Department of General Linguistics, St. Petersburg State University. Psycholinguistics: an interdisciplinary approach to teaching foreign languages ​​Listen to a lecture course on psycholinguistics at the institute

A specialization in psycholinguistics was opened at the department in 1999 for philology students of St. Petersburg State University (in the 2009/2010 academic year it was finally transformed into the corresponding master’s degree).

Psycholinguistics is an experimental science that has been rapidly developing in recent decades throughout the world. Russian science has long-standing traditions in this area and rightfully occupies a prominent place in the global scientific space. The importance of experimental studies of speech behavior was recognized by such prominent linguists as W. von Humboldt, F. de Saussure, A. A. Potebnya, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, L. V. Shcherba, N. S. Trubetskoy, R. Yakobson, M. M. Bakhtin, V. N. Voloshinov, N. Chomsky, W. Chafe, C. Fillmore and others.

As an interdisciplinary discipline, psycholinguistics requires specialized training in a number of areas - from linguistics itself to neuroscience and speech pathology. Modern textbooks and manuals on psycholinguistics, prepared by the most authoritative authors, clearly demonstrate the need to introduce such sections as the basic principles of the functioning of the nervous system, the structure and functions of the speech, auditory and visual systems, brain mechanisms that provide speech and cognitive processes, models of operating with lexicon, pathology of speech functions, applied aspects of psycholinguistics, etc.

The mutual interest of the two main components of psycholinguistics - linguistics and psychology - is very productive: using the well-developed experimental tools of psychology, linguistics gains the opportunity to test its theoretical positions, and psychology, and in particular neuropsychology, also cannot adequately assess and correct human speech and mental activity without taking into account the achievements of linguistic science in understanding the nature of language and speech.

Neurolinguistics, as a part of psycholinguistics, whose tasks include the study of the brain mechanisms of language functions, took shape as an independent discipline in the second half of the twentieth century, combining the methods and paradigms of linguistics and neuropsychology. Neurolinguistics began to develop especially actively with the advent of new research methods that make it possible to study the brain processes that provide language functions in healthy people. The interest of medical disciplines in linguistics is also not accidental and is caused by the need to adequately assess language disorders in patients with brain dysfunction, since only under this condition can successful rehabilitation of lost skills be ensured.

Linguistics, in interaction with the mentioned disciplines, solves its own problems, hoping with the help of neuroscience to find answers to fundamental theoretical questions that, apparently, cannot be resolved within linguistics itself. For example, the idea of ​​modularity arose independently in neuroscience and linguistics. At the same time, one of the linguistic schools postulates a separate cerebral localization of linguistic and cognitive functions and, moreover, a separate localization of intralingual modules (vocabulary, grammar). Its opponents, on the contrary, believe that the brain processes that ensure the functioning of language operate on the principle of a neural network.

It is quite obvious that in order to understand the brain organization of language ability and speech activity, it is necessary to know the general principles underlying higher mental functions. On the one hand, these are sensory systems and perceptual processes, on the other, memory, attention, the structure of mental operations as the foundation of high-rank thinking, including creative thinking. The courses offered within this specialization are aimed at familiarizing students with these problems and concepts that are not traditional for linguistic education.

The idea of ​​special education in psycholinguistics belongs to professors of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University L. V. Sakharny and A. S. Stern. For many years they gave lectures and organized seminars on psycholinguistic issues, thus creating a center that united not only specialists from St. Petersburg, but also from many other cities. We are glad that it has now become possible to announce the specialization in Psycholinguistics for students of the Faculty of Philology and Arts.

Doctor of Philological Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Prof. T. V. Chernigovskaya
Ass. T. I. Svistunova

Shvareva L. V. 1, Ryzhenkova A. V. 2

1 Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, 2 Student of the Faculty of History and Philology, Penza State University

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

annotation

The article reveals the prospects of psycholinguistic science in the interdisciplinary space. The problem of mastering native and non-native languages ​​on an interdisciplinary basis using psycholinguistic data is considered. Particular attention is paid to ways of developing language ability in domestic and foreign psycholinguistic schools. It is concluded that it is necessary for beginning and already practicing teachers to master the basic principles of psycholinguistics in order to develop in students the processes of production and perception of speech in a non-native language.

Keywords: psycholinguistics, interdisciplinary approach, foreign language teaching, formation of a secondary linguistic personality.

Shvareva L. V.1 , Ryzhenkova A. V. 2

1 Candidate of Pedagogycal Sciences, 2 Student of Philological and Historical Department, Penza State University

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN TRAINING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Abstract

In article prospects the psycholinguistic science in interdisciplinary space reveal. The problem of development of native and nonnative languages ​​on an interdisciplinary basis with using psycholinguistics’data. The special attention is paid to ways of formation the language ability at domestic and foreign psycholinguistic schools. The conclusion is drawn on the need of development by beginners and already practicing teachers of basic provisions of psycholinguistics for the formation of pupils’ processes of production and perception of the speech in nonnative language.

Keywords: psycholinguistic, interdisciplinary approach, foreign language acquisition, formation of second language identity.

Psycholinguistics cannot be called an ancient science. The first mention of it in the article “Language and Psycholinguistics” in 1946 was made by the American psychologist N. Pronko. However, even in such a short period of existence, it has firmly established itself in the system of scientific knowledge. Over the years, scientists have made a large number of discoveries, both in fundamental and applied fields. The knowledge gained by psycholinguists is used today in forensic science, advertising and public relations, and politics. Of course, psycholinguistic research is important for a number of applied areas of psychology, namely pedagogical (mainly the field of speech therapy, teaching the native language, as well as teaching foreign languages), medical, military, occupational psychology, pathopsychology, neuropsychology, etc. d. Psycholinguists also collaborate with specialists in the field of IT technologies, participating in the creation of automatic text and voice recognition systems. They also contribute to the development of hardware artificial intelligence systems. We should not forget about such areas of application of psycholinguistics as encryption and decryption of all kinds of texts, determination of the truth or falsity of oral and written sources. Thus, the first lie detector in the USSR was created by A. R. Luria, the founder of neuropsychology, who made a significant contribution to the study of various types of aphasia. Taking into account all the listed areas of application of psycholinguistics, it is easy to conclude about the relevance of this science in the modern information society.

Despite the rapid progressive development of this area of ​​scientific knowledge, an unambiguous definition still does not exist. In the domestic school we observe real scientific discord. Meanwhile, scientists are unanimous that the main subject of psycholinguistics is speech activity. So, according to A. A. Leontyev, “the subject of psycholinguistics is speech activity as a whole and the patterns of its complex modeling.” By the way, in Russian science psycholinguistics is also called the “theory of speech activity” (the term by A. A. Leontyev). The main research is carried out on the relationship between speech and communication. Thus, representatives of the Moscow psycholinguistic school study the phenomena of speech production, understanding and interpretation. Various aspects of linguistic consciousness are also analyzed (a system of images of reality that receive their linguistic externalization (the term of E. F. Tarasov)). It turns out that domestic psycholinguistics is largely focused on the study of language and speech processes in society, while foreign schools focus on individual speech characteristics.

Psycholinguistics in France is a science that studies the cognitive processes used in the production of speech, as well as in the treatment of speech disorders. (La psycholinguistique est l'étude des processus cognitifs mis en œuvre dans le traitement et la production du langage). It is important to note that French specialists are primarily interested in speech pathologies that affect the ability to speak. It is worth noting that the French school is not significantly different from the American one. By the way, psycholinguistics was “born” directly on the territory of the United States in the city of Bloomington, located in the state of Indiana. It was there, in 1953, that an inter-university seminar was held, organized by psychologists Charles Osgood and John Carroll, as well as literary critic and ethnographer Thomas Sibeok. In America, like here, there is also a second name for psycholinguistics - the psychology of language. The most common definition states that this science studies the psychological neurobiological factors that allow people to acquire, use, understand and create language (speech). (Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language). Thus, the scientific interests of US psycholinguists primarily include the desire to understand the mechanisms of language formation and acquisition.

Obviously, psycholinguistics in Russia, the USA and France are not exactly the same thing. Each country has adopted its own definitions, outlined its own research framework, formulated its own tasks and questions that need to be answered. It is logical to assume that each country has its own research methods. This table contains the most common methods used by psycholinguists.

Table 1 - Comparative analysis of psycholinguistic research methods

As can be seen from the table, despite the differences in the areas of research, common features can be traced in the methodology of psycholinguistics in the USA and France. The experimental method is popular in Russia and abroad, and in Russia the percentage of its use is higher than in France and the USA. At the same time, the involvement of IT technologies and medical equipment in psycholinguistic research is widespread abroad. It should be emphasized that in order to solve complex scientific problems, it is currently necessary to have an interdisciplinary understanding of phenomena, and in the future, their integration into unified systems. In addition, the use of medical equipment and the involvement of specialists in the field of medicine expands the interdisciplinarity of psycholinguistics, as it connects it with biology and medicine. This aspect also makes psycholinguistics a more applied science, because knowledge of the connection of language and speech processes with specific areas of the brain, understanding the connection of these processes with each other, as well as their dependence on internal and external factors can make it possible to prevent or find treatment options for certain diseases. Moreover, this aspect opens up additional opportunities for the application of psycholinguistic knowledge in pedagogy, namely in the methodology of teaching foreign languages. This is especially true now, since the attractiveness, as well as the accessibility, of learning foreign languages ​​is increasing day by day, thanks to numerous schools and clubs. As experts note, if a language is studied for the purpose of further communication in it, it is not enough just to know the material of the language in the form of a system of signs, but it is necessary to master the technology of production and perception of speech in a non-native language. Many years of research and experience show that developing skills of this kind is quite difficult. This directly relates to the disclosure of the principles of the communication process, including the internal laws of the generation and understanding of speech. Moreover, as a person learns and masters a new language, the formation of a secondary linguistic personality occurs in parallel, which is also quite complex, and the mechanism becomes more complex as one grows older. Thus, according to a number of scientists, the result of any language education should be a formed linguistic personality, and the result of education in the field of foreign languages ​​should be a secondary linguistic personality as an indicator of a person’s ability to take full part in intercultural communication. This factor requires the use of the right learning strategies. Also, do not forget about the individual characteristics of perception, including native speech at the time of learning. And here, much attention should be paid to the knowledge accumulated in psycholinguistics. Thus, French experts, as a result of conducting numerous behavioral experiments, found that phrases constructed in the active voice are perceived more easily by people than the same phrases constructed in the passive voice. In addition, some people are not able to perceive phrases in the passive voice at all.

Thus, the analysis proves the promise of psycholinguistic science in the interdisciplinary space. Its significant applied significance, confirmed in practice, makes this science more significant and useful in the eyes of society and allows us to solve difficult scientific problems. The enormous breadth of application of psycholinguistic knowledge directs us to the field of teaching both native and foreign languages, taking into account the individual speech and mental characteristics of students when forming their processes of production and perception of speech in a non-native language. And for this, it is important for beginning and already practicing teachers to know at least the basic principles of psycholinguistics.

Literature

1. Leontiev A. A. “Fundamentals of psycholinguistics.” – M., 1997, 287 p.
2. Galskova N.D., Gez N.I. Theory of teaching foreign languages: Linguodidactics and methodology: Proc. aid for students Linguistic Univ. and fak. Foreign language of higher.ped.educational institutions. – M.: Publishing Center “Academy”, 2004. – 336 p.
3. Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia [Electronic resource] URL. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics (date of access – 05.11.2014)
4. Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia [Electronic resource] URL. – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistique (date of access – 05.11.2014)
5. Coltheart M., Rastle K., Perry C., Langdon R., Ziegler J. (2001). DRC: “A dual route cascaded of visual word recognition and reading aloud.” Psychological Review 108: 204-256.doi:10.1037/0033-295X.108.1.204. PMID 11212628

References

1. Leont’ev A. A. “Osnovy psiholingvistiki.” – M., 1997.
2. Gal'skova N.D., Gez N.I. Teorija obuchenija inostrannym jazykam: Lingvodidaktika i metodika: Ucheb. posobie dlja stud. Lingv. Un-tov i fak. In.jaz.vyssh.ped.ucheb.zavedenij. – M.: Izdatel’skij centr “Akademija”, 2004. – 336 s.
3. Wikipedija – svobodnaja jenciklopedija URL. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics (data obrashhenija – 05.11.2014)
4. Wikipedija – svobodnaja jenciklopedija URL. – https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistique (data obrashhenija – 05.11.2014)
5. Coltheart M., Rastle K., Perry C., Langdon R., Ziegler J. (2001). DRC: “A dual route cascaded of visual word recognition and reading aloud.” Psychological Review 108: 204-256.doi:10.1037/0033-295X.108.1.204. PMID 11212628

© F. A. Gabdulkhakov, 2017

ISBN 978-5-4483-9806-3

Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero

By the decision of the Academic Council of Namangan State University, it was recommended for publication as a teaching aid for students of philological faculties of universities.

Scientific editor: Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Associate Professor S. S. Saydaliev

Reviewers:

D.A.Islamova, teacher at the Department of Russian Language and Literature, Nam State University;

M.M.Khaitov, teacher of Russian language and literature, director of secondary school No. 31, Kasansay district of Namangan region

The first textbook on the application of the findings and recommendations of psycholinguistics in methods of teaching the Russian language. The manual covers current problems of psycholinguistics and linguodidactics, presents traditions and innovations in language teaching methods, and suggests ways to introduce the basic principles of psycholinguistics into the practice of teaching the Russian language.

For teachers and students of philological faculties of higher educational institutions, language teaching specialists.

Introduction

With the advent of human society, people began to feel the need to invent a basic means of communication. Language became such a means. The success of people in various forms of activity depended on the quality of mastery of language, the main means of communication. Subsequently, the need arose to study other languages.

Since ancient times, people have tried to master foreign languages ​​in different ways. For a long time, these two processes occurred spontaneously. The conscious and studied part of this story does not take much time - people have acquired the ability to manage the process of learning languages ​​relatively recently. The corresponding scientific discipline - methods of teaching languages ​​- has been functioning independently for only a few centuries. In the middle of the last century, another science appeared - psycholinguistics.

It should be noted that during this relatively short period both sciences have achieved significant development. Currently, a system of concepts related to the content, principles, methods and techniques of language teaching has been formed. The theory of speech activity is being developed and improved. We have developed our own research methods for methodological science. The most advanced pedagogical and information and communication technologies are widely introduced into the language teaching process, and interactive teaching methods are used. It should be especially noted that in linguistics itself, the anthropocentric pole has been established and is successfully developing, replacing the linguocentric pole and taking into account the needs of man and society as a whole.

The methodological basis of the anthropocentric direction is considered to be a change in the object of scientific consideration. It became a person in his ability to communicate, which is radically different from the provisions of the linguocentric direction of linguistics. This conclusion is confirmed by the consolidation of the concept of “linguistic personality” in the science and practice of language teaching. The central position of anthropocentric linguistics belongs to psycholinguistics. The new science, which appeared primarily as a theory of speech activity, has brought clarity to many issues related to both the study of languages ​​and teaching communication and the formation of speech activity in a new language. Experts now have an idea of ​​how to realize the human capabilities that he was endowed with at birth. After all, a person is born with the potential to fully master his native language. Many people have a need to master several languages ​​at the same time. The acquisition of communication skills in a non-native language is directly related to the findings and recommendations of psycholinguistics.

It is too early to talk about stable results of the language learning process that would be guaranteed if certain conditions are met. The picture of the “world of language teaching” can be characterized as follows: in theoretical terms, methodological science has developed and declared a lot, but only a small part of this wealth is implemented in practice. We must not forget that the changes taking place in science are not always fully reflected in the minds of practicing teachers. Remaking and changing the attitude of specialists to questions of language teaching methods is a very difficult task. Therefore, in the practice of teaching languages, outdated methods and techniques in teaching the Russian language are still used in some places. Teachers “already know” how to “teach” language and do not strive to introduce various innovative approaches. The teaching aids used do not fully perform the functions assigned to them. The exercises performed by students in the classroom do not always carry a communicative load.

Particularly acute against this background is the problem of training high-level specialists who are able to teach languages ​​in accordance with the requirements of society and develop speech skills and communicative competence in their students. Consequently, not only the practice of teaching languages ​​itself, but also the process of training language specialists still needs improvement.

It would seem that at least three questions of methodological science have long been answered accurately: what to teach, how to teach, And what to teach with. Being the main issues of teaching methodology, they have served as a guide in the practice of teaching languages ​​for many years. But the paradox of the situation lies in the fact that until recent years, specialists have continued to argue about the content of training (what to teach?). Methods and techniques of teaching (how to teach?) are still being improved and every year more and more worthy ones appear. The choice of teaching tools (what to teach with?) depends entirely on the level of development and improvement of technology, and their progress contributes to the emergence and implementation of the most modern and advanced teaching tools in language teaching practice. Those. Methodological thought is constantly evolving, language teaching technologies are being improved.

This book is intended to answer a number of questions related to the implementation of the basic principles of psycholinguistics in the process of teaching languages. This is especially relevant because in our time the goals of language teaching are being reconsidered. In relation to the native language, they are formulated as the task of preparing a linguistic personality with a range of abilities in accordance with the requirements of the competency-based approach. This is a person capable of not only processing and analyzing texts, but also creating them. When compiling modern versions of programs in the native language, the emphasis is not on listing linguistic facts, but on their interpretation, on how language functions and what universal language mechanisms ensure communication. Attention is drawn to the development of the student as a full-fledged creative linguistic personality.

When teaching Russian as a non-native language, the priority task is to prepare a native speaker capable of conducting intercultural dialogue. The global goal of language acquisition with this approach is considered to be familiarization with another culture and participation in the dialogue of cultures. This goal is achieved by developing the ability for intercultural communication. It is teaching, organized on the basis of tasks of a communicative nature, taking into account the social order of society, that is a distinctive feature of modern Russian language lessons. Foreign language communication is based on the theory of speech activity. Communicative language teaching is characterized by an activity-based nature, since verbal communication is carried out through speech activity, which, in turn, serves to solve the problems of communicative productive human activity. People in social interaction communicate in a learned language. Consequently, modern representatives of various fields of science, culture, business, technology and all other areas of human activity need to learn the ability to use the Russian language. This process should resemble the process of mastering a tool of production. People need language exclusively functionally, for use in various spheres of society as a real means of communication.

We would call the most important among the questions of methodological science the question “what to teach?”, but not in its traditional interpretation, but in the sense of “how should training be completed?” If you answer it with “the ability of students to communicate in the target language,” then it will immediately become clear that communication should be recognized as the main task, and the main components, and the end result of the language learning process.

It is impossible to solve the above problems in the process of teaching the Russian language (and other languages) without taking into account the basic principles of psycholinguistics. A specialist teaching a language should know that this process involves, first of all, teaching people speech activity in the target language, which involves skills in speech production and perception of oral and written speech. Consequently, a course in psycholinguistics should become mandatory for all philological areas of education, including those that train specialists in their native language.

This book summarizes the theoretical material accumulated by methodological scientists and psycholinguists in recent years, taking into account new data from linguistics, psychology, communication theory, speech activity and communication. Based on these materials, the part of applied psycholinguistics that lists the problems of the language learning process is covered in detail. This approach is also due to the fact that students of philological faculties of higher educational institutions are in dire need of knowledge that reveals the problems of the process of developing communicative skills in the main types of speech activity. A modern language teacher must prepare people who can conduct speech activities in their native and target languages, and prepare a creative linguistic personality. Without understanding how a person’s linguistic consciousness is formed, it is difficult to solve problems of this magnitude.

The textbook is the result of a generalization of theoretical principles covered in the works of well-known psycholinguistic schools and methodologists. The author’s experience, accumulated in the course of teaching languages ​​and conducting a special course on psycholinguistics at a university, is taken into account.

I would especially like to note the merits of our colleague, ally and inspirer in the study of the fundamentals of psycholinguistics, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of German Language at Nam State University Saidumar Saydaliev. At his suggestion, a program was developed, and psycholinguistics as a special course was introduced into the practice of university teacher training in foreign languages, Russian language and literature, and native languages ​​back in 1998. Currently, such a special course is taught not only in the philological departments of Namangan State University, but also in many universities of the republic.

We hope that the book will help specialists understand the issues of the multifaceted process of teaching Russian and other languages, based on speech activity and focusing on the preparation of a linguistic personality.

F. A. Gabdulkhakov

Connections with psycholinguistics, which studies the mechanisms of speech generation (expression of thoughts) and speech recognition (speech understanding), become important for the technique.

Based on the principles of psycholinguistics, the methodology distinguishes the following types of speech activity (SSA): reading, speaking, writing, listening.

divisions according to the WFD are based on the differences between oral and written speech. written speech conveys information graphically, and oral speech conveys information through an audio channel. oral speech is always primary. We include writing and reading as written VRD, and listening and speaking as oral. Oral speech is characterized by its own lexical and grammatical means, which indicates the presence of a style of oral and bookish-written speech. The differences between oral and written speech require that training for different WFD be structured differently (selection of material, special systems of exercises, etc.).

UR characteristics:

1. Richness of intonation.

2. The presence of paralinguistic means (facial expressions, gestures, proxemics, toxemics).

4. Having contact with the interlocutor.

5. Linearity (it unfolds in time).

6. Has its own means (phonetic: intonation, lexical: its own words (colloquial, jargon, slang), grammatical: elliptical constructions).

PR characteristics:

1. Lack of intonation.

2. Lack of contact with the interlocutor.

3. Lack of paralinguistic means.

4. Development in space, not in time.

5. It also has its own means (linguistic means - words, grammar).

6. Characterized by deployment.

the difference is important for the methodology internal and external speech. external speech is a complete linguistic design, internal speech is characterized by fragmentation, convolution, i.e. it is a pre-folded enunciation that can precede both oral speech acts and written speech. Accordingly, when teaching any VRD, it is necessary to form auditory-motor images of linguistic material, without which pronunciation is impossible. The automated implementation of speech activity is characterized by convolution of internal speech.

all VFDs are divided into productive and receptive. The activity of encoding information is called productive speech (writing, speaking), while the activity of decoding is called receptive (reading, listening). the process of receptive speech proceeds from the forms of language to thought, and the operations performed in this case can be called analytical. the process of productive speech is carried out from thought to design by means of language; the operations are synthetic. hence the difference in the selection of material: productive - active min, receptive - passive min.

for the methodology it is important to distinguish knowledge, skills and abilities.

knowledge is not only knowledge of forms, constructions or words and their meanings, but also other information necessary for carrying out operations with this linguistic material in the process of receptive and productive speech activity.

skill is an automated component of a consciously performed activity. skills could be: receptive/expressive, language/speech.

skill is the unity of automatism and consciousness, stability and variability, fixity and flexibility.

3 stages of skill formation:

1. orientation-preparatory: presentation of material, initial consolidation, control of understanding.

2. automation: repetition of material in various forms.

3. situationally varying: practicing the flexibility of a skill, fluency in it.

indicator of automation of action:

Speed

Integrity/smoothness of action

Economy (discarding unnecessary things)

Low tension level

Ready to turn on

Language skill is the skill of operating with language and speech material outside the conditions of communication.

Types of language skills (SL): grammatical skills, phonetic skills, lexical skills

Speech skill(RN) is the skill of intuitively correct use of material in a communication situation. No operations are performed. Context of reading, speaking and listening.

Speech skill(RU) – the ability to use linguistic means in speech activity.

Speech activity itself in its various types is a conscious activity, the elements of which are phonetic, lexical and grammatical skills (+ reading technique, writing technique). therefore, various types of speech activity should be considered as speech skills (skills of monologue speech, dialogic speech, reading, writing, etc.). =˃ skill is always conscious and complex (complex of skills)

structure of speech activity:

Expressive VRD:

1. motivational stage (stimulus)

2. communicative task (a speech problem that both participants in communication are trying to solve) and/or communicative intention (a need that can only be expressed by means of language)

3. plan

4. design in structure and words (vocabulary + grammar)

5. sound design - speaking, pronunciation

6. feedback (we hear ourselves and control)

Receptive VRD:

2. perception

4 assessment of goal and result

problems of psycholinguistics:

1. negative impact of one phenomenon on another - interference:

Intralingual (two phenomena within one language, Pr: grammatical tenses of the English language)

Interlingual (the influence of one language on another, Ex: different word order, articles, etc.)

2. positive influence of one phenomenon on another - positive transfer (transference):

Intralingual

Interlingual

psychological aspects in the methodology:

General psychology studies mental processes (thinking, memory, imagination). Because general psychology describes memory, types of memory, patterns (memory can be short-term and long-term), this classification is used in the methodology of teaching foreign languages. language

Memory includes 3 processes:

1) Memorization (most important)

2) Save-playback.

3) Forgetting.

According to the efforts the student makes memorization: voluntary and involuntary

When teaching a foreign language, it should prevail involuntary memorization, especially in the initial stages, except for those cases when we memorize speech cliches/clichés, proverbs, poems.

Peculiarities involuntary memorization:

1) It proceeds better if it is associated with active creative activity

2) Involuntary memorization should be based on various sensations. the lesson should include visuals and games with movements

3) There must be either a comparison or combination of the new with the previously studied

The teacher’s task is to transfer from short-term memory to long-term memory. John Miller established and proved that short-term memory capacity = 7+-2 new words

Information moves from short-term memory into working memory as a result of work in the lesson. Information moves from working memory to long-term memory as a result of further work.

Forgetting actively occurs immediately after memorization. During the first 3-4 hours, 70% of the information is forgotten, and after 5-6 days complete forgetting occurs if the material is not practiced.

Memory functioning improves in the presence of emotions (Game situations, clarity, additional means).

Language is the most important means of human communication. Moreover, as an instrument of communication, it must have a certain structure and form the unity of its elements as a certain system. Without language, human communication is impossible, and without communication there can be no society, and thereby no person. Without language there can be no thinking, i.e. a person’s understanding of reality and himself in it.

When we think and want to convey to someone what we have realized, we put our thoughts into the form of language. Thus, thoughts and born based on language and are fixed in him. Language and thinking form a unity, since without thinking there can be no language and thinking without language is impossible. However, this does not mean that language and thinking are identical.

The laws of thinking are studied by logic. Logic distinguishes concepts with their signs, judgments with their members and inferences with their forms. There are other significant units in the language: morphemes, words, sentences, which does not coincide with the specified logical division. Language is studied and described by linguistics.

Over time, linguists began to come to the conclusion that linguistics should not be confined to one language. Language is connected with the totality of a person’s sensory and mental behavior, with his organization as a living being, with his way of life, with the society in which he lives, with his creativity - technical, artistic, mental, with the history of human society. Therefore, the science of language should also seek connections with many sciences: exact, natural and humanities. Let us name, for example, philology, sociology, psychology, physiology, ethnography, semiotics, history and even mathematics [Reformatsky, 1967]. Linguists not only use for their research certain facts achieved in different sciences, but also successfully borrow the research methods used in them (for example, the use of methods of mathematical statistics was very productive, which led, in particular, to the emergence of a new direction in linguistics - quantitative linguistics). In turn, linguistics enriched related sciences. For example, linguistic data helps shed light on certain historical events, clarifying their dating, location, etc.

However, it is especially worth noting the invaluable benefit that linguistics has brought to the methodology of teaching a foreign language. Linguistics provides a comprehensive description of language, which allows teachers to teach it in a mindful manner. Operating with a number of linguistic terms (“vocabulary”, “phonetics”, “grammar”; “part of speech”, “categories of parts of speech” - grammatical tense, cases of nouns, etc.), the teacher can explain certain linguistic phenomena, transfer into practice the rules and exceptions formulated by linguists, etc.

The question of priorities in language research was radically revised when the anthropocentric approach prevailed in linguistics. In Russian science, L.V. can be considered the “pioneer” of this approach. Shcherbu. In his programmatic work “On the threefold aspect of linguistic phenomena and on experiment in linguistics” [Shcherba, 1974], he identified as the first aspect of linguistic phenomena the language itself or language system. In his opinion, this is exactly what traditional linguistics has been doing for centuries, offering various models of language and linguistic patterns. The practical result of the activities of linguists was a variety of dictionaries and grammars of languages.

All linguistic quantities with which we operate when compiling these same dictionaries and grammars are derived from language material(the second aspect of linguistic phenomena according to Shcherba). Linguistic material is not the activity of individual individuals, but the totality of everything spoken and understood in one or another era of the life of a given social group. In the language of linguists, these are “texts”.

Finally, the third aspect of linguistic phenomena is speech activity, which covers the processes of generation, understanding, and interpretation of linguistic signs. Shcherba emphasized that this aspect is no less active and no less important than the other two. However, at that time (30s of the XX century) this aspect was ignored by linguistic science. It has now become the main subject of study in psycholinguistics.

Psycholinguistics began to take shape as an independent science in the middle of the 20th century, and its name itself was finally established after the publication of the work of Miller and McNeill “Psycholinguistics”.

Three important factors make it possible to distinguish between psycholinguistics and traditional linguistics.

• 1. Psycholinguistics deals with the study of speech, not language, i.e. a fundamentally new factor is introduced - man.
• 2. Along with the speaker (listener) factor, the situation factor is also introduced: speech is always carried out in a specific situation. The language system is considered as something stable, independent of the situational moment. Speech activity strongly depends on the given situation: the age of the speaker, the degree of his education, etc. Recently, the gender factor has been actively studied. It has been shown, for example, that based on some purely linguistic parameters of a text one can say with a high degree of confidence whether its author is a man or a woman [Vasilevich, Mamaev, 2014].
• 3. Another important factor is experiment. By studying the processes of perception and production of speech, psycholinguistics offers various models of speech activity, which are necessarily tested in experiments with native speakers.

Let's return to the comparison of linguistics and psycholinguistics. Linguists proceed from the fact that we think in a specific language (Russian, English, etc.), and accordingly describe Russian, English, and other languages ​​separately. Psycholinguists believe that there are two languages: internal, conceptual, in which the work of the intellect is carried out, and external, formally intended for communication with other speakers of the same culture. The internal language is essentially universal. Psycholinguistics is, in fact, engaged in its study and description. The central ones here are: fundamental concepts such as language consciousness, language ability, speech mechanisms, etc.

One can name a large number of theoretical and especially practical problems for the solution of which a purely linguistic approach, which does not take into account the factor of the speaker, turns out to be insufficient. Here are just a few of them:

• ? the process of children acquiring their native language;
• ? foreign language teaching;
• ? speech influence, especially in propaganda and advertising;
• ? linguistic picture of the world;
• ? speech pathology - description and possible methods of rehabilitation;
• ? forensics, etc.

Some areas of research become autonomous and receive their own name: neurolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, psychosemantics, etc.

Of course, psycholinguistic research was carried out simultaneously in different countries, using material from different languages, and the results obtained were compared. And here it turned out that there is a whole series of patterns common not only to individual native speakers, but also to speakers of different languages.

Thus, a universal model of the process of generating a statement has been adopted. The impetus for creating an utterance is always a person’s need to engage in verbal communication to solve certain communicative problems. Following the communicative intention, the speaker’s general intention is determined: what exactly he wants to tell the listener or reader, convey to him, what to convince, etc. The idea in consciousness does not initially exist in words, it is some “vague desire” in the form of images, ideas, peculiar schemes, in the form of a “code of inner speech.” Next, the emerging general plan begins to unfold (also in inner speech); the main milestones of the statement are outlined. When planning, the narrator must first outline the main thesis of the story, its core. Then he looks for approaches to this center and an introduction in which hints on further development can be given, and perhaps promises to solve some problem. After this, you need to think about the conclusions and the ending. The described scheme is formal, but it reflects the process of internal preparation of the statement, its reflection.

The ideas described were directly related to the methods of teaching a foreign language. The analysis showed that when training The creation of statements (oral or written) in practice usually does not take into account a number of circumstances. Thus, the teacher rarely cares about the child’s need to engage in communication. The student creates a statement because this is the teacher’s task; he has no actual communicative motive. The teacher most often does not provide the student with a specific communication situation (awareness of who, why, under what circumstances he is speaking) - usually he “simply” writes an essay or “simply” answers questions about the material covered. In real speech practice, “simply” statements are not created.

“Repetition of a segment of speech for the purpose of an exercise to develop a skill or acquire knowledge removes the communicative function of speech. Speech becomes artificial and aimless...” [Zhinkin, 1998, p. 103].

The problem of the connection between language and thinking runs through many works of psycholinguists. But no less relevant is the study of the process of children mastering their native language. Only humans have the ability to speak, the mechanisms that generate speech. They should not be confused with speech organs. Lips, tongue, etc. Many species of animals have it, but none of them are capable of mastering meaningful speech. However, the genetically inherent language ability itself cannot be realized outside of appropriate external conditions. The child learns to breathe, look, and walk, so to speak, “automatically” when “the time comes.” With the ability to speak, the situation is completely different. If a newborn child is placed on a desert island, he will run perfectly, climb, hide from dangers, get his own food, but he will not speak, since he has no one to learn to speak from and no one to talk to.

Skin color, body proportions, skull shape, hair type inevitably follow the biological laws of heredity. But what language a child will speak depends not on who his parents were, but on the language environment in which he will grow up. Moreover, the development of speech mechanisms is a rather long process, proceeding, like other processes of development of the body, from simple to complex: just as a child learns first to hold his head, then sit, crawl, walk, eat more and more varied foods, etc. With the development of speech mechanisms, the sounds produced by the child become more and more complex: first, these are vowel and syllabic combinations mainly with labial consonants: ma-ma, pa-pa, ba-ba; then individual syllables become meaningful, turning into words, etc. And what is characteristic is that, regardless of the specific language, the time is to some extent predetermined when the child has the first sounds, the first meaningful syllables and words, etc., just as the time is determined when his first tooth appears or he begins to walk.

The development of speech mechanisms (and it begins in childhood and continues throughout life) is a constant improvement of the network of names, layered on an increasingly complex and subtle picture of the world in the human mind. The fundamental possibility of naming any phenomenon accessible to us with the help of linguistic means appears already at the earliest stages of speech development, from two to five and even earlier, although over time the number of objects accessible to our understanding and the number of means for more finely delineating the names of various objects grows. signs, abstract concepts. The formation of consciousness is the sequential collapse of external action, first into speech, and then into mental action itself. It is interesting that at some stage (up to 3-4 years) a child can think only out loud, talking and thinking in this way even alone with himself.

Research on children's speech has revealed a number of facts useful for child psychologists, speech therapists, and even teachers. The specificity of language as an object of acquisition is that its acquisition does not give a person direct knowledge about reality. He is only the carrier of this information, the form of its existence in the individual and social consciousness. In addition, language learning requires consistency and completeness. You cannot study vocabulary alone without paying attention to grammar, just as you cannot limit yourself in grammar to the section “verb tenses”, ignoring the section “degrees of comparison of adjectives.” It is equally impossible to engage in listening alone without paying special attention to reading, speaking, etc. You should know all the grammar, all the vocabulary necessary for a variety of communication situations; master all types of speech activity.

A separate area of ​​psycholinguistics is the study of the phenomenon of polyglots. Knowing two or more languages ​​today is one of the important conditions for a good career, but which languages ​​can you learn faster than others? There are attempts to rank foreign languages ​​according to the difficulty of learning them by Russian-speaking students. Naturally, Slavic languages ​​are among the easiest; Germanic languages ​​are on average much more difficult than Romance languages ​​(with the exception of English and French, which are in the middle), etc. They even suggest the order of learning individual languages ​​(Slovak and Polish are easier to master after mastering Czech, English after French, Korean and Japanese after Chinese, etc.). Others believe that the difficulty of any foreign language is a myth and that you can master any language if you wish. When choosing a language, you should be guided not by its “ease,” but by its relevance. As you know, currently English is such a language; a significant part of Russians study it. But the future is not at all behind it: in 2-3 decades, the most relevant language in the world will be Chinese.

Be that as it may, when talking about polyglots, one cannot ignore such an important phenomenon as “linguistic abilities”.

The speed and depth of language acquisition depends on the genetically determined inclinations of a person. This is especially evident in the process of learning a foreign language: experience shows that differences in language proficiency become obvious a year after the start of training.

In many ways, it would be useful to be able to identify linguistically capable students - in the same way as those who are capable of mathematics, musically gifted, etc. are identified. Unfortunately, the so-called linguistic Olympiads turn out to be of little use in this sense, since in the overwhelming majority of cases such Olympiads test knowledge language; tasks to test linguistic flair, the ability to find linguistic patterns, etc. are extremely rare [Vasilevich, 2014].

Let us dwell in more detail on the results of psycholinguistic research, which in one way or another examine the issues of mastering one’s native language and mastering a foreign language. If a child acquires his native language unconsciously and unintentionally, then learning a foreign language begins with awareness and intentionality [Vygotsky, 1982].

Of course, when teaching a foreign language, you can to some extent rely on the student’s thinking, formed on the basis of his native language. But there is no guarantee that a contradiction will not arise between the student’s intellectual potential and (most often) the meager verbal foreign language means that he has to express his thoughts or to understand the thoughts of others. Actually, resolving this contradiction, achieving a gradual understanding by students of the linguistic means of a foreign language and the phenomena of a foreign culture, is the main task of the methodology of teaching a foreign language as a science. This is a “double-edged” process: as intelligence develops, the possibilities for conscious language learning increase, and on the other hand, the development of speech itself creates highly favorable conditions for the exercise of thinking ability.

It should be remembered that the main activity of a child, especially in the early stages of development, is play.

“When a child plays with soldiers or with his mother, he exercises the necessary complexes of ideas and emotions, similar to how a kitten prepares itself for hunting animals” [Bleuler, 1927, p. 76]. In a child's fantasies, his intellectual abilities increase as much as his physical dexterity in outdoor games.

According to I.A. Zimnyaya, in comparison with the native language, a foreign language is characterized by a number of distinctive features [Zimnyaya, 1997]. Let's name the main ones.

• 1. Direction of the path of mastery. Both native and foreign languages ​​act as a means of satisfying the communicative need to express thoughts, feelings, and will. However, the native language is the first to become a natural, natural form of awareness of the existence and designation of the emotional-volitional sphere of a person. Any other language coexists, but does not replace, much less displace, the native language in this function. Evidence of this is the fact that people who speak several languages ​​express the most intimate, involuntary, personally significant things only in their native language.
• 2. Density of communication. The volume and intensity of a child’s communication with the children and adults around him in his native language is incomparably higher than in a foreign language (in the latter case, everything is actually limited to school hours).
• 3. Sensitive age. Discovery of the phenomenon of the sensitive period of speech development of a child, i.e. the period of greatest sensitivity to language acquisition, was a major milestone in the history of the development of psycholinguistics and had the most direct consequence for the organization of the educational process in language teaching at an early stage. They begin to learn a foreign language when a significant part of the sensitive period has already passed. This problem will be discussed in more detail below.

Let us add to what has been said that a specific feature of a foreign language as an academic subject is also the often negative attitude towards it in our school, as a very difficult subject, practically impossible to teach in school. The main reason for difficulties in learning foreign languages ​​is the difference between their linguistic structures and the structure of the native language. Specific difficulties that arise when teaching foreign language listening, reading, grammar, etc. will be described below in the relevant sections of this textbook.

One could list for a long time the results of psycholinguistic research that have enriched the theory and practice of teaching a foreign language. For example, many experiments confirm the presence of a probabilistic forecasting mechanism in humans

[Probability... 1971]. In particular, it has been shown that words stored in a person’s long-term memory have peculiar “frequency indexes”: the higher this index, the faster and easier the word is retrieved from memory. This allows you to optimize speech behavior.

Finally, for the sociocultural aspect of the process of teaching a foreign language, the extensive factual material accumulated in psycholinguistics on a regional and ethnocultural plan is of great importance. These data are contained in numerous scientific works carried out in the field of studying the linguistic picture of the world. They began with the well-known Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, according to which the categorization of the surrounding world is determined by the national language (in Russian there is no name for the time of day, defined in English as afternoon, but there is a main color name blue, absent in almost all European languages, etc.). It is worth mentioning the presence of a huge number of associative dictionaries of different languages. Information about associations (which, of course, have a pronounced national-cultural character) is currently considered as an equally important part of lexical competence as knowledge of the compatibility of a word or its word-formation capabilities.

• The description of language as a system was first proposed by F. de Saussure [Saussure, 2007].