ACQUIRING PHRASEOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: LINGUA-CULTURAL APPROACH

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.2.9

The article aims at drawing the attention of language teachers to a huge number of phraseologisms which exist in every language and which are traditionally rarely used while teaching and learning languages and cultures. The fact that phraseology shows the features of folk culture is now widely accepted. The subject of the research is the experience of the author, namely, the investigation of phraseologisms related with lexicology, the stylistics of lexis and Latvian language for practical uses. These days a wide range of investigation is characteristic of linguistics. Lingvo-culturologic viewpoint to the learning of units of speech takes an important part in the investigations. The question of interaction between language and culture is nowadays relevant in our society, which experiences the growth of global problems, therefore, it is becoming essential to consider the versatility and particularity of behaviour of different nations. Looking at relations between different nations, it is important to foresee potential cultural misunderstandings. It is also important to determine cultural values which form the basis for communicational behaviour. In higher education institutions these skills are obligatory for students who, for various reasons, get into different cultural environments. Until 1990 students were encouraged to memorize word forms and to unpack the meaning of words (usually by means of translation) and only at the end of the 90’s the semantic and practical aspects of speech were highlighted in the process of teaching Latvian as a foreign language. The main unit of lingvo-culturologic viewpoint is lingvocultureme. Lingvocultureme belongs both to language and culture, as it unites the meaning of language and culture which exists outside the boundaries of the language system. Lingvocultureme may be the unit of both lexis and syntax: a word, a phrase, a sentence, a text (Gavrilina, Vulane, 2008, pp. 21). According to lingvo-culturologic language research, linguistic analysis allows to divide units of language into three types: words and sayings which totally coincide in the languages compared; words and sayings which partially coincide in the languages compared; words and languages which do not coincide in the language compared. Since 2005 various aspects of lingvo-culturology have also been the subject of the project which is carried out by the European Society of Phraseology. The aim of the project is to discover the similarities rather than differences, i.e. to find the part of phraseology which is common for European languages. The results of the previous project show that identical or similar phraseologisms can be found in nearly 50 languages. Idioms with similar lexical and semantic structure can be found even in languages which are not genetically connected and whose areas of usage are distant from each other. It is important to note that each nation has its own cultural vision of the world and a cultural-historic way. In the phraseologisms of each language the culture, the way of thinking and values of each nation are conveyed. Phraseologisms in texts encourage students to search for culturologic information, through which students can develop their communicative, language, socio-cultural and learning competences. These opportunities are important in the cases when students who get into different cultural environment for various reasons and who have different nationalities study in one group (in homogeneous cultural environment these opportunities are formal). Various problems are possible while learning phraseologisms: different theories on phraseologisms; students do not know phraseologisms; students know phraseologisms, but do not use them; it is impossible to translate the figurative sense of some words literally; different associations (e.g. sun); the same phraseologisms are used in different contexts (e.g. as brave as a lion, as angry as a lion); students need to learn the expressiveness of phraseologisms. While learning lingvoculturemes new opportunities are created: to develop lexis; to get familiarized with the heritage of your own language and culture; to know more about different cultural environment (the values, stereotypes, norms of behaviour, speech etiquette, customs, way of living, etc. of each nation); enrich intercommunion paying respect to cultural heritage; to motivate language users to take interest in linguistic and extralinguistic research. Such information will enrich both sides, as language users who share their experience learn from the cultural traditions of other nations.