Formation Of Transferable Skills In The Study Of Lexis In Anthropolinguistic Aspect

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the question of transferable skills formation in the process of studying vocabulary in the anthropolinguistic aspect at the present stage of higher education development in the context of the implementation of FSES HE 3 ++. The particular attention is given to the complex of transferable skills. The use of anthropolinguistic method, which unites both diachronic and synchronic aspects, is determined by the possibility to restore the complete linguistic picture of the world. In terms of this method a human vocabulary is viewed as the result of human cognition that is regarded as a historical category. Steadily evolving mind of a human influenced by extralinguistic factors reflects in the polysemy of words. The semantic connections within a word are introduced by metonymic, metaphoric transformations, specialization and widening of the meaning and functional transference. The introduction of anthropolinguistic maps into the process of vocabulary study leads to the formation of skills to analyze and explain the semantic content of it. The potential for studying the vocabulary in the anthropolinguistic aspect is understood as one of the conditions for mastering a foreign language. The conclusion is made about the advisability of using anthropolinguistic maps of lexical units in modern higher education.

Keywords: Anthropolinguistic mapanthropolinguistic methodcognitiontransferable skills

Introduction

At present, the success of a graduate of a higher education institution, as well as the pledge of its promising future, is determined by the availability of universal graduates (common for each level of education), general vocational (general for training, specialties) and professional skills. The preparation of competent graduates of higher education programs is always at the head of the priority tasks of Russian education and acquires special sharpness in the light of modernization of education in Russia and globalization in the world. Issues related to foreign language education, the formation of skills and the conditions for their development are devoted to the research of Almazova, (2003), Almazova, Khalyapina, and Popova (2017), Almazova, Eremin, and Rubtsova (2016), Zhigadlo, and Odinokaya (2017), Kogan, Khalyapina, and Popova (2017), Popova, Almazova, Khalyapina, and Tret'jakova (2017), Rudskoy, Borovkov, Romanov, and Kolosova (2018), Khalyapina, Popova, and Kogan (2017) etc. The most important aspects of the preparation of students and the formation of their skills are reflected in the studies of foreign authors, in particular, Cooley, Holland, & Cumming (2014), Gottipati & Shankararaman (2018), Singh & Leavline (2013), Kehm (2015) and others. The results of researchers suggest that agreeableness, extraversion, openness and conscientiousness are the most important strategies adopted by these students. The list of unified universal skills of the bachelor includes eight skills, in particular, system and critical thinking, development and implementation of projects, teamwork and leadership, communication, intercultural interaction, self-organization and self-development (including health preservation), life safety.

The task of forming and evaluating the skills reached by a student is relevant for any higher school discipline. At present, the idea of an independently developed personality that realizes its own potential in the professional sphere is inextricably linked with the possession of a foreign language. Education in higher education is cognitive in nature and reflects in general terms the real process of cognition, which forms the form of a student's activity. The results of cognition are embodied in knowledge, which are acquired by the learner and fixed in verbal form. Each word of a foreign language has elements of knowledge in its structure. Language and its units, in particular, units of lexical level, become a reliable means of fixing acquired knowledge. The central problem of cognitive psychology is the problem of organizing and structuring knowledge in the subject's memory (consciousness), including the correlation of verbal and figurative components in the processes of mnemonic and mental activity (Odinokaya, 2015).

Problem Statement

Traditional work on the lexical side of speech does not give today those positive results that are determined by the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard (Shamov, 2004). A serious drawback in the teaching of vocabulary should be considered and the inability of students to predict lexical material in the construction of their own statements or in its perception in the speech of others. As a result, the speech characteristics of the statements of a weak contingent of students who do not know how to saturate the statement with lexical units on a given topic are lost. Essential is the provision on the need to identify the cognitive structures of the studied linguistic phenomenon and the organization of verbal educational activities on the basis of these structures.

Research Questions

When teaching a foreign language in accordance with the principles of constructing the content of learning in the communicative approach, the learning process does not reduce to the traditional memorization of lexical units but involves the use of a lexical unit for the implementation of a communicative task, or a given real situation. To overcome the gap between the learning language and the language of everyday communication, it is necessary to consider language phenomena in the dynamics of their cognitive use.

Purpose of the Study

The cognitive orientation of the study involves the study of vocabulary in the anthropolinguistic aspect. In the course of the study we work out the new technique of vocabulary learning that is based on understanding the basis of lexis formation as the result of human thought activity evolving throughout the history (Grinjov-Grinevich, 2005).

Research Methods

The formation of transferable skills within the framework of cognitive orientation is carried out through the study of lexical material in the anthropological aspect. The anthropolinguistic method considers lexicon as the subjective product of a man, mediated by extralinguistic factors, that is, a time interval and localization (Sorokina, 2014). Human thought activity is not defined as a constant, but is variable, because it is mediated by the evolving physiological abilities of a person from the perception of objects of the material world at the everyday level before the formation of a scientific concept of reality. As well as the thinking of the human vocabulary is transformed from general, syncretic concepts to terms.

Modern studies of vocabulary, conducted in the context of linguistic modernity or historical reality, give a vague idea of the language material. The anthropological method allows us to describe the entire linguistic picture of the world by conducting a synchronous-diachronic study. Comprehensive knowledge of vocabulary in two planes realizes the installation not just on the description, but on the explanation of the phenomena of linguistic reality. The study of vocabulary in comparison, for example, as a component of the synonymic series, the group of which is part of the semantic field, makes it possible to establish cause-effect relations between the semantic values of individual lexical units and their groups, respectively.

Formation of transferable skills of students is associated with anthropological research, which involves studying the semantic component of the language. The knowledge of the actual vocabulary is realized through anthropolinguistic maps (see Figure 01 ). At the heart of anthropolinguistic maps are lexicographic data of the English Dictionary of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED, 1989). Each semantic value in the anthropolinguistic map, equivalent to a certain concept, realizes a continuous process of associative transfers from the primary value to the secondary values. The anthropolinguistic map is equipped with notations demonstrating the direction of semantic transfer and its type.

Independent work of students on reading anthropological maps is realized in the interpretation of associative links that unite individual concepts into a lexical unit. The study of anthropological maps allows us not only to recreate the chronological picture of the lexeme and trace the evolution of concepts up to the advent of the term, but it also helps to form students' abilities to consciously work with vocabulary.

The subject of the study is twenty-three lexical units entering into the semantic field BARREL. As an example, let us consider the anthropolinguistic map of the lexeme tun , presented already in Old English and allowing to restore a complete picture of the development of human thought activity in the context of extralinguistic factors. The lexeme tun consists of thirteen semantic values in which all types of associative relationships are realized. The primary meaning that served as the basis for the formation of intraluminal associative connections is the concept of a large cask or barrel, usu. for liquids, esp. wine, ale, or beer, or for various provisions, 725 . The polyfunctionality of the object contributed to the association of the barrels with any of the devices used for storage and transportation and was realized in the Middle English in extending the concept to a large vessel in general; a tub or vat; a chest, 1205 .

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Syncretism, that is, the inability of an ancient person to fix a single denotation for one concept only, was gradually eradicated. The main factor in this phenomenon was the development of trade. Exports and imports required unification of the system of packaging, which was realized in many of the lexemes studied. The composition of tun included the concept of a cask of definite capacity, 1440 , followed by a series of metonymic transformations such as a vessel → a measure of volume . Further specialization of the concept to the definite tub of gold is registered: 100,000 guilders, florins, etc., 1603-83 , was the result of the economic prosperity of the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Within the lexeme tun , an associative transformation is realized in the concept of a kind of cup or small drinking vessel, 1555 . At the heart of this transformation is probably the tradition of consuming drinks from barrels, when through a hole in this vessel the liquid was poured into individual vessels, and the topological similarity of objects.

The tradition of everyday use of a barrel is reflected in a series of associative transformations based on similarities. In tun , metaphoric transformations like a vessel → human appearance , as a human body, 1447 , a vessel → a building element , like a chimney, esp. the upper part of the roof of the house; a chimney-pot, 1463 . The erection of a new type of a house contributed to the fact that the latter concept became a category of dialectisms. The close concept was formed about half a century later in the cause of metaphoric transformation a vessel → a building as the name of a prison in Cornhill, London, 1500-98 that is based on the identity of a barrel and the exact building. Though this name was actual for a century only. The anthropolinguistic map also presents a metaphorical transformation of the successive character of a vessel type → animal (1) → animal (2) as a sea-tun, and name for a seal (the animal), 1601-72 and a tun-shell, 1837 – a сonch, whose body and shell were associated with the primary denotation.

The last stage in the expansion of the structure of the lexeme tun is the process of terminology as a result of the emergence of a new type of human thinking mediated by a scientific revolution. The ancient knowledge about the methods of obtaining alcoholic drinks received scientific confirmation, blind observation gave way to experimental research - the period of perfection of the brewing process began. Up to now the term tun includes the term Brewing as a mashing-vat (mash-t.) or fermenting-vat (gyle-t.), 1713 , identifying that the object is actively used in modern industry.

The analysis of the anthropolinguistic map confirms the vector of the development of vocabulary from syncretic concepts based on the unity of the functional component of the object to the formation of the terminology Brewing . The fact that the object was the basic unit of ancient people is realized in metaphorical transfers of various types. Establishment of trade relations and the need for standardization of containers promote the formation of new measures of liquids and other materials through metaphorical transformations.

Findings

Anthropolinguistic analysis of the set of lexemes connected by the general semantic element a BARREL shows the tendency of the vocabulary to evolve. The first syncretic meanings that denoted general notions of ancient Englishmen were replaced with specialized meanings in terms of trade development. Finally, terms were formed that denoted the rise of scientific knowledge in all spheres of life. Together with the tendency of terminological specialization new meanings based on metaphoric and metonymic transformations were recorded.

All these transformations are reflected in anthropolinguistic maps to the studied lexemes that can be restored by the students in the course of transferable skill formation. Observing the interconnections of the meanings within words, and, thus between lexemes and understanding their mechanisms allows to see the real English linguistic picture of the world on the whole, and restore the definite episode of vocabulary evolution particularly. The introduction of anthropolinguistic maps in which the semantic relations become vivid can make the process of vocabulary learning conscious and, thus, more effective.

Conclusion

Proceeding from the foregoing, we believe that reading anthropolinguistic maps can be used as an additional means of teaching a foreign language, contributing to the intelligibility in perception and the organic assimilation of educational vocabulary by students, showing the educational theme in a bright and interesting perspective, significantly increasing the level of independent thinking work of students. Only this will help to memorize the vocabulary in the right direction and will contribute to the effectiveness of teaching a foreign language. The formation of universal skills in the process of studying vocabulary in the anthropological and political context involves the acquisition of not only actual knowledge of the object, but the development of skills to interpret existing data and build an integral language picture of the world.

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