Shaping Students' Professional Identity Through Flt Content: Pragmatic And Axiological Linguistic Modelling

Abstract

Even with a multitude of approaches and techniques in FLT, this field still lacks the tools to ensure the students’ full linguistic and cultural immersion in terms of axiological features of target language. With the majority of formalised LSP teaching methods, even a good command of target language becomes insufficient since it does not reflect any pragmatic-axiological relevance. We think that a proper language acquisition should focus on fundamental cultural values and their linguistic interpretation. Therefore, the objective of this study is to describe the theory of pragmatic and axiological linguistic modelling as an indispensable FLT tool, and to develop its step-by-step methodology for verification of its validity on the material of FLT discourse. Along with that, the paper explains how the results of this modelling can be implemented into FLT practice via changes in curriculum/exercise construction. The proposed method of professional identity formation is based on shaping professional language personality and consists of discourse analysis, pragmatic-communicative analysis, functional and linguoaxiological analysis. This procedure accentuates dominant axiological spheres through constructing value-charged concepts of the professional FLT discourse. As a new FLT material generation tool, this method states that a proper axiologically-charged professional curriculum would be a set of materials organised to reflect most important professional processes. This allows us to purposefully form students' professional language personality and competences necessary in this sphere. Since all the mentioned factors are based on the axiologically-charged language material, they amplify the overall axiological effect and help build a solid and value-oriented professional identity.

Keywords: Pragmaticsaxiological linguisticsmodellingprofessional identityprofessional language personalityaxiological sphere

Introduction

Being one of humanity's oldest philosophical issues, pedagogy as a field of study incorporates millennia of investigation history. Each period of historical development required a specific method of teaching. According to the fact that in the past decades much research has focussed on different aspects of teaching as a form of shaping students’ identity, it stands to reason that we are on the verge of establishing a new teaching method, holistic in nature and intricate in design.

Even though a plethora of studies in humanities can be found on the topic of personal identity, the linguistic and pedagogical aspects of this topic have a surprisingly superficial coverage, mainly dealing with purely theoretical aspects without any practical outcome (Kroger & Marcia, 2011; McAdams & Zapata-Gietl, 2015). That is why it remains unclear how, for instance, the identity is formed and how this formation can be traced and manipulated. By the same token, even though a lot has been written concerning different types of professional identity (Archer, 2008; Cruess et al., 2016; Hammond et al., 2016; Nadelson et al., 2017), as well as various aspects of its deformation (Costello, 2005), from the point of view of its evolution and practice-oriented forms of development (i.e. how exactly any given professional identity is to be formed, what steps are to be taken, and which outcomes are to be anticipated) this research subject does not have enough coverage, either.

In the light of modern breakthroughs in cognitive science, we hold to the view that the holistic understanding of professional personality and identity regarding an individual as a member of a certain worldview would be impossible to form without accepting them as a specific language personality (i.e. personality with certain linguistic identity, ‘homo communicans’) having distinctive communication behaviour and strategies in each particular professional sphere. It is difficult to argue with Karaulov (2010) claiming that trying to shape a full-fledged personality before the linguistic identity is formed would be as futile as putting the cart before the horse.

Thus, all the above mentioned allows us to put forward the problem of shaping professional identity through language teaching as an important niche which, once being found and established, needs to be scrutinised and exploited. And even though we believe the methodology of shaping professional identity via language teaching to be universal, the focus of our attention is motivated by our area of expertise and deals with the ways of shaping the professional identity of a foreign language teaching (FLT) student.

It is important to highlight that, within the framework of professional identity formation as an innovative language teaching method, as we see it, the main focus is to be on axiological and pragmatic aspects of any professional space subject to being taught. Such an approach seems most reasonable, as it is supported by extensive anthropological research (Brown et al., 2008). In essence, we put forward the hypothesis that pragmatic and axiological modelling of language (i.e. any given professional discourse space) is crucial in any language teaching approach which aims to provide the students with full linguistic and cultural immersion.

Problem Statement

Even with all the plenitude of approaches and techniques in FLT, this field of study still lacks the tools to ensure the students’ full linguistic and, most importantly, cultural immersion in terms of axiological features of target language. Therefore, even a relatively good command of target language becomes ‘impaired’ to a certain extent as its foundation is purely formalised and does not reflect any pragmatic relevance or set of value. The same is true if the matter at hand is language for specific (professional) purposes (LSP). This state of affairs primarily affects students and impedes proper language acquisition where, from our point of view, the main focus is to be made on fundamental cultural values and their linguistic interpretation.

Nevertheless, the method this paper puts forward does not suggest that all the previous ones should be insufficient. On the contrary, we believe that all the existing methods and approaches can considerably benefit from the language material derived with the use of pragmatic and axiological modelling. The method we propose is going to be beneficial for the modern FLT methodology in general and LPS teaching, since it is based on the essence of target language culture and teaches every aspect of language use in terms of its axiological and pragmatic relevance.

As far as we can judge, this way of language material selection is going to significantly boost both teaching and learning processes, enhancing the students’ levels of competence and motivating them to find in each target language much more than meets the ‘purely formalised’ eye. This is exactly the reason why it is important to come up with a relatively clear procedure of pragmatic and axiological modelling.

Research Questions

Current research incorporates many fields of study in the sphere of both theoretical and applied linguistics and aims to develop a coherent and practical approach to forming professional identity through pragmatic and axiological modelling. Thus, the foundation of this investigation is based on the main research question: How does pragmatic and axiological linguistic modelling of FLT content shapes students’ professional identity? Yet, to find the answer to this question, it is necessary to deal with the following ones:

Purpose of the Study

The main objective of this study is to describe the theory of pragmatic and axiological linguistic modelling as an indispensable tool within the framework of foreign language teaching, as well as to develop the methodology of this modelling for future verification of its validity by testing it on the material of the FLT discourse space. The study also seeks an explanation as to how exactly the results of this linguistic modelling can be implemented into foreign language teaching practice via changes in curriculum and, more particularly, exercise construction. In this part of the research, pragmatic and axiological linguistic modelling mainly functions as a stand-alone method of analysis in applied linguistics; nevertheless, it needs to be mentioned that in a broader picture this type of linguistic modelling is an integral element of a much more intricate method in modern linguistics – the conceptual linguistic engineering of professional identity.

Research Methods

Before proceeding to the methodology behind the research, it is important to state the materials used. Given the fact that the field of study under analysis is FLT, all the content used to shape the corpora for further analysis is supposed to be taken from the FLT discourse space, i.e. most famous books and articles dedicated to foreign language teaching methodology: “Learning teaching” by Scrivener (2011), “How to Teach” series by Harmer (2007), “Teaching by Principles” by Brown and Lee (2015), “How Second Languages are Learned” by Hawkins (2018), as well as journal articles by Swan and Walter (2017), Carter and McCarthy (2017), Ur (2019), and Thornbury (2016) to name but a few.

The reason I have chosen the FLT content is simple - even though our department’s research centre is interested in developing the methodology of conceptual linguistic engineering of professional identity which could be easily applied to any kind of discourse space, one of our primary objectives is to add a new dimension to educating and training future teachers of foreign languages by fine-tuning and significantly improving the overall curriculum of this academic area.

The research methods used in this paper have been chosen in accordance with the research questions. To reach the aims of the study, it was necessary to employ methods and ideas of several approaches, namely, linguistic and linguodidactic ones:

5.1. the descriptive method needed to explain the main aspects of conceptual linguistic engineering of professional identity and explain the role pragmatic and axiological modelling plays in this linguistics engineering, as well as the potential it if implemented in FLT sphere;

5.2. a theoretical explanation of the method of pragmatic and axiological modelling demonstrating how exactly this type of linguistic analysis extracts elements of discourse denoting value and arranges them into a corpus for further use in constructing FLT materials;

5.3. the analysis of possible ways to put the results of this modelling to good use in terms of comprising FLT materials.

The methods described correspond with the research questions of the paper and, therefore, represent the procedure of this study.

Findings

Conclusion

Theoretically speaking, the suggested method of FLT material generation and design, based on the principles of pragmatic and axiological modelling, is reliable. Nevertheless, even with a lot of theoretical and, partially, empirical data, this method is still to be tested and fine-tuned in practice. This is the reason why the search for ways to solve the problem of professional identity formation in students led to the creation of a constantly working laboratory that would be engaged in further theoretical research in this field, as well as applying theory in practice. To this end, we created a scientific and educational research laboratory "Conceptual Engineering of Professional Identity: Linguistics and Linguodidactics" under the auspices of the Institute of Romance and Germanic Languages, Information and Humanitarian Technologies of Pyatigorsk State University (Pyatigorsk, Russia).

The results of the studies were the basis for the creation of an experimental methodology for the professional identity formation, which is currently being tested via the disciplines "Practice of Professionally Oriented Speech (English language)" and "Professional Communication (Spanish Language)" for the students of the following specialty - "Theory and Practice of Teaching Foreign Languages & Cultures". Conceptually, the use of the methodology consists both in running practical classes using the pilot manual developed by the laboratory research group, as well as in the activation of the creative component of students through the implementation of project activities. The current stage of the research is writing English and Spanish pilot manuals in accordance with all the theoretical background described in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The reported study was funded by RFBR under Research Project No. 20-012-00364 А (project superviser - Alexander Y. Bagiyan).

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