Literary text in teaching Russian as a foreign language

Summary

The article considers the content and methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language on the material of literary text. The proposed approach (topical issues, system of exercises, visualization) ensures formation of necessary skills in text analysis and interpretation.

Key words: literary text, topical issue, visualization, text analysis, text interpretation, Russian as a foreign language, Fazil Iskander.

Анотація

Романов Ю. О., Гайворонська В. В. Художній текст у викладанні російської мови як іноземної

В статті розглянуто зміст і методику навчання російській мові як іноземній на матеріалі художнього тексту. Запропонований підхід (проблемні питання, система вправ, візуалізація) забезпечують формування необхідних навичок аналізу тексту та його інтерпретації.

Ключові слова: художній текст, проблемне питання, візуалізація, аналіз тексту, інтерпретація тексту, російська як іноземна, Фазіль Іскандер.

Аннотация

Романов Ю. А., Гайворонская В. В. Художественный текст в преподавании русского языка как иностранного

В статье рассматриваются содержание и методика обучения русскому языку как иностранному на материале художественного текста. Предлагаемый подход (проблемные вопросы, система упражнений, визуализация) обеспечивают формирование необходимых навыков анализа текста и его интерпретации.

Ключевые слова: художественный текст, проблемный вопрос, визуализация, анализ текста, интерпретация текста, русский как иностранный, Фазиль Искандер.

Introduction

Modern methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language imply significant role of fiction in the process of language teaching. Works of classical and modern Russian literature are widely used in practice of teaching a very wide audience of Russian language learners, pursuing various goals (living and studying in those countries where Russian is spoken; short-term Russian courses; traineeship; language credits, etc.), as well as upgrade training of international Russian language teachers. In this case, the involvement in the educational process of literary works contributes to the achievement of professional, communicative, practical, cognitive, and educational goals [1].

Thanks to fiction, international students acquire the Russian language in all its richness and diversity; their active, passive, and potential vocabulary is enriched, and the ability for contextual guess is developed. Fiction is the material for the formation of speech habits in various types of speech activity. For L2 learners, the Russian literature serves as a means of modeling the Russian language environment. As for acquisition Russian in the cultural field of Ukraine, the cognitive value of fiction (for example, books by N. Gogol) is that it is an effective means of getting to know the cultural values of Ukraine and parallel formation of L2 learners' intercultural competence based on understanding the local cultural realities [2].

Review of literature

When selecting literary texts for L2 teaching, it is necessary to rely on the general principles of philological analysis of the text.

According to the classical definition of I. Galperin: “The text is a work of language production process possessing completeness, objectified in the form of a written document, literary processed in accordance with the type of this document, a work consisting of the name (title) and a number of special units (superphrasive unities) combined by different types of lexical, grammatical, logical, stylistic connection which has a specific focus and pragmatic attitude” [3, p. 18].

Philological analysis of the text, synthesizing various (linguistic, literary, poetic, semiotic) approaches, is a complex and specific method of analysis characterized by the following parameters: 1) a text is considered as a cultural phenomenon; 2) it is required to pay attention to the wide literary and socio-historical context of the epoch; 3) an analysis of language means as a form of expression of human thoughts and feelings in different types of communication is made; 4) a language personality behind the text, personal language and style are studied, and the text is perceived as a reflection of author's verbal culture and mainstream culture at a certain stage of development [4, p. 4-5].

When working with the literary text, it is important to penetrate the artistic and aesthetic meaning of the work, i.e. to use it not only as a means of teaching Russian language, but also as an independent object of study. There should be a bidirectional process of working with the language of artistic text: on the one hand, identifying meanings of multi-level units they have in the language system, and on the other hand, through studying the behavior and integration of these units in the text, determining additional meanings they acquire [5, p. 6].

As for new trends in text research methodology, it should be mentioned literary concept of “historical consciousness” reflecting the writers' ability to recognize and convey in words the idea of variability of the world, relationship of time, movement in space and time [6, p. 9].

The purpose of this study is to provide guidance on how to prepare learning materials aiming at development of L2 learners' skills in literary text analysis and interpretation.

Main body of the research

The above-mentioned learning materials can be described as a complex consisting of a narrative text, post-textual dialogues, questions to the text and dialogues (topical issues), lexical and grammatical exercises; a brief writer's biography and the list of Russian vocabulary with English equivalents should be also included.

This approach we examplify by the learning materials based on the work by Fazil Iskander - “A Story about the Sea” [7, p. 76-86].

The short writer's biography may include key information about F. Iskander - he was the Russian writer and poet who wrote neither prose nor poetry in Abkhazian, but was “the singer of Abkhazia”; who wrote William Faulkner-like national sagas and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature; who had very fond memories of Sukhumi, the multiethnic city where Abkhazians, Georgians, Armenians and Russians lived side by side and where he was born and brought up (the writer's biography may be based on introductory articles published in [8]).

Working with the Russian vocabulary is considered to be a kind of activivity to be done before getting down to the text. The vocabulary list contains new words, word combinations, and phrases arranged in alphabetical order and highlighted in bold as in te text. In brackets, after a new word (if necessary), a deriving or derived word is given. Where necessary, in parentheses, explanations to determine the pronounced semantics of a word (for example, its figurative meaning, etc.) are given. Synonyms are also put into brackets, but in bold. Aspectual pairs of verbs are presented in accordance with the order of their appearance in the text, i.e. if an imperfective verb is activated, then the verbal pair in the vocabulary list looks traditionally, for example: лечить / вылечить кого? - to cure, treat, if a perfective verb is activated, the imperfective form of the verb is given in brackets with the necessary mark нв: подтвердить (нв подтверждать) что? - to confirm. When interpreting linguistic difficulties, we prefer not translations, but footnotes numbered in ascending order within the text: Отсмеявшись, т.е. перестав смеяться; Солнце ударило по лицу - солнце ярко осветило лицо.