Теория и практика эффективного преподавания иностранных языков
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MEAN-WHAT-YOU-SAY-AND-SAY-WHAT-YOU-MEAN APPROACH TO ERRORS AND MISTAKES TREATMENT N.I. Igolkina, S.A. Shilova, E.V. Dvoinina Saratov State University Department of the English language and intercultural communication The famous saying “Err is human” is a very helpful excuse for everyone who happens to be faulty and can realize it. But in teacher-learner relationship this aphorism can’t be used as an appropriate explanation for any learner’s failures. There is no doubt that for language teaching “errors”, “mistakes” and their treatment are one of the key notions. One can hardly find any other field of education where this problem attracts more attention than in language teaching. The question “How to treat learners’ errors and mistakes?” is a crucial one for many methodologists. Any young teacher faces this problem as soon as he/she starts teaching and a lot of experienced instructors sooner or later start searching for a new way of error and mistakes treatment because they are not satisfied with the method they use in their teaching practice. The subject matter of this article is the analysis of one more approach to errors/mistakes treatment which has proved to be effective in English language teaching. It is obvious that the way of treating errors and mistakes should be defined by their type. First of all a teacher should differentiate “errors” and “mistakes”. Error analysts distinguish between “errors”, which are systematic, and “mistakes”, which are not. In other words, errors are when students produce incorrect language because they don’t know the correct form and mistakes are when students produce incorrect language although they know the correct form. By definition learners can correct their mistakes but can’t correct their errors. It must be mentioned that the differentiation between “mistakes” and “errors” one can find in the English language literature. The modern understanding of an “error” was introduced by Corder [1, р. 19–27]. According to Corder “error” is an essential and integral part of language learning and acquisition. Error analysts often try to develop a typology of errors. Error can be classified according to the basic type: omissive, additive, substitutive or related to word order. They can be classified by how apparent they are: overt errors such as "I angry" are obvious even out of context, whereas covert errors are evident only in context. Errors may also be classified according to the level of language: phonological errors, vocabulary or lexical errors, syntactic errors, and so on. They may be assessed according to the degree to which they interfere with communication: global errors make an utterance difficult to understand, while local errors do not [2]. From methodological point of view these typologies are not quite applicable in language teaching. For example, from linguistic data alone, it is often impossible to reliably determine what kind of error a learner is making. Moreover, error analysis can deal effectively only with learner production (speaking and writing) and not with learner reception (listening and reading) and it cannot control for learner use of communicative strategies such as avoidance, in which learners simply do not use a form with which they are uncomfortable. Some researchers suppose that before handling the problem of error/mistakes treatment a deep analysis of the acquisition-learning hypothesis seems necessary. By formulating this hypothesis, Krashen pointed out the existence of two fundamentally separate processes in the mind of second language learners (or acquirers). Acquisition takes place when one is totally concentrated on the meaning of incoming messages whereas learning requires a focus on form. According to S. Krashen the outcome of acquisition is (subconscious) Acquired Competence (AC), while the product of learning experience is (conscious) (LC) Learned Competence, between which there exist no interface. [3]. But many theorists and teachers reject his statement that “learning does not become acquisition” (Ibid, Yorio, Rivers). We also assume that learning and acquisition are the “two ends of a continuum that adult second language learners must have access to if they are to become effective and accurate communicators” [4]. One of the practical ideas expressed by S.Krashen is that teachers should focus more on the meaning (acquisition) rather than on the form (learning). But we think that teachers cannot separate form from meaning in learning procedures. Moreover, teachers should train the learners to pay deliberate attention not only to the contents of the messages they listen to or read but also to the formal features of the target language. In training learners to do it error/mistake treatment can be very helpful for teachers. There is one more idea expressed by Krashen and Terrell we would to touch upon [5]. They suggests that in natural communication, only meaning error that hampers communication should be corrected and that teachers should only treat such errors in order not to create a negative atmosphere. Instead, they limit the application of form based error correction to grammar sessions where the aim is already the teaching of the form. This idea has proved to be fruitful and effective from the practical point of view. Our experience shows that many learners want their errors and mistakes to be corrected and explained. According to our observations one of the most fruitful and resulting way of covert error treatment is when teachers explain to their students the real meaning of students statements. It often happens that these errors produce humorous effect, which can be used to enhance learning. Funny covert mistakes can be an effective tool to prevent possible learners’ errors and mistakes. For a example, if the students are asked to visualize the following sentence with a mistake “She was a beautiful young girl with a golden hair” and they imagine a beauty with one golden hair, it makes the rule much more meaningful than just explaining the usage of singular and plural forms of some nouns. It is far more productive to help students understand another meaning, possibly an amusing one, than citing the rule from a grammar book. We have worked out the following rules to error/mistakes treatment that help do this work more effective:
Positive sides of this approach:
Here we give you some examples of vocabulary and syntactic errors and mistakes with explanations of their real meaning to students.
Finally it can be observed that errors and mistakes treatment deserves the most careful study by language teachers as one of the tools that can contribute a lot to language learning. The famous motto “Mean what you say and say what you mean” must become the motto of any learner irrespective of the method or approach their teacher uses. REFERENCES
LANGUAGE, CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND TEACHING TRANSLATION B. R. Mogilevich Saratov State University Department of the English language and intercultural communication At present the problems of cross-cultural tolerance to and respect for other people’s cultures and points of view are far more than urgent and important. Indeed, the cases of hatred and violence based on different national and cultural identities are numerous and frightening. Learning a foreign language is inseparable from learning the data on culture, national identity, traditions, speakers’ mental peculiarities alongside with the processes of speech producing and its perception [1, р. 68]. Only the systematic knowledge of all the information, mentioned above, provides the fulfillment of educational and intellectual teaching tasks. All this is possible within the framework of a rather new branch of philology subjects named linguistic cultural studies. This subject embraces a wide range of back ground knowledge which is absolutely necessary for training translators in the field of professional communication. Translation represents a cross-cultural activity, therefore all translation phenomena should be considered from the point of view of correlation and comparison not only of languages but cultures as well. In this connection teaching a foreign language culture in terms of understanding and respecting other people and their ways of life has become a task for foreign language teachers. According to A. Sepir “a language does not exist outside culture” [2]. Therefore, language knowledge (grammar, vocabulary and so on), is not enough to master a foreign language properly. A foreign language learner should possess background knowledge as well. It includes the knowledge of this language speakers’ culture. A language, in its turn, reflects its culture (traditions, customs, ways of life, moral values, mental peculiarities). A language stores up its culture in its grammar, vocabulary, phraseology, and literature; any language reflects the culture of its speakers; it is, on the one hand, “the money bag” of culture and, on the other hand, the messenger of culture. A language transmits culture: by means of words people get to know their culture. But a language also forms its speakers’ personalities by means of culture [2]. Foreign language teachers must train their students to correlate the words with the things meant. And this is possible in case the teachers possess the knowledge of words usage in the process of producing speech [3]. These problems of lexical correlation become evident in the process of languages interaction, that is in the process of translation. Translation, being a cross-cultural activity, is one of the most important means of learning a foreign culture. Foreign language learners often come across the so-called cultural clashes. They happen mostly when the learners get acquainted with an everyday foreign culture. It is common knowledge that there exist two cultures: Culture (music, painting, architecture, literature), and everyday culture (ways of life). Cross-cultural clashes take place mostly in terms of misunderstanding other people’s everyday culture. To avoid these conflicts foreign language teachers should be specialists in linguistic cultural studies. This new branch of philology has recently come into being, but has already gained many followers [4, р. 5]. In particular, the chair of English and inter-cultural communication of SSU trains a lot of non-linguistic students in the field of professional translation. The curriculum incorporates such subjects as: Foreign Language Theory, Translation Theory, British and American Studies, Cross-cultural Communication, Global English and Translating Ethics, to name only a few. They all are based and taught within the framework of cross-cultural communication. For example, the lectures on Translation Theory include such items as: lexical translating devices (phraseology, slang, neologisms, and international words); translation adequacy, translation equivalency, sociolinguistic and cultural aspects of translation. They all give the examples of both linguistic correlation and comparison (grammar and vocabulary) and cultural as well. In conclusion, it should be noted that teaching cross-cultural communication is an encouraging and challenging task which is pleasant and joyful for foreign languages teachers and lecturers. REFERENCES
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