Teaching the discipline "Business English" to students of tourism specialties in the frame of lexical approach

The object of activity of the tourist industry is a system of actions aimed at the formation, promotion and sale of tourism product, hotel and restaurant services, excursion, sanatorium and specialized services. Its subjects provide reception, service and transportation of tourists. This is an area of activity that professionals must possess, along with professional knowledge, skills as well as communicative literacy, culture and competence, both within their native culture and in the intercultural communication [2; 3].

Current state of the issue. Learning English for students in the field of study "Tourism" is a stage of practical mastery of the language, the specificity of which is determined by the nature of further professional activity.

Vocabulary is one of the main aspects when learning a foreign language. Lexical competence as a component of linguistic competence consists of knowledge of lexical and grammatical elements. On the choice of lexical elements is influenced by academic and professional areas and situations in which they should be used, so the choice of vocabulary can vary greatly in individual work programs. Questions of vocabulary training in different periods of methodology development foreign language studies have been considered by many researchers, in particular B. Belyaev, M. Weisburd, N. Galskova, N. Gez, Y. Kovalenko, N. Shebekko.

Outline of the unresolved issues brought up in the article. However, there is still no specific theoretical work dedicated to the formation of lexical competence in students' tourist profile as a contributing factor to efficiency teaching English at a non-native university [4-7].

The principles of the lexical approach have been around since M. Lewis published 'The Lexical Approach' 10 years ago [5; 6]. According to M. Lewis, the problem of English communicative formation competence and, in particular, lexical competence, showed that in the process formation of lexical competence it is expedient to allocate three stages:

1) the stage of semantization of lexical units and the creation of an indicative basis for the subsequent formation of lexical skills;

2) the stage of automation of actions of students with vocabulary at the word level, phrase and supra-phrase level;

3) the stage of automation of actions of students with lexical units in the text levels [6-9].

Having studied a significant number of scientific papers with the researched problem [1; 2; 5-7; 10; 12], we came to the conclusion that the most important didactic principles of teaching for the formation of English lexical competence of the future tourism area specialists are the principles of: integrated

learning; systematicity; sequences; acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities; clarity in communication with the principle of information transition; unity of education, upbringing and development; problems; feedback; connection of theory with practice; consideration individual characteristics of students.

Implementation of the principle of integrated learning involves the formation of lexical and grammatical competences in reading, which is integrated with speaking and writing, as well as subject knowledge and skills; formation of lexical and grammatical skills in different types of reading.

In accordance with the principle of systemic consistent and systematic representation of typical grammars structures and grammatical forms, lexical units of the sketch construction project reflect the methodological systematicity related to the learning process [5; 7].

The principle of the formation of knowledge, skills and abilities is the gradual activation of lexical and grammatical knowledge, skills development in accordance with the stages (for S. Shatilov) and the theory of gradual formation of mental actions (according to P. Halperin) [3].

The principle of clarity in connection with the principle of information transition from verbal to visual and on the contrary, which was studied by W. Littlewood and P. Naish [15; 17], becomes especially relevant in the course formation of lexical and grammatical competence. It consists of constant use in educational tasks transition from verbal to nonverbal mode communication and vice versa - from non-verbal to verbal [13].

The principle of problem involves integration of problem and problem- creative tasks, in particular problem- based tasks, in our opinion, should be combined with creative, such as exercises, which imply choosing travel solutions [1; 3].

N. Schmitt makes a significant contribution to a learning theory for the lexical approach by adding that 'the mind stores and processes these lexical chunks as individual wholes' [10].

R. Batstone describes noticing as a complex process that involves the intake both of meaning and form, and it takes time for learners to progress from initial recognition to the point where they can internalize the underlying rule [11].

D. Willis and G. Woodard sum up the principles, objectives and procedures of a language awareness approach as:

- paying deliberate attention to features of language in use can help learners to notice the gap between their own performance in the target language and the performance of proficient users of the language;

- noticing can give salience to a feature, so that it becomes more noticeable in future input, so contributing to the learner's psychological readiness to acquire that feature;

- the main objective is to help learners to notice for themselves how language is typically used so that they will note the gaps and 'achieve learning readiness;

- the first procedures are usually experiential rather than analytical and aim to involve the learners in affective interaction with a potentially engaging text;

- learners are later encouraged to focus on a particular feature of the text, identify instances of the feature, make discoveries and articulate generalizations about its use [12; 13].

Aim of research of this article is to find out the main features and principles of the lexical approach application in the modern educational process alongside with presenting practical lexical approach activities based on mastering business vocabulary.

Results and discussion. 'Lexical chunk' is an umbrella term which includes all the other related terms. We define a lexical chunk as any pair or group of words which are commonly found together, or in close proximity [10].

Collocations are a combination of two or more words that form a stable phrase that is important for the natural sound of a foreign language. In collocations, one component is selected by content, and the choice of the second depends on the choice of the first and is determined by tradition. Moreover, they are built according to certain formulas, namely in accordance with the compatibility of parts of languages and classified by 9 types [14]. Identifying chunks and collocations is often a question of intuition, unless you have access to a corpus (table 1).

Table 1

Examples of the Lexical Chunks

Lexical Chunks (that are not collocations): by the way, up to now, upside down, If I were you, a long way off, out of my mind.

Lexical Chunks (that are collocations): totally convinced, strong accent, terrible accident, sense of humor, sounds exciting, brings good luck.

Having conducted the survey related to the issue of lexical approach, we have identified some common principles which form its basis.

Principle "Grammaticalized Lexis”. In recent years it has been recognized both that native speakers have a vast stock of these lexical chunks and that these lexical chunks are vital for fluent production. Fluency does not depend so much on having a set of generative grammar rules and a separate stock of words - the 'slot and filler' or open choice principle - as on having rapid access to a stock of chunks [7].

Principle "Collocation in Action". In the lexical approach, sensitizing students to acceptable collocations is very important. So, educators might find this kind of task: "Underline the word which does not collocate with 'theme': main theme / large theme / important theme / central theme / major theme".

Further our survey will be connected with the activities that realize the lexical approach in practice. The common goals of them are to enrich the students' vocabulary and create the special environment for mastering and improving lexical units through different communicative contexts.

Lexical Approach Classroom Activity #1. Reading the story "Away Day". The materials in this article aim to achieve the following goals.

General goals: to develop students' reading skills; to increase students' store of lexical chunks.

More specific goals: to motivate students to read by providing texts with universally engaging themes providing activities that allow students; to personalize texts encouraging meaningful and authentic initial reactions to texts; to raise student awareness of the idea of lexical chunking by directing students' attention to specific lexical chunks already encountered in the text helping students analyze these chunks directing students to different means of analyzing lexical chunks; to help students develop skills for independent learning by providing opportunities; to experience lexical chunks in authentic texts encouraging students; to analyze, generalize, research and experiment with lexical chunks providing students with opportunities to discover chunks for themselves [16].

Task 1 "After reading Reaction" [16].

Task#2 "Language Reaction" [16].

Activity #2. "Climate Change". Complete the sentences with the words in the list below: atmosphere, carbon dioxide, fossil fuels, floods, hurricanes, drought, warmer, human, Paris, agreement, levels, greenhouse gases, methane.

1. The earth's climate is changing and the world is becoming w .

2. Climate change is caused by h activities.

3. Petrol > oil, and coal are called f f

4. The burning of fossil fuels releases harmful g g

5. One of the main greenhouse gases is c d (CO2).

6. Another harmful gas is called m

7. Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun in the earth's a

8. As a result of the ice melting in polar regions, the sea l are rising.

9. Climate change can cause an increase in f , h and d .

10. The latest agreement on climate change is called the P A [17].

Activity #3. "Advertising Vocabulary". Task: memorize the meaning of the words relating to advertising and publicity and reproduce them from your memory table 2 [17].

Table 2

Key Phrases for Graphs and Charts Description Examples of Advertising Vocabulary

Presenting Visuals - useful phrases and vocabulary:

As you will see from this graph ...

I'd like to show you this chart on which you will see ...

Let me draw your attention to this part of the graph.

Let's look more closely at this month's figures.

This figure refers to the sales in China only.

This pie chart shows our share of the European market today.

As you can see, our main competitor has an even bigger share.

The bar chart represents sales in our Asian outlets.

Here you can see a comparison between ...

On the line graph you will note:

a strong upward trend in the sales of product A ...

despite occasional fluctuations ...

with a slight drop during the holiday season ...

with occasional variations due to ...

Table 4

Activity #5. "Graphs - Charts'. The meaning of words relating to statistics, results and trends table 4 [17].

Activity #4. "Business Acronyms”. Words formed by the first letters of the words in a phrase table 3 [17].

Activity #6. "Transitional Phrases". The meaning of the term "transitional phrases” needs to be specified, and its definition - clariyication. This is due to contradictions in the interpretation of the mentioned concept, which arise in connection with different approaches to the interpretation of his language nature, which can be explained by traditional and innovative understanding of the essence of this linguistic unit.

According to the definitions of linguists (N. Skrypychnikova [12], S. Shulezhkova [16]), stable verbal complexes (transitional phrases) are a combination of two and more components that are built on the laws of language and have fixed semantics, characterized by reproducibility and stability of the lexical composition and grammatical structure, to which in some cases they link superlative units with or without idiomatic meaning.

Generally speaking, they guide the listener through a meeting or presentation and help them make comparisons and/or draw conclusions table 5 [17].

Table 5

Examples of Transitional Phrases

We are here to discuss / to talk about /to learn more about ...

The first thing to remember is ...

It must be remembered that ...

On the positive / negative side ...

Another key point to note is ...

A major concern is ...

A point often overlooked is ...

A significant issue this year is ...

For one thing ...

So, what I'm saying is ...

This relates to what I was saying earlier about.

Let's consider this

(point/aspect/possibility) in more detail.

By that I mean ...

Translated into real terms this means ... To put it differently / to put it another way.

In other words, what we need to do is ... The significance of this is...

Simply put, that means ...

I'd like to elaborate on that.

With this in mind let's look at ...

Keeping these points in mind let's turn to

Conclusions and research perspectives. Limited hours of academic time, which is dedicated to foreign language, creates the need to develop such teaching methods that would allow educators to reach a high level of students' knowledge. Mainly, in our research we have described one of these modern ways in the form of the lexical approach. Basically, a lexical approach to teaching means the primary focus is on helping students to acquire vocabulary.

Thus, this approach forms grammar skills for students with the goal of verbal communication and with the help of verbal communication. Grammar phenomena are assimilated by students as word forms, combinations of words or models, that is, without being engaged in grammatical rules. The biggest advantage of the lexical approach appears when the lexical and grammatical aspects interpenetrate each other, which develops a sense of language and speech conjecture among students.

To conclude, learning a foreign language through vocabulary broadens student's outlook and expands background knowledge. Nevertheless, implementing a lexical approach in the classroom does not lead to radical methodological changes. It rather involves a change in the teacher's mindset. Most importantly, the language activities consistent with a lexical approach must be directed toward naturally occurring language and toward raising learners' awareness of the lexical nature of language. Consequently, the further investigations can be conducted in the stream of lexical competence formation through extensive reading and listening activities of authentic materials.

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