Lexicological studies: a multilingual aspect

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

LEXICOLOGICAL STUDIES: A MULTILINGUAL ASPECT

A.I. Anisimova

Анотація

linguistic lexicology multilingual language

Описується конкретні прояви мультілінгвалізму як лінгвістичного явища при вивченні лексикології: п'ять тем курсу представлені в мультилінгвальному аспекті. Досліджено використання предметно-мовного інтегрованого методу (CLIL), а також визначені деякі аспекти його впливу на розвиток мультилінгвальної компетентності студентів-філологів. Підкреслено, що мультілінгвалізм стає все більш поширеним явищем в сучасному суспільстві. Цей факт є однією з причин, чому мультилінгвальна компетентність була виділена Європейською системою вищої освіти однієї з ключових серед тих, якими повинен володіти сучасний конкурентоспроможний фахівець. Одним із способів оволодіння мультилінгвальною компетентністю є використання методу CLIL, що було практично представлено на курсі лексикології англійської мови. Вважається, що цей метод відіграє надзвичайно важливу роль в процесі мовної освіти, а також є невід'ємним компонентом білінгвальної і мультилінгвальної освіти. Детально представлені типові прояви методу CLIL, що сприяє розвитку мультилінгвально-лінгвістичної компетентності у студентів-філологів, що є однією з основних задач навчального плану. Навчальні програми дисциплін відповідають вимогам стандарту вищої школи. Таким чином, вивчення предмету комбінується з розвитком мовних і лінгвістичних навичок, придбанням мультилінгвальних знань, які ведуть до формування мультилінгвальної компетентності.

Ключові слова: метод CLIL, мультілінгвалізм, білінгвальна освіта, мультилінгвальна освіта, мультилінгвальна компетентність, лексикологія.

Аннотация

Описывается конкретные проявления мультилингвализма как лингвистического явления при изучении лексикологии: пять тем курса представлены в мультилингвальном аспекте. Исследовано использование предметно-языкового интегрированного метода (CLIL), а также определены некоторые аспекты его влияния на развитие мультилингвальной компетентности студентов-филологов. Подчеркнуто, что мультилингвализм становится все более распространенным явлением в современном обществе. Этот факт является одной из причин, почему мультилингвальная компетентность была выделена Европейской системой высшего образования одной из ключевых в ряду тех, которыми должен владеть современный конкурентоспособный специалист. Одним из способов овладения мультилингвальной компетентностью является использование метода CLIL, что было практически представлено на курсе лексикологии английского языка. Считается, что этот метод играет чрезвычайно важную роль в процессе языкового образования, а также является неотъемлемым компонентом билингвального и мультилингвального образования. Детально представлены типичные проявления метода CLIL, что способствует развитию муль- тилингвально-лингвистической компетентности у студентов-филологов, что является одной из основных задач учебного плана. Учебные программы дисциплин отвечают требованиям стандарта высшей школы. Таким образом, изучение предмета комбинируется с развитием языковых и лингвистичных навыков, приобретением мультилингвальных знаний, которые ведут к формированию мультилингвальной компетентности.

Ключевые слова: метод CLIL, мультилингвализм, билингвальное образование, мультилингвальное образование, мультилингвальная компетентность, лексикология.

Annotation

The article deals with the issues where multilingualism as a linguistic phenomenon is successfully revealed in the Lexicological studies, namely, in the five lexicological problematic questions of the course, and the whole topic is dedicated to the Multilingual aspect in Lexicology.

It covers the description of CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) and some aspects of its influence on the process of development of students' multilingual competence. It is emphasized that multilingualism has become a widespread phenomenon in modern society. A considerable number of people speak more than two languages in their everyday life due to historical, social, or economic reasons. This is one of the causes why multilingual competence has been defined as one of the key competences that a modern competitive specialist should possess according to the European System of Higher Education. CLIL is usually thought to play an increasingly important part in language education, both as a feature of foreign teaching and learning, and as an element of bi- and multilingualism, that was evidently presented in the course of English Lexicology. The ability to apply multilingual competence is one of the key objectives of the curriculum. Multilingual competence presupposes that speakers use different languages for different contexts and purposes, but their influence on the languages may differ. The article gives a detailed description of the features typical of CLIL. So, subject learning combined with language learning leads to the formation of multilingual knowledge, which contributes to the development of multilingual competence.

Keywords: CLIL, multilingualism, bilingual education, multilingual education, multilingual competence, lexicology.

The main text

Multilingualism as a societal phenomenon contains a great number of aspects and notions in its multifacet structure. What should be pointed out within the framework of the present research are the two key principles stored in the notion multilingualism.

On the one hand, multilingualism is an ability of a particular community or group of people to speak more than one language and to use this ability in their everyday lives. Besides, multilingualism is one of the competences that a modern specialist should possess in order to be successful in his career. This idea has been a central one in the European policy since the very beginning of the European Union existence. However, the first official guidelines on multilingualism were highlighted by the European Union Commission only in 2005 [8; 12].

On the other hand, the term “multilingualism” is applied when describing a simultaneous and peaceful coexistence of different linguistic communities on one specific geographical or geopolitical territory [8; 12]. Moreover, multilingualism is guaranteed in the official documents of the EU and adopted by decision-making authorities and translated into and issued in eleven languages. However, the level of awareness of multilingualism varies considerably. It is guaranteed at the highest level of political representation. In meetings held at the highest level of the European Council, simultaneous interpretation is provided and all the documents are translated into eleven languages [11, p. 101-102]. This is also the case in plenary sessions of the European Parliament.

The idea of multilingualism and multilingual education has been attracting researchers' attention for quite a long time. The European Union is striving to implement a multilingual component as a part of its general policy into all the spheres of social life [10].

In addition to that, multilingualism is understood in multilingual education as a multilingual competence that means to have high proficiency in two languages but be relatively monocultural [12, p.11]

Identifying the extent to which individuals should be proficient in each of their languages is essential for understanding which goals are attainable in multilingual education and in the process of acquiring a multilingual competence.

Moreover, acquisition of multilingual competence has become one of the key demands of the higher education; this is a competence that a competitive specialist should possess. However, there comes a question how a person can acquire a multilingual competence.

One of the answers to this question is to do that through CLIL type approach that is Content and Language Integrated Learning. CLIL is usually thought to play an increasingly important part in language education, both as a feature of foreign language teaching and learning, and as an element of bi- and multilingualism. As students develop their language competences, they are able to deal with more complex topics, so teaching material needs to offer learners an interesting and challenging subject matter [5; 9].

It is worth mentioning that CLIL is generally thought to be a “dual-focused approach” that gives equal attention to language and content; it is an educational approach where curricular content is taught through the medium of a foreign language.

CLIL has been identified as very important by the European Commission because it can provide effective opportunities for students to use their new language skills. At present, CLIL type approach has become frequently adopted in European HEIs in the field of economics, humanities, law etc. [4].

The courses in the curricular should be developed in such a way that they should correspond to the requirements of formal education to make the students' competences on the global arena. In this way, subject learning is combined with language learning without overcrowding the timetable.

Thus, such an approach presupposes language instructions in English as lingua franca; moreover, the professors and instructors are not native speakers of English that meets the requirements of CLIL type approach.

It should be mentioned that CLIL lessons are usually timetabled as content lessons that is our students master all the majors mentioned above in English, while the target language (English) continues as a subject in its own right in the shape of foreign language lessons.

Having completed such a course with CLIL type approach the students are supposed to acquire multilingual competence in the field-specific and professional domain, understanding of national and international dimensions of their profession, knowledge and understanding of how multilingual and multicultural individuals and communities operate in such contexts where linguistic and intercultural skills are required.

The aim of the article is to define the peculiarities of CLIL and to figure out the part it plays in acquiring Lexicology as a fundamental discipline in a multilingual aspect.

The results of the research conducted in the framework of the Tempus Project DIMTEGU “Development and Introduction of Multilingual Teacher Education Programs at Universities of Georgia and Ukraine” (530360-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-GE-TEMPUS- JPCR) have been accumulated in separate chapters of the textbook of Lexicology of Modern English: theory and practice [1, p.2].

Inspired by the ideas of multilingualism some units of the course of Modem Lexicology are presented in the multilingual aspect [1].

As far as lexicological studies are concerned, a multilingual aspect is revealed in phraseological units, borrowings, in links with other branches etc. that is among the fourteen specific problems the course of Lexicology contains, the multilingual research is done in five units.

The material of the course addresses fundamental issues of Modern English Lexicology, namely, the general description of Lexicology as a branch of Linguistics and its specific problems. The material proposed serves as an effective tool for understanding the lexical and semantic peculiarities of Modern English Lexicology and leads to students' awareness in doing their own linguistic research.

There are different linguistic aspects. Any language is the unity of different aspects: grammar, vocabulary, and sound system. As Lexicology deals with the vocabulary system, it is definitely connected with all the rest of the aspects. The word is studied in several branches of linguistics and not only in Lexicology, and the latter, in its turn, is closely connected with General Linguistics, the History of the Language, Phonetics, Stylistics, Grammar and such new branches of language studies as Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Multilingual Studies and some others.

Lexicology is bound with Sociolinguistics as well as with other Studies in a multilingual aspect.

Sociolinguistics which deals with relations between the way the language works and develops and the facts of social life, language is the reality of thought, and the thought is developing with the development of society. Every phenomenon of human society finds its reflection in the vocabulary.

Sociolinguists see multilingualism as a socially constructed phenomenon and a bilingual or multilingual person as a social actor. It is also important to mention that for a multilingual speaker, language choice is not only an effective means of communication but also an act of national identity.

Li Wei states that “every time we say something in one language when we might just as easily have said it in another, we are reconnecting with people, situations, and power configurations from our history of past interactions and imprinting on that history our attitudes towards the people and languages concerned; through language choice, we maintain and change ethic group boundaries and personal relationships, and construct and define “self' and “other” within a broader political economy and historical context” [12].

Lexicological studies in a multilingual aspect gives us assurance to state that phraseological units are the heritage of the language showing national verbalized peculiarities of mentality, cognition, and special acquisition of the worldview.

Borrowings as one of the results of language replenishment vividly show the multilingual character of the language.

The English vocabulary has a mixed character. The leading role in the history of its development belongs to the word formation and semantic changes patterned according to the specific features of the English language system. This system absorbed the vast majority of loan words according to its own standards. So, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish old borrowings from a native word. For example, the word cheese, street, wall, wine belong to the earliest layer of Latin borrowings [1, p. 118].

However, there are a lot of loan words which can be clearly defined as borrowed because of their peculiarity in pronunciation, spelling, and morphology. The initial position of the sounds [v], [d3] and [3] is a sign that the word is not of native word- stock: vacuum (Latin), valley (French), vanilla (Spanish). The initial [3] occurs in comparatively late borrowings: gendarme.

Another indicators of borrowings are initial letters j, x, z and such combinations as ph, kh in the root indicate the foreign origin of the word; philology (Greek), khaki (Indian).

Some letters are pronounced differently depending on the origin of the word. Thus, x is pronounced as [ks] or [gz] in words of native and Latin origin respectively, or as [z] in xylophone (Greek). Such a combination as ch is pronounced as [tj] in words of native origin (chair, child), as [j] in words of late French origin (machine, parachute) and [k] in words of Greek origin (epoch, Chemistry) [1, p.120].

From the standpoint of multilingualism the linguistic phenomenon for barbarism attracts special attention. Barbarisms are words taken from other languages used by the English people in conversion or in writing but not assimilated and which have corresponding English equivalents; addio, cia-goodbye.

It should be mentioned that the criteria of barbarism revelation are: strange pronunciation and strange spelling. Barbarism enters languages in 2 ways: through oral or written speech.

Another manifestation of multilingual character of the language in a lexicological aspect is the phenomenon of the English language varieties.

Considering the varieties of the English language to which we study such national varieties as British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, and New Zealand English. We should mention European English as a territorial variant.

Speaking about Europe, we may state that English functions here as a lingua franca (ELF- English as Lingua Franca) - a language used by people whose first (native) languages are different. This thought has also been supported by such linguists as Allan James [6], Petra Jesenska [7], Antje Wilton [13] and others. This statement may also be proved by the fact that English takes the leading position in the list of the official languages of the European Union (EU). All the business letters and documents are written in this very language. According to Eurostat (the European Statistical System), English is the most widespread language in the EU countries.

Moreover, the variety of English functioning in Europe is considered by many linguists [6,7, 13] to be an independent one, so there have been more and more papers researching another variety of English called European English or Euro-English.

So, multilingualism is an interdisciplinary issue of concern. As for the linguistic perspective, the research carried out within its framework concentrates on the questions connected with language acquisition, knowledge and use. The key objective here is to define the nature of multilingual knowledge.

While working on multilingualism we are interested in essentially the same three key issues - multilingual knowledge, multilingual acquisition and multilingual use. However, the research methodologies differ from the ones applied within the framework of linguistic perspective [2].

Thus, the research perspective described allows the researchers to analyze the multifacet phenomenon of multilingualism from different perspectives: multilingualism as an ability; multilingualism as a coexistence of linguistic communities on one territory; multilingualism as a linguistic phenomenon; multilingualism as an educational issue, where the courses in the curriculum are supposed to provide students with multilingual, multicultural competences. The use of CLIL type approach as well as a linguistic phenomenon of multilingualism includes many aspects, that is why it still requires further investigation.

References

1. Anisimova, A. Lexicology of Modem English: Theory and Practice. ДНІПРО: РВВДНУ Акцент ПП, 2017.

2. Anisimova, A. “Multilingual Research: Challenges and Perspectives.” International Conference on Multilingual Education: Challenges and Perspectives (Tbilisi, Georgia), 9 Sept. 2016, pp. 34-37.

3. Baker, C. Foundation of Bilingual Education on Bilingualism. Bristol: Multilingual Motters, 2011, p.4.

4. Content and Language Integrated Learning. https://www.lanqua.eu/theme/content-lan- guage-integrated-learning-clil/.

5. Dalton-Puffer, Ch. “Content-and-Language Integrated Learning: from Practice to Principles.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, vol. 31, 2011, pp. 182-204.

6. James, A. R. “English as European Lingua Franca: Current Realities and Existing Dichotemies.” English in Europe: The Acquisition of the Third Language. Clevedon, 2000, pp. 22-38.

7. Jesenska, P. “Eurospeak and ELF - English as a Current Global Lingua Franca.” Topics in Linguistics, no. 1, 2007, pp. 62-67.

8. Knight, J. “Internationalization of Higher Education.” Quality of Internationalization in Higher Education. Paris: OECD, 1999, pp. 13-18.

9. Lasagabaster, D., and J. M. Sierra. “Language Attitudes in CLIL and Traditional EFL Classes.” International Journal of CLIL Research, vol. 1, 2009, pp. 4-17.

10. Mehisto, P., et al. Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Oxford: MacMillan Education, Limited, 2008.

11. Truchot, C. “Languages and Supranationality in Europe: The Linguistic Influence of the European Union.” Languages in a Globalising World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 90-110.

12. Wei, L. “Research Perspectives on Bilingualism and Multilingualism.” The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008, pp. 3-17.

13. Wilton, A. “The Dynamics of English in a Multilingual Europe.” English in Europe Today: Sociocultural and Educational Perspectives. Amsterdam, 2011, pp. 1-13.

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