Maker-Technology As A Means Of Student-Philologist Linguistic Competence Formation And Diagnosis

Abstract

The article gives the description of the goals of modern philological education according to the federal educational standard of higher education of training program «Philology». It deals with linguistic competence as one of the professional competences of a student-philologist. The author of the article depicts the structure of linguistic competence, its components. The article presents the marker-technology as an effective tool of forming the studentslinguistic competence. The structure of the marker-technology, its instrumental basis (the complex of axiological makers: marker of aim, maker of knowledge, marker of motive and marker of experience) and obligatory stages it consists of are presented in the paper. The author gives the algorithm of using the marker-technology in the educational process of a high school to form or improve the level of student-philologist linguistic competence. This process includes three stages. The stages are preparative, performing and examining. The results of the marker-technology implementation into the educational process of students-philologists are given by the author. They show the positive dynamics of linguistic competence level formed by the methods and axiological markers of the given technology used in the educational process.

Keywords: Axiological markerslinguistic competencemarker-tecnologyperformingand examining stagespreparative,students-philologists

Introduction

The process of constant globalization characterizing modern European and Russian higher education demands a new quality of education according to the changed conditions. It also asks for new technologies in the sphere of communication and needs a foreign language as a means of communication. As a result, the whole structure of education should be changed (Fomin, 2015). If earlier the process of learning foreign languages at philological faculties of high schools had a more theoretical character, today it gets a pragmatic focus. Thus English teachers face to the problem of brining student-philologist’s knowledge of a foreign language to the level which corresponds the demands of the linguistic competence.

Problem Statement

The new focus on educational standards considers students’ formation and development of certain competences. One of the main tasks for a student-philologist within the process of studying is to develop his skills in order to be able to perform verbal activity in accordance with goals and communication situations in a certain sphere of professional field. It corresponds the nature of communicative competence, which is based on the set of knowledge, habits and skills ensuring productive and receptive kinds of verbal communication. The linguistic competence or component is considered being a basic component in the communicative competence structure.

Linguistic competence is defined as the use of system of information about the studied language according to its levels. It includes the knowledge of semantics, morphology, phonetics and lexis of the studied language. The student’s ability to construct grammatically and syntactically correct forms as well as to understand the semantic segments in speech organized in accordance with the existing rules of the given language is developed on the basis of this knowledge. It means that a student possesses a linguistic competence if he knows the system of the foreign language and can use it.

Linguistic competence includes a certain sum of knowledge and corresponding skills connected with various aspects of the studied language: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. It is possible to distinguish the following components in the structure of a linguistic competence. Phonetic and phonological component (competence) includes the knowledge of phonological system and the skills to perceive and produce sounds as well as to use the proper intonation. Lexical component includes the knowledge of the vocabulary and the skillsnecessary to use lexical units according to the contextof the situation. Grammar component suggests the knowledge of grammar rules and skills to use grammatical resources of the language properly.

Phonetic and phonological competence is associated with internalized knowledge about a sound system of a foreign language, relevant perceptive and articulatory skills and also skills of their suitable operating in accordance with a communicative situation. The complex of internal instrumental and integrative motives, persuasions and values is also included.

Lexical competence implies the knowledge of the vocabulary involving lexical elements such as phraseological units, set expressions and words as well as grammatical elements which pertain articles, demonstrative pronouns, personal and possessive pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, particles and the skill to use them in speech.

Grammar competence is connected with the knowledge of grammar means and the skill of their use in speech. It means the skill to understand and express a certain sense forming it according to certain rules. They transform lexical units into comprehensive utterances. It also includes the knowledge of grammar units and means of grammatical categories expression, the knowledge of grammar terms, skills of suitable grammar use in verbal activity in various communication situations to solve communicative tasks. In other words, grammar competence is a multicomponent phenomenon assuming the posession of certain grammar knowledge and skills, the ability for linguistic activity by means of the given language (Kaplun, 2014).

The main skill developed within the linguistic competence is a skill to create and percept texts that are a result of verbal activity. It suggests the knowledge of the key linguistic terms such as styles, types of speech, algorithm of description, narration, reasoning, ways of connecting sentences within a text, skills of text analysis. All this corresponds thestate educational standard of higher education for “Foreign Philology” demand (The order of federal state education standard confirmation of higher education of training program 45.03.01 Philology (bachelor degree), 2014).

According to this educational standard a student-philologist by the end of his studies should be able to take part in a written or oral communication to solve the tasks of interpersonal and international interaction. Moreover, he should have the basic skills for contribution analysis of linguistic and literature facts, philological analysis and text interpretation. A student-philologist should be fluent in the studying language in its literary form. He also should know the basic methods and devices of various types of written and oral communication in a given language and have skills of translation different kinds of texts from foreign languages and into them. He should be able to annotate and report the papers, scientific texts and fiction in a foreign language. A student-philologist should be able to give classes and extra curriculum activities in the given language and literature in the secondary schools and vocational secondary schools. He also should be able to prepare teaching aids to give classes and extra curriculum activities based on existing methods of teaching (The order of federal state education standard confirmation of higher education of training program 45.03.01 Philology (bachelor degree), 2014).

As it is knownone of the main tasks of the modern higher education is the training specialists with a high level of their professional competence. It is fully referred to the students who study foreign philology. Linguistic competence of a student studying a foreign language is one of the components of his professional competence which provides the ability for the appropriate verbal communication in all spheres of human activity following rules of verbal behavior.

Research Questions

Speaking about the problem of student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation one should understand that every kind of activity included into the process of studying brings the diversity not only by its content area, but by the impact on the attitude towards the environment and a person himself, personality formation and the development of ways for his independent actions (Selevko, 2005). Nowadays the modern society requires these qualities. A studentof philology who is interested in communication and achievements needs the linguistic competence. Undoubtedly it is a factor of his personal growth.

The essential characteristics and specificity of the phenomenon in the university educational process underline our interest in the student-centered marker-technology (Stukalova et al., 2018). This technology is considered to provide a dedicated process of student’s linguistic competence formation in a self-controlled regime and guarantee its positive dynamics. The aim of this pedagogical technology is to create the set of conditions which are suitable for linguistic competence formation and at the same time able to arrange the experience, communication and the exertion of student’s subject position (Osiyanova, 2013).

The active student’s position becoming a subject of his own development and experience created by axiological markersis one of the main prosperous conditions created by the marker-technology for student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation position (Osiyanova & Temkina, 2013). This technology designs the arrangements for teacher’s managing with the conversion to student’s self-management of the linguistic competence formation process by means of mutual teacher-student actions. The instrumental basis of the technology is a complex of axiological markers ensuring the process of productive verbal activity and development of students’s axiological orientations (Osiyanova, 2013).

Purpose of the Study

The article presents the marker-technology as an effective tool of forming the students linguistic competence and its diagnosis. The purpose of the study is to prove that the complex of suggested axiological markers (marker of aim, maker of knowledge, marker of motive and marker of experience) which constitute the instrumental foundationof the marker-tecnology can improve the level of student linguistic competence and influence the development of subject personal qualities. The process of linguistic competence formation by means of the marker-technology can be considered optimal in case the diagnosis proves positive dynamics in all components of the competence under study.

Research Methods

According to the purpose set before the research the following research methods were used: theoretical, empirical and mathematical. The research needed the use of analysis of reference materials inpedagogics, linguistics, language pedagogics,the experience of progressive teachers, observation,interviewing, questioning, linguistic skills testing, diagnostics of personal qualities and empathic abilities, Delphi method, self-esteem.

Findings

Axiologycal markers

Axiological markers are the characteristic feature of the marker-technology(Efremova, 2010).They help manage the process of linguistic competence formation from teacher’s side and self-manage this process from student’s side. The markers is an important condition of the student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation process in a self-managing regime. It means “reflexive management” that is typical for various types of activity (Osiyanova, 2015). It is determined as a self-observation, self-actualization, a person’s experience appeal to himself and person’s inner world (Osiyanova, 2018). A teacher in such a case “manages” the processes of student’s self-management. The goal of their co-operative activity is to develop student’s skills of self-management in his educational and professional activity.

As axiological markers, that build the instrumental foundation of student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation we understand following markers: aim, motive, knowledge, experience. They are «supporting points» which have to provide a successful communication in any combinations (Temkina, Osiyanova, Tuchkova, Turlova, & Osiyanova, 2016). All the markers have an axiological character as they supply the orientation and depict the arrangements for increasing the quality of verbal activity and personal development of a student. They help orientate quickly in grammatical and syntactical forms, use phonetical and lexical material correctly taking into consideration the previous knowledge and experience (Temkina et al., 2016).

Axiological markers of student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation form the complex, where the aim, motives, knowledge and the experience are a kind of algorithm for the verbal activity. They are built into various hierarchic structures on different stages of communication. The leading role is for the maker of aim as a backbone factor in achieving the aim of people’s verbal activity in accordance with their motives and axiological orientations. The aim is the way for integration of various human’s actions into some kind of sequence and system. Certainly, the aim as one of the elements of human’s behavior and conscious human’s activity and identifies the character of that activity and the ways to achieve the result with the help of suitable means (Zimnyaya, 2004; Selevko, 2005). Markers of aim provide the suitable choice and independent goal set due to the motives of communication.

Marker of motive provokes the verbal activity and creates the advantageous conditions for its development. It helps to express the interest in the results of linguistic competence formation, person’s self-actualization as the subject of verbal and educational activity and person’s life-sustaining activity in general. It is based on person’s requirements, interests, creeds and axiological orientations. Marker of motive stresses the significance of inducements in student-philologist’s linguistic competence formation. It also forms the orientation to the positive verbal activity, induces the self-estimation, suitable to the achieved success. It should be mentioned that the marker of motive role in the given technology is closely connected with the motivation of achievement. The motivation of achievement is the main condition for the student’s subject positionforming.

Marker of knowledge «marks» the field of knowledge about mastery of the language system according to its levels. It includes the knowledge about semantics, syntax, morphology, phonetics and vocabularyof the given language.

Marker of experience is a «signal, orienting point» in all kinds of verbal activity in practice and in communication with native speakers. It defines the choice of subjects’ verbal behavior, their speech style, communicative actions, sets and emotions in accordance with age, sex, social status and profession of the interlocutor (Osiyanova, 2018).

All markers have axiological character as they provide the orientation and present the scheme for linguistic competence formation. They help orientate quickly and correctly while students are doing the tasks, design the utterance correctly considering the knowledge and experience.

The marker-technology pedagogical potential

The marker-technology of student-philologist linguistic competence formation is an organized, dedicated and managed by the system of axiological markers a teacher-student interaction in educational process with the use of methods of teaching, oriented to achieve a preplanned level of linguistic competence, person’s axiological orientations, activation of student’s cognition interests, creative self-sufficiency. Axiological markers provide self-regulation and self-organization of student’s verbal activity and the change from subject-object relations within the educational process into subject-subject ones (Osiyanova, 2013). The marker-technology allows organizing the process of student linguistic competence formation to be systematic and consistent. It specifies the ways, means and methods of a teacher-student interaction and ensures their appropriate cooperation in order to achieve the necessary level of linguistic competence, being based on the curriculum.

All mentioned above proves that the marker-technology has the following pedagogical capacities for student-philologist linguistic competence formation and may be used as a means of its diagnostics. They are revealed on the didactic, developing and personal levels.

On the didactic level the marker-technology helps acquire firmer subject knowledge, teachers to manage independently one’s own educational and cognitive activity. It provides the acquirement of various ways for the verbal activity, helps the integration of linguistic competence content aspects with the subject content of the curriculum. Observation, interviewing, questioning, lingvo-communication skills testing are used on this level to diagnose the dynamics of student’s linguistic competence level.

On the developing level methods and means of the marker-technology provide the development of oriented, analytical, verbal, informative and reflexive skills of linguistic competence. The student’s ability to use axiological markers within the vebal activity can be tested with the use of Delphi method, self-esteem, diagnostics of personal qualities and empathic abilities improvement.

On the personal level the complex of axiological markers ensures student incorporation in problem-based situations which help develop his subjective qualities such as assertiveness, independence, cognitive interest, creativity (Osiyanova, 2013; Ibragimov, Moiseyev, Ilkevich, & Gayazov, 2017). The above mentioned diagnostic methods prove it.

The complex of existing abilitiesof the marker-technology form its potential capacity in student-philologist linguistic competence formation and evaluation.

The marker-technology stages

The student-philologist linguistic competence formation process by means of marker-technology included in our pedagogical experiment three stages. These stages are preparative, performing and examining.

At the preparative stage first of all we identified and formulated tasks of verbal activity with the use of interactive technologies and axiological markers. We provided the creation of the necessary students’ motivation and cared about reducing all possible linguistic and speech difficulties. At this stage the students were given the markers to solve preparative linguistic tasks (marker of aim, marker of knowledge, marker of experience). The teacher explained how to use them. The preparative tasks were to refresh background knowledge, delete context and language difficulties of text understanding and at the same time to form syntactic, semantic, morphological, phonetical and lexical components of linguistic competence. They took into account lexical, grammatical and cultural peculiarities of the country of studied language. This stage included the work with the vocabulary and handouts containing the complex of tasks oriented to the text understanding. The main aim of this stage was to prepare students for group work and work in pairs deleting language difficulties (analysis of the meaning of certain words and phrases), orientations to understand the whole theme of the class based on the title, key words, pretext tasks. Preparative orientation to perception realised through the discussion of pretext questions and the use of various methods of modern interactive technologies: «Group discussion», «BarCamp», «Open Space Technology», «Solution Tree», project work (Mensh, 2015).

At the performing stage we had the aim to develop language and speech skills. The students did the exercises with the authentic texts, providing the formation of social and cultural knowledge and compensational skills as well as the skills of taking part in a discussion according to the rules of speech etiquette using the markers (marker of aim, marker of knowledge, maker of experience) with teacher’s help. The teacher gave the clues what markers could be used. The tasks of this stage helped form the syntactic and semantic components of linguistic competence.

The examining stage was used to test the level of reading skills and skills of oral speech. The main thing at the lesson was to involve students into the group or pair discussion of the read material. The tasks contained questions for comprehension check of the text and were aimed at testing the level of compensational skills formation. The examining stage included such kinds of work as the creative tasks, stimulating the students to give their opinion on the problem of the text. It provoked students’ thinking activity. Students were analyzing the use of the markers themselves while they were doing the tasks. At this stage students used the axiological markers without teacher’s help.

The marker-technology diagnosis

One hundred students took part in our research. According to initial diagnostics 60% of freshmen had a low level of linguistic competence, 20% had an average level of linguistic competence, 10% had higher than average level of linguistic competence and 10% had a high level of linguistic competence.

The research among the second year students depicted that 55% of students had a low level of linguistic competence, 25% had an average level correspondently. The higher than average level was found among 10% of students. 10% of students-philologists of the second year had a high level of linguistic competence.

The interview of the third year students showed that 50% of them had a low level of linguistic competence, 20% had an average level. 15% of recipients had a higher than average level and 15% had a high level of linguistic competence.

The research among the graduating students of the philology faculty of Orenburg State University revealed that 48% of students had a low level of linguistic competence, 20% had an average level, 17% of students had a higher than average level. 17% of students had a high level of linguistic competence.

Conclusion

The realization of the maker-technology in an educational process of philology students showed that the use of axiological markers increased the level of all components within the linguistic competence. All in all the experiment in a group of the third year students showed the positive change of their linguistic competence level the formation of which was held with the help of marker-technology. Their level of the linguistic competence improved. The number of students with a low level of linguistic competence decreased from 50% to 43%, the number of students having an average level decreased from 45% to 37% and the number of students with a high level increased from 15% to 25%.

The data above prove that the marker technology could be really considered as an effective means in the process of students-philologists linguistic competence formation and diagnosis.

References

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About this article

Publication Date

20 April 2020

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978-1-80296-082-2

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European Publisher

Volume

83

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Discourse analysis, translation, linguistics, interpretation, cognition, cognitive psychology

Cite this article as:

Osiyanova, A. V. (2020). Maker-Technology As A Means Of Student-Philologist Linguistic Competence Formation And Diagnosis. In A. Pavlova (Ed.), Philological Readings, vol 83. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 311-319). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.04.02.34