulary? Today we will try to give you a clear and reliable answer to the exciting question: what is more important, vocabulary or grammar.
Which of the two ways to learn English is correct? Let's choose! Recently, some students have been turning to teachers with requests like: “I want to learn as many new words as possible. I studied grammar at school, but I never spoke English - I don’t have enough vocabulary.” That is, many believe that in order to successfully master the English language, you need to know as much vocabulary as possible, and grammar is a secondary matter. There are also supporters of the opposite opinion: grammar is primary, vocabulary is a secondary matter. Let's look at two opposing points of view and decide what is more important for an English language learner.
Principle #1: Grammar is more important than vocabulary
Proponents of studying grammar believe that first you need to learn all the rules, practice them, and vocabulary is secondary. This logic can be understood, because we know that in an English sentence, unlike a Russian one, there must be a clear word order. This means that in order to say something, you need to know how to construct words and put them into a sentence. In addition, you need to understand all the groups of tenses in English in order to be understood correctly.
On the other hand, a narrow vocabulary can be a serious obstacle in speaking English. Imagine you are abroad and want to ask a passerby where you can buy an inexpensive raincoat. You begin to pronounce a familiar request structure: “Could you please tell me...” And already with these words you understand that your grammatically perfectly constructed sentence will hang in the air, because you do not know the words “inexpensive” and “raincoat.” What to do? Let's listen to the supporters of the opposite camp. Maybe they're right?
Principle #2: Vocabulary is more important than grammar
A great vocabulary is the dream of any English language learner. The more words you know, the more you can say - at least that's what some English language learners believe. But what really?
Let's imagine the same situation, only this time you are bad at grammar and good at vocabulary. You understand what you need to say, you know what words are necessary. But how to put them correctly into a sentence? It is unlikely that your request will be responded to if you say: “You where cheap raincoat buy?” Extremely polite residents of the UK will be offended by such treatment, and you may find yourself in an unpleasant situation. Residents of other countries simply will not understand from this set of words what you need from them.
And this theory failed miserably. Let's try to find a middle ground?
Grammar or vocabulary: looking for a middle ground
As you may have guessed, grammar and vocabulary should be improved at the same time. Vocabulary will allow you to find suitable words, and grammar will help you correctly compose a sentence from these words - so that others understand you.
Those who are actively expanding their vocabulary should not forget that words must not only be learned, but also actively used in speech. English grammar is not a scary beast. To understand why difficulties sometimes arise, we recommend that you read the article “”
Students learning English in classes or online should not harbor fears about the “terrible jungle of English grammar.” Modern teaching methods do not provide for the study of grammar in isolation from vocabulary, and vocabulary in isolation from grammar. You will learn new vocabulary and analyze grammatical topics in the process of an exciting conversation or reading an entertaining article. You improve your speaking skills and automatically expand your vocabulary, as well as learn to construct grammatically correct sentences.
Grammar and vocabulary are two halves of a whole. They play equal roles in learning English. Grammar, vocabulary, listening and speaking skills - all these skills need to be improved at the same time. None of the skills is “decisive”, they are all equally important, none of them can be neglected. Try to learn 10 new words every day and do grammar exercises, then learning English will be varied and fruitful.
Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
- Introduction
- 2.3 The role of context in translation
- 3. Practical application of knowledge
- Conclusion
- Literature
Introduction
Translation plays a huge role in the cultural development of humanity. Thanks to translation, people of one country get acquainted with the life, way of life, history, literature and scientific achievements of other countries. Many translated works of art become part of national literature. It is enough to mention the translations of V.A. Zhukovsky, whom Pushkin called the “genius of translation,” took an honorable place in Russian literature.
Today, translation plays an even more significant role in modern society, because thanks to translation it is possible to conditionally erase international boundaries.
In translation practice, unfortunately, translations from interlinear translations still take place, and this is a very undesirable phenomenon. By deep knowledge of a language we mean knowledge of all its aspects: phonetics, grammar, lexicology and stylistics, without which grammatical and lexical difficulties cannot be practically resolved. The main task of translation theory is to establish the correspondences existing in two languages - lexical, grammatical, as well as discrepancies, and to suggest possible methods of translation. Problems of the lexical and grammatical levels of language are conventionally identified in translation studies with the aim of analyzing the most typical linguistic difficulties that arise in the process of selecting a variant of the linguistic design of the translation text. The division of complex cases of translation from English into grammatical and lexical phenomena is quite arbitrary, because in every language the grammatical is closely related to the lexical, and the method of transmitting grammatical forms and constructions in translation from English often depends on their lexical content. The purpose of this course project is to consider and systematize grammatical and lexical phenomena when translating from English into Russian and their further analysis. Based on the purpose of the project, the following tasks were formulated:
1. Consider and systematize the grammatical features of the translation.
2. Study cases of grammatical discrepancies between English and Russian languages.
3. Study and analyze the lexical features of the translation.
4. Consider the methods and rules for translating lexical non-equivalence.
5. Check the level of knowledge of the identified problems by students of language specialties.
The research hypothesis is based on the fact that the basics of grammatical and lexical problems are relevant in modern translation theory, both in the field of education and in translation studies. The same grammatical phenomenon, depending on the specific lexical expression, can be translated in different ways. However, there are certain general patterns of correlation and correspondence of grammatical forms and constructions of the original and target languages, therefore a detailed description of such correlations, focused on translation from English, seems not only appropriate, but also necessary in order to clearly understand what capabilities the translator has in his disposal for adequate transmission in translation of the grammatical phenomena of the original. To solve the problems we set, we used a set of complementary research methods: methods of theoretical analysis of literature on the problem under study; methods for studying, generalizing and analyzing the experience of existing experimental results. The course work consists of an introduction, three chapters, an experimental test, a conclusion, a list of references, and an appendix. The first chapter examines and analyzes the most important grammatical problems that occur in practice. The second chapter also examines and analyzes lexical problems in the English language. In the experimental part of our project, the practical and theoretical knowledge of students and their ability to cope with existing problems were examined. And in conclusion, the general results of the course work are summed up, the main conclusions are outlined, and the most important problems are identified.
translation non-equivalent vocabulary grammatical
1. Grammatical translation problems
Grammatical difficulties in translation are due to the fact that the grammatical phenomena of different languages are different, although in some respects they may have some similarities. Reproducing the grammatical form of the original cannot be the purpose of translation, because its purpose is the transmission of thought. And only in the case when individual features of the grammatical form of the original play a stylistic role, their transmission becomes the task of translation. Usually this is not a direct reproduction of traits, but a recreation of their functions. It is believed that it is precisely the area of grammatical phenomena specific to the language that should attract the main attention during translation. In the transmission of grammatical phenomena there cannot be a complete standard, although there are certain uniform ways of conveying them. A formally grammatically accurate translation is often completely impossible due to the lack of correspondence. Often it does not meet the norms of phrases and literary norms of a given language. And in some cases, a grammatically accurate translation is stylistically unacceptable. Therefore, even for the most accurate translation, changes in the grammatical categories of the word, small rearrangements or additions within small phrases are typical, and deviations from grammatical accuracy are quite normal and natural.
1.1 Grammatical differences between English and Russian
The tier of grammatical features of a language is perhaps one of the most “national” tiers. Behind this tier lies one of the mechanisms through which a language acquires its own special “physiognomy”, making it unlike any other, this is the fingerprint of the language.” Andrei Venediktovich Fedorov identified three types of interlingual grammatical discrepancies.
- The presence in the source language of a grammatical phenomenon that does not have a formal grammatical correspondence in the target language;
- The presence in the source language of a grammatical phenomenon that does not have a formal correspondence in the target language;
- The presence in the source language of a grammatical phenomenon that has a formal grammatical correspondence in the target language, but differs in its function;
The first is the transfer of grammatical phenomena of the English language that do not have formal correspondences in the Russian language: transfer of the functions of the article, gerund, constructions of a complex object and a complex subject, non-finite forms of the verb, absolute participial phrases (APP), some derivational suffixes.
The translation of absolute participial phrases is very important. For which you need:
1. Recognize the design;
2. Determine its meaning and function in a sentence;
3. Find a way to translate it.
Most often, absolute participial phrases are translated into a subordinate clause, using the transformation of sentence division, an independent clause, an adverbial clause (grammatical replacement):
How can you play with you brother lying sick in bed?
How You can play With brother which lies V beds And sick.
The next type of discrepancy is related to the article. An article is a function word, which is one of the main formal features of a noun. It has no independent/separate meaning and is not translated into Russian. There are two articles in English - the indefinite and the definite. There are no articles in Russian.
1. The indefinite article has two forms: a and an.
Form a used before words that begin with a consonant sound: a man, a table, a big apple, a woman, a good engineer. The form an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound: an answer, an apple, an old man, an uncle, an hour, an old woman, an engineer. The indefinite article comes from the Old English numeral an one, so it is used only before singular countable nouns. In the plural, it is omitted (the so-called “zero article”), and sometimes replaced by indefinite pronouns some several, any any, everyone. The indefinite article in English can have three meanings: classifying, generalizing and numerical. That is, a noun with a classifying article classifies an object into a certain class, but does not directly refer to it. This meaning also includes the use of the indefinite article in exclamatory sentences with the word what:
What a tall man!
Which high Human!
The article in its general meaning means that the noun is a representative of a certain class, and everything that is said about it in the sentence can be attributed to other objects of this class:
A limerick is a short comic verse consisting of five lines.
Limerick - This short humorous rhyme from five lines.
In numerical value, indefinite articles express their original meaning of the number “one”:
We could stay in Prague for only a day.
We could stay V Prague only one day.
2. The definite article has one graphic form the, which is pronounced before words that begin with the consonant sound the book, the woman, the good engineer, and before words that begin with the vowel sound the author, the apple, the old house, the engineer, the old woman. The definite article comes from the demonstrative pronoun that it is used before nouns in the singular and plural. The article, as a rule, is unstressed and is pronounced together with the one that follows it in a word . Let us give several typical examples when different meanings of articles in English require translation.
Not had not an enemy on earth.
U him Not was neither single enemy on light.
In this case, the indefinite article appears in its historically original meaning of “one”.
She is a Mrs. Erlynne.
This some Mrs. Erlinn.
In this example, the indefinite article has a different meaning - “some”.
In most cases, the article is omitted during translation.
He was the best student in his class. - He was the best student V his class
If the definite article is used in an emphatic function to shift emphasis, and the indefinite article is used to highlight rheme and shift the semantic center of the statement, then these meanings must be conveyed when translating .
" On the 25th minute of the second half Ronaldo scored the goal of the champioship". -
On 25 minute second half time Ronaldo scored best/most spectacular/key Goal championship.
The second type of discrepancy is associated with the presence in the Russian language of specific elements of the grammatical structure that are absent in the English language - gerunds, categories of gender in a noun, category of the aspect of a verb.
Hard breathing He ran up To us - Breathing heavily he ran up to us.
Formally similar or identical grammatical phenomena of the English language and the Russian language have different semantic or stylistic functions: the use of passive constructions, means of expressing modality, the use of diminutive suffixes, the use of personal pronouns (2-person), etc. do not coincide. Discrepancy between Passive Voice and Passive Voice:
He is said to … . - They say, It is known And etc.
He was sent only 2 copies of the book. - To him sent only 2 copy books.
Mismatch categories modalities:
I can speak English. - I I say in English.
Multifunctionality modal verbs:
1 . - " I won" t go without Simon" (strong reluctance anything do) I Not I'll go without Simone
2 . - " I can" t go without Simon" (That same reluctance, But determined his special causes) I Not Can go without Simone
3 . - " I couldn't" t go without Simon" (expression reluctance in view of immorality given actions) I Not could go without Simone
Also in the Russian language, diminutive (deminitive) suffixes are still more often used. English speakers do not create diminutive forms because they do not feel the need to do so. If Maria for Russian friends can be Masha, Mashenka, Mashutka, Marusya or Musya, then for Americans she is always just Maru: in English this name has no established diminutive forms. They are absent from most proper names, and attempts to invent them rarely succeed. Such artificially created forms as Marykins, little Mary or baby Mary sound unnatural, if not offensive.
A number of English names, of course, also have short forms. So, Robert may be called Bob, Rob or Robbie among his friends. But before you use one of these titles, be sure to ask Robert, if he is your new acquaintance, which of the diminutive names he prefers. Instead of the name William you can use Bill or Billie, instead of the name James you can use Jim, Jimmie, Jamie or Jack. But remember, if you call a person by a name that is unusual for him, he may be offended. Some common nouns have a diminutive form in English: dog - doggie, cat - kitty, but their use requires great care. Most of these nouns, for example, horsie instead of horse, are used mainly by children, and by adults - in relation to their favorite pets. Attempts to translate Russian diminutive words (cup, spoon, baby) can only amuse an Englishman, whose vocabulary does not contain expressions like a little spoon or a little sire of coffee. The literal translation of Russian words such as “darling, dear, swallow, sunshine” or “sweetheart” simply does not work in English. It sounds weird at best, derogatory at worst. If you call an English woman a girlie, she will take it as an insult. The expression “the dear little one” in relation to her will cause laughter. Due to the fact that in England feminism and political correctness have now gained considerable influence in all spheres of life, men, even in an informal setting, try not to call women by affectionate names - except during intimate communication. A saleswoman or waitress can address a woman with the words dear, honey or even sweetheart, but it is better not to use such forms for foreigners, and especially men. Of course, they are used in colloquial speech - by lovers, spouses, parents when addressing a small child, although in other situations they turn out to be alien not only to feminists, but also to the pragmatic thinking of Americans in general. If we talk about the language of intimate communication, then lovers, of course, call each other sweetheart, darling, honey, etc.
For example, adding a deminitive suffix: - y, ling, - let, - kin, - et, - ette, - icle: Sun - sunny; kitchenette
Explication: my fish - my darling
Adding words: little gun
Transcription with elements of transliteration: Olenka - Olienka
1.2 Translation of prepositive attributive phrases (PAS)
The most complex type of discrepancy is associated with attributive constructions. Attributive constructions are one of the most common types of free phrases in modern English. They are often found in socio-political and scientific-technical texts. Translation researchers point out that prepositive attributive groups are of particular interest for translation, that is, such phrases in modern English that have “a number of specific features and pose many difficult tasks for the translator. To achieve the correct translation of attributive phrases, the translator must know the structural semantic features of such phrases and imagine what means it has in the Russian language to overcome the difficulties that arise. Therefore, when considering the issue of translating such phrases, it is advisable to first dwell on their structural-semantic features, and then note the main techniques for their translation. Study of structural-semantic The peculiarities of attributive groups in modern English reveal a larger range of semantic connections between the members of the phrase compared to the Russian language.The most difficult to translate are attributive combinations that include more than two or three words, such as: “World without bombs” conference program - conference program "For a world without bombs"; Africa denuclearization declaration - declaration declaring Africa a nuclear-free zone; European Petroleum Equipment Manufacturers Federation - European Federation of enterprises producing equipment for the oil industry, etc. Of particular interest is the translation of attributive constructions in newspaper headlines. In order to correctly translate newspaper headlines, you must have a certain skill in deciphering their meaning. Consider some headlines from the 1974 Morning Star. Immigrant check plan "sinister". As can be seen from this example, the prepositive group of nouns is accompanied by an adjective. Therefore, in all likelihood, this adjective is part of a compound predicate. Then in its full expanded form the title will look like this: Immigrant check plan is (looks)"sinister". Now we need to clarify in what sense the combination check plan is used - “control plan” or “control plan.”? It often happens that the information in one title is clearly not enough to give an adequate translation, although usually when reading, such a “grasp” of the general idea completely satisfies the reader.
Among the features of English prepositive phrases, the following can be distinguished:
1. Great breadth of semantic connections between their components:
war heroes - heroes wars, war prisoner - prisoner of war, war prosperity - prosperity, conditional military actions .
2. Ambiguity
London conspiracy - London CONSPIRACY
( IN London or against London ?)
3. Polynomiality
A differential pressure type specific gravity measuring instrument - Meter specific weight, working on difference pressure
4. Internal predication
She is my-might-have-been-wife . - She must was become my wife .
5. The presence of PAS with the so-called “rearranged” epithet (N+of+N).
She was a round - faced woman with a shapeless tub of a body . - She was chubby woman With shapeless figure, similar on barrel .
6. Methods of translating attributive constructions:
Adj. +n Christmas cake - Christmas pie
Noun In I. p. + noun. in R. p. University student - student university
Noun +preposition+noun Scanning aberration - aberration at scanning
7. Rearrangement of members of the attribute group:
"Rose Tattoo " - Not " Pink tattoo " , A " Tattooed rose ".
8. Rendering the first member of a phrase using a participial phrase or subordinate clause.
beached fish - fish, thrown away on shore
9. Holistic transformation of the entire phrase
Deer Tragedy
Seven people were killed in a collision of two cars after one apparently swerved to avoid a deer on the road. - Deer is the culprit of the tragedy
The problem of arranging several prepositive attributes has been posed in many works; attempts have been made repeatedly to identify the principles of the arrangement of adjectives in attributive chains, but it has not yet been possible to identify all existing patterns, and the conclusions of linguists are not always the same. Translation researchers point out that prepositive attributive groups are of particular interest for translation, that is, such phrases in modern English that have “a number of specific features and pose many difficult tasks for the translator.” In order to achieve the correct translation of attributive phrases, the translator must know the structural and semantic features of such phrases and imagine what means he has in Russian to overcome the difficulties that arise.
Thus, in most cases, when translating from English into Russian, the Russian sentence does not overlap with the English one and does not coincide with it in structure. Often the structure of a Russian sentence in translation is completely different from the structure of an English sentence. It has a different word order, a different sequence of parts of a sentence, and often a different order of arrangement of the sentences themselves - main, subordinate and introductory. In a number of cases, the parts of speech that express members of an English sentence are conveyed accordingly by other parts of speech. The conciseness of expression, possible in English due to the presence of a number of grammatical structures and forms, requires decompression during translation - the introduction of additional words and even sentences. However, some differences in habitual usage (usus) cause omission of individual elements of an English sentence when translated into Russian. All this explains the widespread use of grammatical transformations in translation.
2. Lexical translation problems
As a rule, the level of the word is not sufficient to implement the translation. However, the conditional selection of the lexical level of translation allows us to systematize the most important approaches to the selection of a lexical equivalent to establish relations of semantic-pragmatic invariance between the original and translation texts. Problems of the lexical level are of great interest for understanding the theoretical aspects of translation and for translation practice. Often in translation practice there is a tendency towards mechanical replacement of lexical units of one language with lexical units of another language. This approach can be explained by the idea of languages as unique repositories of words, some of which can be replaced by others during the translation process. An experienced translator knows well that turning to a dictionary does not solve translation problems, since the choice of an equivalent recorded in the dictionary is only possible potentially; translation is possible due to the universality of meaning and the relativity of the system of expression. From this follows the fundamental proposition that it is not words and expressions that are subject to translation, but the meanings denoted with the help of certain lexical units and mediated by the context of communication.
It is necessary to take into account the specifics of the organization and functioning of the vocabulary of the languages that come into contact during translation. At the same time, it is important to clarify that the relationships between units of different languages are the subject of consideration not of translation theory, but of comparative studies in the field of linguistics. The theory of translation is not interested in the virtually distinguishable characteristics of linguistic units, but in the meanings actualized in the speech segment. At the same time, there are specific features that characterize a particular language system, which leave an imprint on the combinatorics of linguistic units in speech and cannot but be taken into account during translation.
2.1 The concept of translation compliance
Translation correspondences act as communicatively equivalent units of the source language, therefore the proximity of the meanings of the units of the source language and the target language is only a prerequisite for the emergence of translation correspondence, but not a sufficient condition for this. Equivalence relations are established during translation not between isolated linguistic units, but between units of the source language and the target language, appearing as part of speech utterances. Their ability to be communicatively equivalent is determined not only by the meaning they have in the system of their language, but also by the characteristics of their use in speech. Therefore, translation correspondences cannot be discovered by trying to compare units that occupy a similar place in the systems of two languages involved in the translation process, but must be extracted from communicatively equivalent utterances combined during translation. This is achieved through a comparative analysis of translations, during which in a large number of originals and their translations, units of the source language and the target language are found, equated to each other in the translation process.
The correct choice of words to fully convey the meaning of the word in the translated text is one of the main and most difficult tasks of translation. The difficulty of this task is determined by the complex nature of the word, its versatility and semantic richness. During the translation process, it is often impossible to use the correspondence between words and expressions that a dictionary can provide. In such cases, the translator resorts to searching for a suitable match in the target language in order to convey the content of the statement. In other words, when a simple substitution does not work, the translator tries to find a contextual correspondence, the task of which is to most fully convey the meaning inherent in the original. To perform such a task efficiently, a translator needs both deep knowledge in the field of translation theory and excellent practical skills. Many works of famous scientific translation theorists are devoted to the problem of finding translation correspondences. Among the most notable works, we should note the works of M.I. Retzkera, V.N. Komissarova, L.S. Barkhudarov. The word as a lexical unit in English and Russian languages does not always coincide. Often one word in the Russian language in English corresponds to a compound word or a whole phrase (for example, “carousel” - merry-go-round; “loafer” - ne"er-do-well) and vice versa: to stare - “to look closely.” As you know, a word expresses the concept of an object or phenomenon of reality by the totality of its forms and meanings. The meaning of a word means the subject-logical meaning of the word, the denominative meaning and the emotional meaning. The subject-logical meaning of the word, which is also called material, basic or direct, - this is the expression in a word of a general concept about an object or phenomenon through one of the signs. The nominal meaning of a word names a single object - a person or a geographical concept. The emotional meaning of a word expresses emotions and sensations caused by objects, facts and phenomena of reality denoted by this word.
It is necessary to dwell in some detail on the various types of lexical meaning of a word, due to the fact that this issue is directly related to translation. In many cases, the correct choice of word during translation can only be made on the basis of a correct analysis of the lexical meaning of the word. Subject-logical meaning can be basic and derivative. Derived meanings are formed in the process of the historical development of a word. In a number of cases, there is a coincidence of the basic meanings of a word in English and Russian and a discrepancy in derivatives. For example, the basic meaning of the words table and “table” are the same. But in Russian the word “stol” also means “food”, “full board”, while in English this meaning developed from the word board(room and board). On the other hand, another meaning of the word table- "table" - is absent in Russian. Subject-logical meaning can be free and bound. The free meaning of a word exists in a word regardless of its combination with other words. The associated meaning appears only in certain phrases. For example, pins and needles- “needles and pins” - free meaning of words; the associated meaning of these words is stabbing in the limbs (after numbness). In addition to the above-mentioned subject-logical meanings, which form the semantic structure of the word and are always given in dictionaries, the so-called contextual meaning is revealed in the word under the conditions of a given context, which is not reflected in dictionaries. The meaning of a word should not be confused with its use. Often, even an unambiguous English word, due to the breadth of its meaning, can have a wide compatibility and its use does not coincide with the use of the Russian word, as a result of which it is translated into Russian in different words.
a young man - young Human; a young child - small child;
In search of the right word, the translator usually turns to the synonymous row in the Russian language. The presence of synonymy gives the translator the opportunity to achieve adequacy in translation.
She was very brave about it.
Word brave translated in the dictionary by V.K. Müller as: brave, daring; excellent, wonderful. The first two meanings of this word are clearly not suitable in this case. The translator himself must extend the synonymic series with possible synonyms - brave, courageous. The last synonym most accurately conveys the meaning brave in this case: “She bore it very bravely.” When choosing a word from a synonymous series, one should take into account not only the shades of meaning, but also the degree of intensity of the meaning.
News that another ten Scottish pits are to be closed down brought last night a vehement demand for national action.
News that ten more mines in Scotland are set to close prompted strong calls for united action last night.
Dictionary V.K. Muller gives the following meanings of the adjective vehement: strong, frantic. However, these adjectives do not combine with the word "demand". Therefore, for translation it is necessary to find an adjective that would not be inferior to the adjective vehement in terms of intensity of meaning and at the same time would not violate the usual compatibility in the Russian language.
2.2 Features and problems of translating non-equivalent vocabulary
The case when for a word of the source language (FL) there is no lexical correspondence in the system of the target language (TL) and the translator has to either, in a certain sense, create such an equivalent himself, or use an expanded speech structure (descriptive translation) as a translation correspondence, or resort to other special techniques. Lexical units of a foreign language that do not have a corresponding equivalent in the TL are called without equivalent vocabulary. At the same time, “lack of equivalence” should not be understood as a complete absence in the TL of means for conveying the meaning of a given lexical unit of a foreign language. Such means are usually available. By the non-equivalence of a FL lexical unit, we only mean that it has no analogue in the TL lexical system, i.e. such a “ready-made” word or stable phrase that can be substituted in its place in the context of a specific translation.
2.2.1 Reasons for lexical non-equivalence
1. The first occurs when a lexical unit of a foreign language denotes a phenomenon that is quite well known to its speakers and is firmly included in the lexical system of the foreign language, but it is unknown or very little known to native speakers of the foreign language and therefore, naturally, is not reflected in their lexical system. Usually these are so-called realities - phenomena characteristic of the material and spiritual life of only a given people and absent from others.
Aspic - Kholoudets/Russian holodets/ Jellied minced meat tsar - tzar
At a certain period of time, certain scientific and technical terms may also turn out to be non-equivalent. And also neologisms - a linguistic innovation, a new word (turn of speech, grammatical feature) appearing in the language.
speaker - speaker (talker)
ride- in - protest against discrimination V respect travel blacks V buses;
fish- in - protest against restrictions territories fishing fish American Indians;
apply- in - requirement equal opportunities at hiring on work
2. The second reason for lexical non-equivalence is due to a slightly different vision of the world by different cultural and ethnic communities. This is manifested, in particular, in the fact that the TL does not always capture in the concepts and meanings of its lexical units what is already recorded in the FL. What for the latter has already become a fact delimited by certain characteristics, isolated from the mass of similar ones by a word-name, is not yet such for the former, and its isolation occurs as needed (when it comes up in conversation) with the help of “sporadic” speech means.
2.2.2 Methods of transmitting non-equivalent vocabulary
A method of transmission without equivalent vocabulary, which consists in the fact that to designate a foreign reality in the TL, a concept is sought that, although it does not completely coincide with the original one, has significant semantic similarity with it and, to a certain extent, is capable of revealing to the recipient of the translation the essence of the phenomenon being described. For example, the concepts of Sant Nikolaus (Santa Claus) and Father Frost cannot be considered identical, but in some cases they can replace each other during translation. There are several ways to translate without equivalent vocabulary. When translating without equivalent vocabulary, correspondences may partially coincide in meaning with the TL unit, and contextual substitutions and occasional correspondences are also often used during translation. There are several types:
1. Transliteration - the exact transmission of characters of one writing system by signs of another writing system, in which each character (or sequence of characters) of one writing system is transmitted by the same character (or sequence of characters) of another writing system. For example, romanization is the transfer of non-Latin writing using the extended Latin alphabet using diacritics and letter combinations.
Example: Impeachment - impeachment
Andrey Malakhov - Andrey Malakhov
Spring Street - Vesennyaya ulitsa
Krasnoyarsk edge - Krasnoyarskiy krai
2. Tracing is a translation technique that consists in replacing the constituent parts of a word (morphemes) or phrases with their direct equivalents in the target language.
Example: Cape of Good Hope - cape Good Hopes
Edward I Longshanks - Edward I Leggy (He received yours nickname behind high height);
Edward the Confessor - Edward - Confessor;
Bloody Mary - Maria Bloody.
3. Explanatory translation - free transfer of the semantic content of the translated word or phrase.
drive- in - cinema under open sky
4. Functional analogue - a linguistic unit of the source language is transmitted by such a TL unit that causes a similar reaction in a foreign reader.
muffin - cake
5. Transformational translation - translation using one of the translation transformations.
He died of exposure - He died from colds - He died from sunny blow. - He frozen V snow.
2.2.3 Methods of transferring names and titles
One of the difficulties that a translator traditionally faces when working on a text is the transfer of the so-called. without equivalent language units, those for which there are no correspondences in the target language. Similar units are present at any level of language - phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical and phraseological. First of all, it should be noted that there are two main ways of rendering English proper names in Russian, namely, transcription and transliteration. The first is the transmission of the sound form of a word, the second is the transmission of its letter structure. When transcribing the names and surnames of famous scientists, statesmen and others, one should be guided by established practice, since the traditional spelling of their surname and name may not correspond to the phonetic principle.
Louis de Broglie - Louis de Broglie, Carl Friedrich von Weizsackar - Charles Friedrich background Weizsäcker, Wang Cliburn, A Not Van Clyburn, Roosevelt, A Not Rosevelt
Foreign names cannot be Russified, they should be transcribed in accordance with the rules of pronunciation of the given name, for example: Johann - Johann, not Ivan, Paul - Paul (German), Paul (French), Paul (English), not Paul, Georg - Georg (German) - George - George (English), Georges (French), not George. The exception is names that are traditionally Russified, for example: Nikolaus Kopernikus - Nicholas Copernicus.
Articles, prepositions (including single-letter ones), particles in foreign surnames and given names da, das, de, del, der, don, dona, du, la, le, van, von and others transcribe and write with a lowercase letter and separately with the part of the name related to them.
Leonardo da Vinchi - Leonardo Yes Vinci, von der Stolz - background der Stolz.
Articles, prepositions and particles are written with a capital letter if they form one word with the surname, if they are traditionally connected to the surname through a hyphen or apostrophe, or if in a foreign spelling they have a capital letter.
O" Neil - O'Neill, Van de Graaf - Van de Graaff, Laplace - Laplace.
The particles Mas-, Mc-, Saint are most often attached to the name with a hyphen (Saint-, San-ta-, Mak-, Sen - and are written in capital letters
For example: McClain - McClain, Saint Lawrence - St. Lawrence, Saint-Simon - Saint-Simon, San Marino - San Marino, Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz. However, there are also well-established deviations from this general rule (for example, McCarthy, McDonald's, Mackenzie).
Names of foreign firms, companies, joint stock companies, etc. transcribed/transmitted according to tradition and enclosed in quotation marks; (the name is preceded by the general word “firm”, “company”, “joint stock company”, “concern”, “corporation”, etc. - depending on their traditional use in Russian-language literature)
Express Mail DHL (instead of express mail " Di H. Al")
Flowers, LLC - " Flowers, Al Al Si" .
The abbreviations Corp., Co., Ltd., Inc., GmbH, GmuH, etc. found in company names, if they are not an integral part of the name, can be omitted in the translation.
United Technologies Corporation - United Technologies
In marketing and educational literature, direct translation of the name of the company's legal form with an indication of its country of origin is allowed.
Flowers, LLC - Society With limited responsibility " Flowers" (USA);
OOO " Flowers" - OOO " Сvety" (Limited Liability Company) or Sweet, LLC (Russia).
However, in translations into Russian intended for official use and subsequent notarization, words indicating the form of ownership cannot be omitted. In such cases, the names of the companies must be translated as they were registered in Russia (as written, for example, in the charter documents). Brand names of machines, instruments, various chemicals, products, materials, expressed in one or more words, are transcribed and enclosed in quotation marks, with the first word written in capital letters.
When translating fiction, use company names more freely. First of all, think about how to present the name of the company so that it harmoniously fits into the text of the work, and the meaning intended by the author is not lost. In the case of reverse translation, when, for example, you need to translate the English version of a document that contains the name of a Russian company written in English, always return to the exact original name.
MVG Automatic - system " MGV Automatic"
In some cases (in specifications, etc.), it is recommended to preserve the original names and titles in the text in order to avoid possible complications when using the translation, for example, to place an order for equipment.
JEM-100 CX Electron Microscope - Electronic microscope JEM-100 CX companies Jeol
Of the problems under consideration, the task of translating geographical names is perhaps the simplest. This is primarily due to the huge amount of reference material. Usually the difficulty is in translating the names of small geographical objects: villages, rivers, etc. Foreign geographical names are not translated, but replaced with Russian equivalents in accordance with the geographical atlas, special reference books and dictionaries
River Thames - river Thames
Geographic names of US cities should be given by state
St. Paul, MN - G. Saint Paul PC. Minnesota
Before translation, you should carefully look at the name of the object and try to identify in it the names of the parts of the world (southern, northern, eastern and western). Geographical objects containing an indication of the cardinal direction are translated in a combinational way. So, for example, "North Carolina" should be translated as "North Carolina". Many geographical objects containing an adjective are also translated in a combinational way. For example, New Orleans should be translated into Russian as New Orleans. The only exceptions are established names such as New York, New Jersey and others. Thus, general recommendations for translating names of geographical objects may look like this:
...Similar documents
Types of grammatical differences between languages. Transmission of grammatical phenomena in the English language that do not have formal correspondences in the Russian language. Features of the translation of absolute participial phrases and prepositive attributive phrases.
presentation, added 12/22/2013
Linguistic, lexical and grammatical features of articles on design and layout. The problem of translating titles and translating captions in pictures. The problem of translating author's neologisms and professional vocabulary. Antonymous translation technique.
thesis, added 11/14/2017
Cases of discrepancies between English and Russian languages. Analysis of the use of grammatical transformations in the translation of O. Wilde's fairy tale "The Nightingale and the Rose". Changing the composition of members of the proposal. Replacing a simple sentence with a complex one, dividing a sentence.
thesis, added 04/05/2015
Non-equivalent vocabulary as a subject of linguistic research, its concept and essence, criteria and features of equivalence assessment. Associative experiment and the main problems of translating non-equivalent vocabulary. Definition and essence of its realities.
course work, added 05/16/2015
Popular science text is the object of translation. The place of popular science style in the system of functional styles. Translation, lexical and grammatical transformations. Features of religious vocabulary. Terminology of Gnostic and other movements in Christianity.
thesis, added 12/30/2014
Lexical and grammatical problems of translating scientific and technical texts rich in special terms and phrases. Attributive constructions as one of the common types of free phrases in English scientific and technical texts.
course work, added 07/23/2015
Semantic relationships between words (lexical units) of English and Russian languages. Characteristics, classification and methods of translation of non-equivalent vocabulary. Restructuring the syntactic structure of a sentence. Translation using tracing.
abstract, added 12/11/2014
Consideration and characteristics of the types of relationships between the denotative meanings of units of the source language and the target language. Familiarization with technologies for translating non-equivalent vocabulary. Study of the specific features of the translation of structural exoticisms.
thesis, added 07/29/2017
Features of humor translation. Translation of non-equivalent vocabulary. Means of expressing humor in poetry for children and some aspects of their translation. The main difficulties and techniques of translating cultural realities in English jokes. Analysis of English limericks.
thesis, added 04/08/2014
Detective as a genre of fiction, grammatical, lexical, stylistic features of the translation of a literary work. Analysis and its practical application in the translation process based on the material of the detective story “A Glass of Champagne” by R. Stout.
Annotation.
The object of research in the article is early learning of a foreign language as a linguodidactic phenomenon. The subject of the study is the formation of grammatical skills in children. In the article, the author shows the relevance of both the problem of early teaching a foreign language in general and teaching grammar. Issues related to the formation of grammatical skills in children seem doubly relevant in view of the objective unpreparedness of children to perceive grammatical rules and phenomena in their pure form. Particular attention is paid to the problems of the content of the grammatical minimum during early teaching of English, both from the point of view of rules and exceptions to them. The research method in the article is linguistic and pedagogical analysis, as well as empirical data obtained by the author as a result of teaching English to children. The author's main conclusions are as follows. Due to the specificity of grammatical phenomena (logicality, abstractness), children whose thinking is visual and figurative cannot assimilate it in explicit form. The inability of children to perceive grammar in its pure form does not mean that it is advisable to refuse to develop their grammatical skills. This skill involves not only using words according to the rules, but also using exceptions to them. Exceptions constitute an essential part of the basic grammatical minimum and present difficulties in work. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that grammatical material in early English teaching is considered in the context of a very broad related issue, in particular the problem of the appropriateness of early language teaching in general, the place of grammar in teaching in the context of modern linguodidactic concepts, problems of forming educational content taking into account age-related characteristics, as well as the specifics of grammatical material and the difficulties of its inclusion in the content of programs for children.
Keywords: children, English, early learning, grammar, rule, exception, grammatical minimum, preschool age, primary school, grammatical errors
10.7256/2409-8698.2014.4.14942
Date sent to the editor:
06-04-2015
Review date:
07-04-2015
Publication date:
13-04-2015
Abstract.
The object of research in the article is early learning foreign languages. The matter of research is forming children’s grammar skills. The author shows the importance of the questions of early learning foreign languages and teaching grammar. The issue of teaching grammar to children seems to be twice topical due to their being unable to perceive grammar rules and phenomena in their pure form. Particular attention is paid to forming English grammar minimum of rules and their exceptions.The method of research is linguistic and pedagogical analysis as well as empirical data obtained during the author’s teaching English to children.The main author’s conclusions are the following. Specificity of grammar phenomena (logic, abstractness) makes them impossible for children to understand in explicit form. Children being unable to perceive grammar in pure form doesn’t mean that it is worthwhile to give up on forming their grammar skills. These skills imply not only using words according to the rules but their exceptions as well. The latter present a difficulty as they form a significant part of the grammar minimum.The novelty of this article consists in its viewing grammar material for children in quite a broad spectrum of adjoining linguodidactic questions: the necessity of early learning foreign languages in general, the place of grammar in learning them according to present day ideas, forming curriculum basing on learners' age, specificity of grammar material and difficulties of its including in curriculum for children.
Keywords:
Preschool age, grammar minimum, exception, rule, grammar, early learning, English, children, primary school, grammar mistakes
Over the course of approximately a century of the existence of linguodidactics and methods of teaching foreign languages as applied scientific disciplines, with the help of research conducted within their framework, many issues have been resolved that have made it possible today to have at our disposal a fairly large selection of methods and approaches to teaching foreign languages. At the same time, many issues are controversial, and new ideas in this area sometimes give rise to even more controversy about the advisability of their implementation to achieve results.
Is it necessary to purposefully teach grammar, is it worth abandoning the native language in class, at what age is it best to learn a foreign language, what principles should be used to form lexical and grammatical minimums, is it worth teaching pronunciation that is as close as possible to the authentic one or “not interfering” with students speaking with an accent , whether to correct students’ speech errors in the classroom or not to do this, just as it happens in their native language - this is just a small list of issues on which researchers, methodologists and practicing teachers have divided opinions.
At the same time, it is not difficult to guess that all these issues are key to the formation of both linguistic and communicative knowledge, skills and abilities. How is it that in the theory and practice of teaching a foreign language it is not possible to reach a consensus on key issues?
The fact is that, unlike, say, mathematics, swimming, playing a musical instrument, driving a car and many other areas of activity, where we can accurately talk about a skill if a person knows how to perform a certain set (even a very large one) of actions, the interpretation The concept of “knowledge of a foreign language” is very ambiguous. Proficiency in a foreign language consists of a whole complex of skills (grammatical, lexical, phonetic, speaking, reading, writing, listening), which, being interconnected, are extremely rarely developed in a person to the same and especially to the same high degree. That is why the same person can know a language very well or very poorly, depending on what the situation in which he must use the language and the scope of his activity as a whole requires.
However, not only issues related directly to the methodology of developing certain skills are relevant in the field of teaching a foreign language in our time. Organizational issues are essential for achieving learning results, and the most global of them is when is the best time to start teaching a person a foreign language. This question is very often asked to practicing teachers by parents of almost infants, who dream that their child will be fluent in a foreign language, which is so necessary in our time both for a future career and for personal development in the era of intercultural communication. In general, the practice of working with children and students shows that there is no direct relationship between the age at which they begin learning a foreign language and success in this process. There are many examples where a person learned a language from an early age at school, in courses, with a tutor, and at a university, but did not learn anything special. On the other hand, there are cases when people who began to learn a foreign language as adults achieved success, and quite quickly, primarily due to motivation determined by the specific goals of learning the language.
Most researchers believe that it is best start learning a foreign language at the age of five to eight, when the child has already mastered the system of his native language quite well, and he treats the new language consciously. It is at this age that there are still few cliches of speech behavior, it is easy to “encode” your thoughts in a new way, and there are no great difficulties when making contact in a foreign language. If the methodological system is constructed quite competently from a linguodidactic and psycholinguistic point of view, then success in mastering the limited language material offered and creating the necessary prerequisites for the further acquisition of any foreign language is ensured for almost all children.
On the other hand, success in mastering a foreign language is influenced by many factors, age is only one of them. Meanwhile, it is obvious that studying a foreign language from an early age is at least useful for the development of a child, since a foreign language as an academic discipline has enormous potential for the development of both cognitive processes and the personality as a whole. Even in times of crisis, the demand for the services of foreign language teachers specializing in working with young children remains at a fairly decent level. The fact is that at an older age it is quite easy to determine from the outside whether a teenager or student has a good chance of mastering a non-native language. This can be judged by his abilities, motivation, and experience in learning the language. In this sense, a small child is a “tabula rasa”, where abilities are yet to be discovered. Many parents hope that their son or daughter will show as many abilities as possible, including language abilities, so they are ready to create the best conditions for their development, including investing money in it.
All this leads us to say that early teaching of a foreign language is not just a linguodidactic problem, but a separate area in the theory of teaching a foreign language, a kind of “method within a method” with its own patterns, determined primarily by the age characteristics of young children.
In the context of marketing in the market of paid educational services, the problem of teaching grammar becomes particularly relevant. It has always been relevant, since grammar is one of the most important aspects of any language, its structure. However, with the spread of the idea of client-centeredness in education, the issues of teaching grammar arise especially acutely, and in this case this applies not only to young children, but also to students of all ages, including very adult students.
The essence of the problem is that people don’t like to study grammar. Many people, when asked by a private teacher: “How would you like to learn a foreign language?”, answer: “Just not like at school and at college.” This means without learning the rules, but with the maximum amount of real language practice. A client-oriented approach to education implies, on the one hand, the satisfaction of the student and parent (client) with the learning process, and on the other, the provision of the highest quality educational services, that is, the result. Considering that the client pays for educational services here and now, with this approach the first usually outweighs the second, and the pleasure of the foreign language learner is put at the forefront. This is especially true for young children, whose stories to their parents about foreign language classes are based on emotions, and not on a critical understanding of the teacher’s work. Very often this forces teachers to abandon grammar altogether, so that the lesson, God forbid, does not seem boring to the child, and the parent is satisfied and does not take him to someone who provides educational services in the most entertaining and entertaining form.
On the other hand, it is quite obvious that it is impossible to speak a foreign language well without knowing grammar. Even conversational structures, being elementary, are grammatical structures that obey certain laws. Very often you can hear an argument against studying grammar: “It’s enough just to name the words without connecting them at all, and a foreigner will understand what you want.” The practical experience of people who communicate with representatives of other countries while traveling abroad confirms this thesis. However, in this way it is possible to communicate only at a conversational level on everyday topics. In a speech where there is a description, reasoning, where arguments are given to convince or dissuade the interlocutor, there will certainly be complex grammatical structures, the violation of which can lead to a violation of the logic of the statement and, accordingly, misunderstanding.
In modern conditions, a pedagogical contradiction appears between the importance of grammatical skills and a certain antipathy to the study of grammar on the part of people who want to master the language “for themselves,” which primarily means for practical purposes. It must be said that even those who consider the study of grammar boring and unacceptable in our time recognize the importance of grammatical skills, but it is believed that it can be achieved without studying grammar at all, but only on the basis of language practice.
The issues of early teaching of grammar are doubly relevant. The fact is that, in view of the psychophysiological age characteristics of children, all linguistic phenomena, including grammatical ones, should be presented to them only in an accessible form. The visual-figurative thinking of children, as well as the peculiarities of their motivation, force methodologists and practicing teachers to use the maximum amount of visual and playful forms of activity. There is a fairly wide range of them for working with vocabulary, but grammatical phenomena are abstract and difficult to convey directly in any form other than logical.
That is why grammatical skills are formed indirectly, through work mainly on vocabulary and phonetics, which is very difficult methodologically. Thus, to work on grammar in early learning, the so-called implicit approach is used, which implies a refusal to explain the rules as such. The question of the content of grammatical material, of course, depends on how exactly we interpret the concept of early learning.
In schools, a foreign language begins to be studied, as a rule, in the second grade. At this age, children already have at least a slight understanding of some grammatical phenomena of their native language, the basics of grammar of which are studied in primary school. This knowledge makes it easier to work on grammar, since the teacher can at least operate with elementary grammatical terminology (noun, verb, gender, number, etc.).
Recently, it has become fashionable to send children of preschool age, and even junior preschoolers, to private teachers, to clubs, sections, courses, to language centers, where there are special programs for teaching preschoolers, which are in good demand, as noted above. These children have visual-effective thinking; in addition, they are not yet familiar with the grammatical phenomena of even their native language, although they already speak it well. This makes even mentioning grammar impossible in principle. On the other hand, even when constructing elementary phrases, which even the smallest children are quite capable of, grammar is used, and grammatical skills begin to form to one degree or another.
Very often, parents, sending young children (both preschool and school age) to study a foreign language, demand from the teacher that he only speak to them, believing that in this way the child will master a foreign language like his native one and will think in a non-native language, as a result why he won’t need grammar at all, just as we speak Russian without remembering the rules at all.
This is the so-called natural method of teaching a foreign language, which has its origins in antiquity. Perhaps this is the only possible truly effective way to master a non-native language without any grammar at all.
This is the most ancient method of teaching a foreign language. From the point of view of organizing the process, it is no different from a child mastering his native language. A person is immersed in the linguistic environment and, through repeated perception of repeated words and phrases and correlating them with the situation in which he is, remembers them. It is quite difficult to talk about the correspondence of this situation with the situation of a child mastering his native language, since the mental mechanisms and processes through which a person masters his native language have not yet been fully studied. In view of this, we do not know how different they are between an infant and a child who already speaks their native language. In addition, it is obvious that a person immersed in a different language environment will still use his native language as a mental support, while the infant has nothing to use. A foreign language is mastered in this way by imitation of ready-made models, by repeated repetition and reproduction of new material by analogy with the already familiar. It should be noted that the techniques of repeating patterns have spread to other methods and are still used in the methodology. Methodological value of authentic materials, speech of native speakers, etc. also go back to the natural method, although now they are talked about more in the context of the communicative method.
The natural method was pursued exclusively for practical purposes; its peculiarity is that it is possible to teach language without theory and rules. This is very valuable these days, firstly, because the rhythm of modern life dictates the need to learn languages with the maximum amount of practice, bypassing explanations of the rules and “getting straight to the point.” Secondly, today many teachers have to work with multinational groups whose students do not speak each other’s languages, and sometimes even the teacher’s language. It is objectively impossible to explain any rules in this situation. The traditions of teaching using the natural method were widespread in our country until the beginning of the 20th century, when a child spent his childhood with a governess, from whose lips foreign language was constantly heard. Of course, this applied only to upper-class families and not to the masses, but in the ancient world, knowledge of a foreign language was also available only to privileged people. However, even in modern conditions, not everyone has the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in a foreign language environment (for example, live abroad for a long time).
The main feature of this method is that grammar, as in the native language, only generalizes and leads to awareness of what has already been mastered from practice. Thus, she is relegated to the background.
In the context of modern views and ideas, the idea of practical orientation in language teaching is especially valuable. However, in modern pedagogical practice, the natural method is perceived somewhat simplistically, when it is believed that the teacher is required to simply speak a foreign language, without thinking about the methodological side of the issue at all.
Finally, this method implies untranslated semantization, that is, the connection of a foreign word with a concept not through the native language, but in the same way as it happens in the native language. Thus, the use of the native language in teaching is excluded. In addition, any translations from foreign to native and vice versa are prohibited.
Meanwhile, the natural method can only be effective if a person is in a foreign language environment for a sufficiently long time or enters it very often and systematically. The idea of refusing to use the native language in foreign language classes is motivated precisely by the effectiveness of this method. However, if students study for thirty to forty minutes, or even more so for fifteen to twenty, if we are talking about preschoolers, all the advantages of immersion in a foreign language environment are offset by the very short duration of the lesson, and the disadvantages of abandoning their native language, on the contrary, are very clearly visible.
Thus, except for those cases when, from an early age, parents or a nanny speak a foreign language to the child at home, or when the child is very often taken abroad, children learn foreign languages to a greater or lesser extent in an academic form.
In the methodology of teaching foreign languages, the problem of grammatical material in the context of early learning a foreign language comes down to the following questions.
2) How and in what form should children be given grammatical rules?
3) Is it necessary to work with exceptions to the rules and if so, how?
4) Was it worth correcting the grammatical errors?
In this article we will look at early teaching of grammar using the example of the English language, since this language is today the leading means of intercultural communication, most often acts as a lingua franca and is the most studied foreign language in the world; our country is no exception in this sense.
English grammar has certain features that must be taken into account during early language learning: it is much easier than Russian, but at the same time it is completely different from Russian. In English, it is not enough to use the correct words in the correct form; unlike Russian, they must also be used in the correct order, which automatically increases the number of errors in students’ speech.
That is why the issue of the content of early grammar teaching is especially acute, and we are talking specifically about the grammatical minimum. This term itself suggests that in no case should emphasis be placed on grammar, but it is necessary, in the most accessible form, to give children a certain set of rules that will allow them to construct simple sentences when communicating on everyday topics. The spread of liberalism and creativity in education has led to the exaggeration of this idea, which is interpreted in such a way that children do not need to be taught grammar at all, just as their mistakes should not be corrected, let them speak, communicate and enjoy communication, even if they speak incorrectly, only would say. Meanwhile, when teaching a foreign language, this is a very dangerous path, since the habit of speaking without completely thinking about the correct construction of sentences is very difficult to eradicate in the future, and the experience of working with teenagers shows this very well.
When working with adult students, it often happens that a student speaks confidently, but makes hardly more mistakes in a sentence than there are words in it. Moreover, when you point out mistakes, he corrects them immediately. This suggests that the student knows how to say it correctly, but speaks with errors due to the lack of the habit of thinking about the correctness of speech. This is an argument in favor of the fact that grammatical skills need to be developed from childhood.
The main difficulty in selecting the content of teaching grammar at any stage lies in the narrowness and limitation of the grammatical material, as well as in its clear structure and systematization.
For example, it would be quite easy to practice the Present Continuous tense with children, asking them to demonstrate the actions that they are performing at the moment (I run, I jump, we swim, we fly, etc.), however, it rests on the verb to be, which is an exception in form, is also used differently from the Russian language, where the word “is” is omitted. This significantly complicates the development of this design.
The ways of expressing the past tense in Russian (Past Simple, Present Perfect) rest on irregular English verbs. The particularity of modal verbs is the construction “I can”, which is often used in speech and easily played out in communicative situations.
You can select lexical material based on the age characteristics of the students. For example, in the content of any course for children, one of the main topics is always animals and toys. For adults, of course, this is inappropriate, so entry-level programs for adults include only the names of familiar pets “cat” and “dog”, which relate to the theme “family”.
It is, of course, impossible to select grammatical phenomena in this way. Indeed, it would be very strange to say that some rule is more interesting for children than another, if we can talk about interest in rules in general. Basic grammar is the same for both a preschooler and a successful businessman starting to learn business English from scratch.
Even more difficult are exceptions to the rules. In this case, we should talk about two types of exceptions. The first are the actual exceptions, and the second are those grammatical phenomena that can fit into the rules, but these rules are not explained to children at the stage of primary education. That is why the phenomenon is actually an exception. For example, if a child knows how to say “I want to...” or I like to...” (do something) (I want to... I like to...), then the phrase “I can...” (I can..) is actually an exception. , if you don’t go into details of modal verbs, after which, as a rule, the pre-infinitive particle is not used. It should be noted that teachers call younger schoolchildren who already have certain grammatical ideas about their native language the term “modal verb.” Meanwhile, this term in itself does not tell them anything at all. Moreover: not every adult student of a non-linguistic profile can immediately answer the question of how modal verbs differ from non-modal verbs. It seems that children should be told in this case that there are some verbs (or even just words) after which to is not used and can is one of them.
If we talk about exceptions themselves, there is an opinion that during early teaching they should be avoided and students should not be given language situations in which they are present. For example, it is very easy to explain the plural of English nouns without the finger rule. It is enough to simply name the pairs of words book - books, cat - cats, table - tables. Of course, this must be accompanied by a demonstration of some kind of clarity. The problem is that in English the exceptions are the most commonly used words, so following this principle is quite difficult, otherwise you will have to do without nouns such as “man, woman, child,” which is only possible at the very beginning. If we talk about verbs, then almost half of those that denote everyday actions are irregular.
Sometimes they jokingly say that there are so many exceptions in English that it is easier not to study the rules at all, but simply to memorize each construction separately, since learning the rules and then all the exceptions to them is even more difficult. This statement seems like sophistry, but in the context of early English learning there is a reasonable grain in it. When the volume of lexical units is still small, it is quite possible to give children regular and irregular forms mixed up, and then pay attention to those that are used most often and thus inductively derive a rule based on the available material. It has already been noted that children do not have logical thinking, however, its development is one of the most important tasks of primary school, and this development should be carried out through all subjects, including a foreign language.
In this case, the rule will not be explained, but will be derived based on existing knowledge about how to say it correctly. Children also learn that there are exceptions in the Russian language in Russian lessons, when they already know how to speak Russian, and they used both regular and irregular forms correctly, without having the slightest idea about the rule.
The objectives of this work do not include the analysis of specific teaching aids for children, however, it can be noted that in general, grammatical phenomena as such, at best, begin to be mentioned only in the second or third school year. Meanwhile, grammar is still being learned, since even the simplest English phrases, which even preschool children can easily master, contain grammatical phenomena atypical for Russian. For example, the sentences I have a cat, I have a dog, etc. contain an article, as well as the verb “to have”, which is used instead of the Russian phrase “I have”. Sentences like It is a dog, It is a cat contain the same article and the verb “to be,” which is not omitted in the present tense, unlike in Russian.
The main principle of the formation of the English grammatical minimum for early learning in the books of many domestic authors is the maximum possible correspondence of foreign grammatical phenomena to Russian ones, at least at the initial stage. The systems of verb tenses have the greatest discrepancy in Russian and English grammar, which is why during early learning all communicative situations are built on the present tense for as long as possible.
As already mentioned, children, due to their age characteristics, cannot perceive material without clarity. Grammatical phenomena are not as figurative as lexical ones, but there are still certain ways to make grammar visual. Cubes, trailers, bricks, etc. with words drawn on them that need to be folded or placed in the correct order, they serve as a construction set that develops children's thinking.
Correcting grammatical errors is also one of the most controversial issues in linguodidactics in general. There is no consensus among methodologists regarding how to correct students’ mistakes and whether it is worth doing at all.
The following approaches are generally accepted.
1) Do not correct errors at all if they do not interfere with understanding the meaning of what was said.
2) Let the student speak and then correct his mistakes.
3) Interrupt the student, correcting his mistakes each time or asking him to correct them himself.
Unlike lexical errors, grammatical errors rarely interfere with understanding the meaning of a statement. That is why in the context of communicative teaching, so often practiced today, in which the content of an utterance is more valuable than its formal correctness, the first approach is often used. This creates naturalness in communicating in a foreign language, just as when speaking our native language, we do not correct each other’s mistakes, otherwise it sounds like nitpicking.
This approach has certain advantages, but with early learning it is completely unacceptable. Children tend to quickly and very firmly memorize foreign language phenomena, so it will be difficult to retrain the child later.
The second approach is difficult because, having finished speaking, the student may already forget how he expressed this or that thought at the beginning of the monologue.
The main disadvantage of the third approach is that the communicative integrity of the lesson is violated, since by correcting mistakes along the way, the student may lose his train of thought, and in addition, he will constantly think not about what to say, but about how to make a mistake. However, during early language learning, when monologues, as a rule, consist of a maximum of a few simple sentences, this approach is usually used.
The article noted that school-age children, unlike preschoolers, can already perceive the simplest grammatical terminology. However, this only slightly facilitates the process of forming grammatical skills, since they still cannot fully operate with it. It is no easier to teach grammar to a second grader than to teach a five-year-old child. Another thing is that if school-age children can concentrate for about thirty minutes, provided that the activity is interesting to them, then with preschoolers you can effectively study for only fifteen minutes. The lion's share of time during early learning of English is spent on developing lexical and pronunciation skills. Meanwhile, the grammatical skill should not lag far behind the others. The problem here also lies in the fact that at an early stage this may not be very noticeable, but later it will certainly slow down the student’s progress in learning English. The grammar of a language is its framework; let’s not forget that for a long time the concepts of “knowledge of a language” and “knowledge of grammar” were almost identical. With the spread of ideas of intercultural communication, creativity, liberality, and focus on natural communication in teaching English, the “boring” rules found themselves relegated to the background or even the third place. On the other hand, there is no doubt that with unformed grammatical skills, a person’s speech will be, at best, funny, and at worst, incomprehensible.
Ways to work with new lexical material in a foreign language lesson.
1. Text material is an important component of the content of teaching a foreign language, since in the process of working with texts the following are formed:
1.lexical, phonetic, grammatical skills, speech skills;
2. communicative, intercultural and other competencies.
The use of text material allows
Form and improve phonetic, lexical and grammatical skills;
Expand words knowledge;
Develop linguistic and contextual insight;
Activate familiar vocabulary in new speech situations;
Develop and improve speech skills in reading and speaking;
In my work I use the following methods of working with lexical material.
The 5P keyword method was developed by American psychologists. The essence of the method is this.
1P – skim the text;
2P – mark keywords;
3P – come up with questions for keywords;
4P – review the text again;
5P - retell the text based on key words and questions.
2. Mastery of words is the most important prerequisite for speaking. In reproductive speech activity, knowledge of just one word is not enough; it is important that children master word connections and form word combinations based on them.
To use words in reproductive types of speech activity it is necessary:
1. find the word in memory
2. pronounce it
3. include in a combination based on meaning and in accordance with grammar
4. include the combination in a sentence or text.
Students should constantly feel the need to know words to express their thoughts, i.e. feel the tension of the communicative task. This is the speech need. The teacher must try to ensure that the word is “embedded” in the student’s memory. Only then will he be able to “extract” it from his memory when the need arises. To successfully memorize vocabulary, you can use the following technique:
Vocabulary Memorization Game. On the board, the teacher draws 3-4 circles in which he writes words already known to the children. The guys read them in chorus, after which the words are erased. Then the teacher asks one of the students to fill in the circles with the words that were written (the word must be written by the student exactly in the circle where it was before it was erased!). After the task has been completed, you can complicate the task by drawing a few more circles with words. Since the game seems simple, it goes off with a bang! Advantages: easy to use in any class of any level of learning, takes little time during the lesson, develops students’ visual memory and writing skills, can be used both at the stage of consolidating new vocabulary and and to check the material already studied; you can diversify and complicate the game to suit every taste and level of difficulty of the material (instead of individual words, write phrases or sentences, etc.)
To prevent memorizing vocabulary from turning into ordinary cramming, I suggest students complete the following tasks:
1. Words should be taught only by playing out their meaning or visually demonstrating it. It could be a sentence, a small text, even a drawing. After introducing new LEs, I ask students to compose 7-10 sentences or a short story with new words in the language at home, and describe the picture. In the next lesson we will check orally.
2. We make crossword puzzles based on the vocabulary we have covered. We solve the best ones together in class.
3. After introducing vocabulary and initial consolidation, we use the game “Lesson Dictionary”: the alphabet is written down in a column on a sheet of paper, you need to write words on a new topic for each letter of the alphabet (students can work individually or in pairs).
4. Game “Associations”: the group is divided into two teams, with one participant from each. The teacher writes a word on a piece of paper; those participants who came to the board do not see this word. The remaining team members explain this word (descriptively), but do not name it, forms of this word or cognates.
Learning words and practicing them should take place in real dialogue. Teaching English vocabulary should in no case turn into empty memorization of words, out of context and without analyzing the specific situation where this or that word is used.
3. Lexical dictations in their classical form have long lost their relevance in the light of modern requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard. However, there are many ways to conduct dictations in a modern foreign language lesson. Such dictations have a number of advantages:
Students are active during dictation,
Dictations are the way to oral communication activities,
They are useful in groups of students with different abilities,
Can be done in groups with different numbers of students,
(even in large groups!)
A reliable method of using only a foreign language (if the teacher sets such a goal)
Material for dictations is easily adaptable to different stages of the lesson, lexical or grammatical material, etc.
Both the teacher and the student can dictate,
The length of the dictation text varies - one word, a group of words, a passage of text, a statement, etc.
The teacher and students can check completed work (self-control, mutual control).
Types of dictations
1. Walking Dictation - "Walking dictation"
A) The teacher hangs several copies of the dictation on the board in different places. Pupils work in pairs. One student writes, the other walks around and reads from the board to the one who writes. Halfway through the dictation, students can change roles.
B) The class is divided into groups. The teacher hangs several copies of the dictation in different places in the office. The dictation is printed on colored sheets (all copies are of different colors). Each dictation sentence should contain as many words as there are people in the group. Groups sit in different rows. Each group will be named in a color in accordance with the sheets on which the dictation is written. Each child in the group receives a word number to look at on their group's colored sheet. At the signal, all the first numbers run to their sheet, read the word, return to their group, dictate the word. After everyone in the group has written down this word, child number two runs, etc., until the entire text is dictated and written down. Whose group finishes writing the dictation first and without errors receives a good mark.
2. Picture Dictation
The teacher dictates words such as “corner, left, right, upper, low, center”, etc. Students draw diagrammatically what the teacher dictates.
3.Shadow Dictation
Work in pairs. The teacher dictates, one student writes, the other just listens. When the teacher finishes dictating, the student-listeners check what their partners have written.
4. Song Dictation
The teacher distributes pieces of paper on which the words of the song are mixed. Then he reads the song himself (you can turn on the recording of the song), the children place pieces of paper with the words of the song in accordance with its content (sequence!)
5. Card Dictation
The teacher shows a picture, the children write down the word.
6. Visual dictation
The teacher writes a quatrain or short text on the board. We read in chorus, analyzing the most difficult words to spell. Then the children record it under the dictation of the teacher. The text is first erased from the board.
7. Self-dictation
A) We learn a quatrain with new words, previously written down on the board, all together in chorus. The teacher erases the lines of the poem one by one, starting with the last one when reciting the poem. Thus, the children recreate each “disappeared” line from memory each time. Then you are asked to write down the poem from memory.
B) The teacher assigns a piece of text or a poem to learn at home. For the next lesson, the children, dictating to themselves, write on pieces of paper the text they learned at home.
8. Paired creative dictation
For each student in a pair, I offer illustrations of one of two stories in random order. He arranges the pictures in a logical sequence, writes a story, dictates it to his partner, after which the partners restore the order of each other’s pictures and check the correctness of the written dictation.
9. Spelling Dictation
The teacher shows a card with a word to one student, he dictates the word spelled out to the class, and everyone writes it down. So the teacher asks each student to dictate a word, and then the teacher checks what he has written.
10. “Stop, go back” dictation is intended to develop a complete understanding of the listening text. Unlike traditional listening using audio recordings, students have the opportunity to control the speed of the dictation, since the teacher himself acts as a tape recorder.
Draw signs on the board indicating “Go”, “Stop”, “Play”, “Rewind” and explain to students that they can stop the “cassette” at any time and start listening again.
At the students’ command “Play,” the teacher begins to read the text. Students try to write down the text as accurately as possible. When one of the students begins to have difficulty writing down the text for the teacher, he says “Stop”, “Rewind”, “Play”. The students really like the ability to control the course of the lesson and the actions of the teacher, and therefore even if the weakest students ask the teacher to repeat the text over and over again, this usually does not raise objections from stronger students. In addition, they have the opportunity to check the text they have written down again.
Students who have completed the dictation hand over their work to the teacher. The first student to complete the text receives the maximum number of points and is recognized as the winner of the first stage.
The following is the procedure for checking texts. The teacher can do this himself or distribute the work to the students, handing them copies of the audit text and asking them to check each other's work. For inaccuracies and errors, the number of points initially scored by the student is reduced, after which the winners are determined and grades are assigned.
11. Another interesting form of working with text is “Gap” dictation.
Select a short text from your textbook. Prepare a version of this text with gaps and write it on the board.
Start dictating the text. Dictate slowly and ask students to write down only the words that are missing on the board.
For those words written on the board, students must leave blanks. Once you have finished reading the text, erase the text from the board and ask students to fill in the gaps in their texts. After finishing their work, students open their textbooks and check their texts.
12. Text reconstruction dictation develops students’ skills in taking notes based on the text they are listening to. The text can be a short story or dialogue.
During the first reading of the text, students do not write anything down, but only listen to the text, trying to understand the main meaning.
When reading the text a second time, ask students to write down not all the words, but only those that, in their opinion, are key. Students can work individually or in pairs. You can make the task easier for students by emphasizing significant words in the text with intonation or gesture.
After the second reading, students begin to reconstruct the text they read, composing a story or dialogue using key words. This type of exercise is useful for developing the skills of both basic and complete understanding of the listening text, as well as the lexical and grammatical components of language competence.
13. Scrambled dictation is very useful for developing dialogic speech skills and requires virtually no preparation for its implementation.
Take any dialogue from the textbook and dictate it, but the order of the sentences in the dialogue must be changed. After students have written down all the sentences, ask them to rewrite the dialogue using the written phrases in the correct order.
When finished, ask students to open their textbooks and check their work in the textbook themselves.