APPLICATION OF LINGUISTIC
TYPOLOGY IN TRAINING OF
RUSSIAN FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS.
HOW CAN LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
DATABASES BE USEFUL IN
STUDYING LANGUAGES?
Galeev T.,
Kazan Federal University
(Russia)
INTRODUCTION
• There are significant differences between the
knowledge of the native and foreign languages.
Person learns native language not because of his
conscious effort to know the language, but
because of natural development of thinking
at early age.
• Human studies a foreign language usually in
conscious age in addition to the already acquired
as a system and set of rules. Such language
acquisition is characterized by conscious and
deliberate way. It is typical for studying a foreign
language when students learn rules and
regulations to apply it in communication .
Neuro-linguistic approach
• According to neurolinguistics, language contacts
(interaction between students' native
languages and the foreign language in the
process of learning) occur each owning a foreign
language or studying it. It is believed that one
hemisphere of the cerebral cortex is focused on
the knowledge of the native language (usually
left as a dominant), while the other hemisphere
(usually right) manages a second language.
• The influence of the native language can be
studied both positive and negative (the word
forms in the native language are transferred to
the target language, which may be a source of
error). Positive transfer is called «transposition»
and the negative – «interference».
• Considering the phenomenon of migrations
between two language systems in contact,
teacher of a foreign language should strive to
build their classes based the nature of
interaction between the two languages. The
purpose of the work is to ensure wider use of
positive transfer from the native language to
learn and possibly prevent negative
transference.
Contrastive approach
• The direction of linguistic studies associated
with the comparison of different languages with
the aim of identifying the similarities or
differences at all levels of the language system is
being developed within the framework of a
comparative (or contrastive) linguistics.
• According to the principle of consideration of
the native language difficulties of the target
language caused by differences between native
and target languages are being accounted in the
selection of educational material for training, its
presentation and consolidation. This
principle is most consistently implemented in
textbooks and manuals, aimed at native
language of the students.
• Appropriate lexical and grammatical comments
and exercises help to overcome the interfering
influence and usage of positive transfer from the
native language. This principle of learning
implements in practice in two forms: 1) latent,
or hidden, when the supply of the material is
made with the intention to prevent possible
errors and 2) expressed – conscious
comparison of features of native and second
languages.
• This mapping takes place mainly in textbooks
designed for lessons with philologists and is
being implemented in the form of the principle
of relying on the native language of the
students.
• The aim of the article is not just a representation
of certain results but also an outlining a
common path, which it is possible to improve
the process of teaching a foreign language.
Quantitative approach
• The existence of The world atlas of language
structures (WALS) and Jazyki mira
(«Languages of the World») represents an
excellent opportunity to consider different
choices that have been made or could be made in
future approaches to structuring large amounts
of typological information.
THE WORLD ATLAS OF LANGUAGE
STRUCTURES
• WALS is an international project, which includes
a computer database to 2560 languages and 142
attributes, of which 128 grammar. WALS
interface offers conversion of the results to
various text editors to highlight key features of
the language and to compare them with the
parameters of other languages for teaching
phonetics and grammar.
LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD (JAZYKI
MIRA)
• «Languages of the World» (JM) database was
created at the Institute of Linguistics of Russian
academy of sciences on the base of a series of
monographs. JM contains data for 315
languages, mostly from Eurasia. The great
advantage of this database is that its interface
allows comparison of languages by parameters.
For example of comparison was taken unrelated
to Russian Turkish. The table above clearly
shows any language peculiarities will arise great
difficulty in teaching.
CONCLUSIONS
In comparison of two languages teacher faces three
groups of language phenomena :
a) having analogues in students' native language;
b) having no analogues in students' native
language;
c) overlapping in the two languages.
• Language phenomena belonging to the first
group absorbed relatively easily, because it is
transferred speech skills in the native language
to the target language. The greatest difficulty
represent phenomena, overlapping in the two
languages, because of the negative influence
of the native language, and phenomena that
are not in their native language.
• Phonetic interference inhibits the formation of
phonetic base in second language. Its effect is
manifested both in production and in the
perception of speech. The result of this
interaction is a violation hearing and
pronunciation skills in the target language.
It is useful to follow the guidelines when implementing
mentioned principles of learning in the classroom:
1. When explaining new lexical and grammatical
phenomena show students how they can build on their
existing knowledge, skills in the native language.
2. Demonstrate differences in pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar, existing in two languages when expressing
similar but different phenomena.
3. Include in the system of training exercises, taking into
account the difficulties of the phenomenon for students
and helps to overcome such difficulties. Many textbooks
such exercises are specially marked (for example,
corrective language courses).
• The work is performed according to the Russian
Government Program of Competitive Growth of
Kazan Federal University.
REFERENCES
[1] Shchukin, A. (2003). Metodika prepodavanija russkogo jazyka kak inostrannogo. [Methodology of teaching Russian as a
foreign language.]. 334 p. Vyshaya Shkola
[2] Schepens, J., Van der Slik, F., & Van Hout, R. (2013). Learning Complex Features: A Morphological Account of L2
Learnability. Language Dynamics and Change, 3(2). 218-244. Special issue, "Phylogeny and Beyond: Quantitative Diachronic
Approaches to Language Diversity", edited by Michael Dunn. [PDF] http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1163/22105832-13030203
[3] Gak, V. (2014). Russkij jazyk v sopostavlenii s frantsuzskim. [Russian language in comparison with French.] 264. Lenand
[4] Smirnitskiy, A. (1975) Ocherki po sopostavitelnoj grammatice russkogo I anglijskogo yazykov. [Essentials Of Russian
Grammar.] 380 p. Vyshaja Shkola
[5] Isachenko, A. (2003). Grammaticheskaya strucktura russkogo jazyka v sopostavlenii so slovatskim: morfologija [The
grammatical structure of the Russian language in comparison with the Slovak: Morphology.] 880 p. Jazyki slavyanskoj kultury
[6] Vagner, V. (2001). Metodika prepodavaniya russkogo jazyka dlya anglogovoryashchikh I frankogovoryashchikh [Methods of
teaching Russian language for English speakers and French-speakers: Phonetics. Graphics. Speaking.] 384 p. Vlados
[7] Kuznecova, I. (2006). Prakticheskij kurs sopostavitelnoj grammatiki russkogo I frantsuzskogo jazykov. [Practical course of
comparative grammar of Russian and French languages.] 315 p. MSU Publisher
[8] Rezvetsova, M. (1989). Praktikum po sopostavitelnoj tipologii anglijskogo I russkogo jazykov [Workshop on comparative
typology of English and Russian languages.] 160 p. Prosveshchenije
[9] Arakin, V. (2005). Sravnitelnaja tipologija anglijskogo I russkogo jazykov. [Comparative typology of English and Russian
languages.] 232 p. Fizmalit.
[10] Schepens, J., Van der Slik, F., & Van Hout, R. (2013). The effect of linguistic distance across Indo-European mother tongues
on learning Dutch as a second language. In L. Borin & A. Saxena (Eds.), Comparing Approaches to Measuring Linguistic
Differences, pp 199-230. Mouton de Gruyter
[11] WALS — The World Atlas of Language Structures / HASPELMATH M., DRYER M., GIL D., COMRIE B. (Eds.) Oxford, 2005.
[12] Polyakov V., Solovyev V., Wichmann S., Belyaev O. (2009). Using WALS and Jazyki mira // Language Typology. V. 13. P.
135—165. Walter de Gruyter and Co.
[13] Poljakov V, Solov’ev V. (2006). Komp’juternye modeli i metody v tipologii I komparativistike. [Computational models and
methods in typology and comparative linguistics.]. 208 p. Kazanskij gosudarstvennyj universitet.