Background lexis of educational system of England and Kazakhstan

Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан

Акимат города Алматы

Университет «Туран»

ГОРОДСКОЙ КОНКУРС на лучшую научную работу

среди школьников

«Turan-junior – 2012»

Секция: английский язык

Тема: Background lexis of educational system of England and Kazakhstan

Ф.И.О. авторов проекта: Зейналова Наргиз, Каримова Рано

Школа: Гимназия № 132

Класс: 9 «А»

Научные руководители:

Шеина Вера Николаевна,

учитель английского языка гимназии № 132

Полтушева Гульнара Якубовна,

учитель английского языка гимназии № 132,

Алматы – 2012

table of contents

                Стр.

Introduction

The importance of the given research is defined by the necessity of more complete investigation of a problem of connection and interaction of language and culture.

On the one hand, language and culture represent two various concepts, serving different spheres of humans’ life, on the other hand, they are closely connected with each other and related to each other.

The knowledge of the language units and ways of their using in speech, is obviously not enough for using language as means of communication. For this purpose it is necessary the knowledge of that culture which the native speaker uses for reflection of the reality.

Language and culture interaction is a difficult and multi-aspect question, demanding detailed consideration.

The hypothesis of the research: the meaning of words does not have only its lexical meaning, as lexical system depends on social and cultural factors. 

The aim of the scientific project is to reveal the meaning of background lexis of educational system of England and Kazakhstan on the base of analysis of the link between the language and the culture.

According to this aim the following objectives have been put and solved:

     to study theoretical bases of connection between language and culture;

     to describe the linguistic nature of background knowledge;

     to investigate the linguistic nature of the socio-cultural meaning of a word;

     to reveal and characterise cultural component in a word meaning on the basis of the comparative analysis of background lexis of school educational system of England and Kazakhstan.  

Scientific novelty of the research: the cultural component of words, forming a thematic group “School systems of Kazakhstan and England” was revealed on the basis of socio-linguistic analyses. Peculiarities and originality of the lexis in different societies were shown.

Methods of the research: studying linguistic literature devoted to the background lexis; analysis of dictionary definitions; comparative analysis.

Theoretical usage: This given research must be used as a methodology book in teaching of a foreign language.     

The field of practical use: The material of the given research may be used in the practice of teaching of the English language.

Chapter I. Theoretical bases of interaction of language and culture

Investigation of a problem of interrelation between language and culture has and old tradition. The idea originated among representatives of "Reform movement» (M.Berlits, M.Walter, F.Guen, M.Sunt, V.Fietor) who explained for the first time that each language reflects different attitude and every nation has its own system of concepts.

Further ideas of interrelation of language and culture were found out in works of foreign scientists of the first half of the 20th century. They are S.Shvetser and E.Simano, O.Espersen and Ch.Hendshin.

Before the characterization of the process of interaction between language and culture, let’s reveal the essence of the concept "culture".

Culture is the customs and beliefs, art, way of life and social organization of a particular country or group [6, с.185].

There are three approaches in solving the problem of interrelation between language and culture:

1) language is a reflexion of the culture;

2) language cannot exist out of culture;

3) language is a specific way of functioning of the culture. 

Development of any language always depends on extra linguistic reality, social and cultural history of the people, an originality of its mentality, their way of life, vision of the world.

The culture exists and develops in «a language cover». Language evolves from culture and conveys it. Language is simultaneously the tool of creation, development, storage (in the form of texts) of culture, and its part because by means of language products of material and spiritual culture are created.

An American linguist E.Sepir wrote “Language does not exist out of culture”. [5, с.185]. Acquaintance with a foreign language allows to master not only a new language code, but also native speakers’ way of life, customs, cultural progress (achievements). Usage of words in speech is substantially defined by knowledge of   native speakers’ life. A word is a name of a concrete object, the concrete phenomenon, but it not a simple sign on an object or a phenomenon. The word can tell both about time, and about среда in which it occurs.

If we compare two national cultures it is possible to draw a conclusion, that they never corresponds entirely. This follows from the fact that each culture consists of national and international elements. For each culture combination of these elements will be various.

N.G. Komlev was the first Russian linguist who introduced into linguistics the concept of a cultural-historical component in a meaning of the word. He supposed that the word reflecting an object or the phenomenon of … a certain society, not only means it, but also creates a background associating with this word. Thus semantics of a word contains some component fixing the given social background in which the word exists [3, с.220].

The first fundamental monography by Е. M.Vereschagin and V.G.Kostomarov “The … theory of a word” was devoted to the investigation and description, and what is more to the proof of the linguistic nature of a new concept - “a lexical background”. Е. M.Vereschagin and V.G.Kostomarov investigate the importance of background knowledge for dialogue in a sensible communication, in other words the detailed socio-linguistic analysis of a word as a unit of language functioning in a certain social context is carried out [2, с.6].

Background lexis are words or expressions having additional content and auxiliary semantic or stylistic nuances, which are … on its basic meaning, known to the speakers and listeners (hearers) belonging to the given language culture [1, с.520].

The essence of the background lexis is that if you compare equivalent-meaning words in different languages, they will differ from each other because each of them involves a certain amount of background knowledge.

A.A. Leontev's statement about the existence of "national meaning» is right. «It is impossible to deny, that two words in two different languages, denoting the same object in the culture of two nations are translation equivalents, connected with non-identical contest, and it allows to speak about «national meaning of language units» [4, с.132].

The foregoing indicates that background lexis forms the most difficult group, from the point of view of a definition of their national-cultural component.

Chapter II. The comparative analysis of background lexis

of school educational system of England and Kazakhstan

In this chapter we will take into consideration the words which have a foreign equivalent, but the realities represented by them are different, in other words they make up background lexis.

According to the table # 1, word-combinations “secondary modern school” in British and Kazakhstan educational system cannot be considered absolutely equivalent as in Kazakhstan the secondary school also includes primary school (its age range of 7-17 years). In England education in secondary school is received by children from 11 till 18, younger children study at “primary school” which is independent school and is not a part of a secondary school.

Let's take the following word-combination: “high school”. In Kazakhstan "high school" is a name for educational institutions in which it is possible to get higher education. However in English language “high school” is used for a secondary school designation (the final stage of education), sometimes this word-combination means the basic, main school of a city.

Another example is “boarding - school”. The meaning of this word in both languages includes concept: “school where you study and live”. However it is known, that in our country children who have lost their parents or for some reasons do not live with them study in boarding schools, therefore children at such schools are studied on the state maintenance. In England, on the contrary, the tuition payment in “boarding school” is extremely high, as the majority of them are known and exclusive private schools where the children of very rich parents are studied.

As a result of this let’s take one more example of how the insufficient knowledge of cultural realities leads to misunderstanding.

If you ask Englishmen to finish the following phrases we will, probably, receive the following answers:

The given results visually show that respondents are not familiar enough with Kazakhstan educational system. They completely identify lexical meaning and a lexical background of words of their language system (сlass, stream, break) with Russian words. As it is known, studies in Great Britain come to the end on July, 27th, classes are divided into streams depending on pupils’ abilities, and break can last till two o'clock.

The obtained data are evidence of how usual idea of British schoolchildren about the English reality are transferred on Kazakhstan reality.

As it is known, division into classes (streaming) at English school depends on the pupils’  abilities and progress, according to it alphabetic meaning A, B is used for a indication of classes where the most capable pupils study, C, D is used for pupils with average abilities. Besides, it is possible to move from one class into another according to the reached progress during a school year. In each class there is a progress list, so-called “class list”. Speaking about “class list” Englishmen  always mean a number of the pupil on progress. In that way “class list” differs from a similar word-combination in Kazakhstan education system by its background knowledge: as it is known, the class list in Kazakhstan secondary school is made alphabetically and remains invariable during a year.

Here are one more example, it is a word “certificate”. In Kazakhstan educational system the word "certificate" means the document on leaving a secondary school and is handed over on solemn graduation ball on leaving secondary school whereas English “certificate” represents the document about passing examinations for a high school course. 

Thus, the comparative analysis of background lexis of educational system of England and Kazakhstan showed that usual ideas can’t be considered as foreign equivalents because the realities designated by them can be essentially different.

Conclusion

The research of the linguistic nature of the socio-cultural component of a word in two cultures showed, that they consist of the general elements (international) and particular cultural elements (subculture - national in the culture).  

As we saw, separate layers of lexis of language experience a big influence of the culture surrounding people. The most difficult and interesting is the case of background lexis that is one where words equivalent in the conceptual area, differ in other sphere of their semantics.

Recognising the existence of "the internal component of a word”, that is the fact, that the word-sign expresses (conveys) something except itself, we are obliged to recognise the existence of a cultural component, that is the dependence on semantics of language from cultural sphere of an individual.

According to numerous examples, the national-cultural component of lexis plays an important role in linguistics, and especially in practice of teaching and learning (studying) of a foreign language.

The list of the used literature

1.     Ахманова О. С. Словарь лингвистических терминов. – М., 1969.

2.     Верещагин Е. М. Костомаров В. Г. Лингвострановедческая теория слова. – М., 1980.

3.     Комлев Н. Г. Компоненты содержательной структуры слова. – М., 1969.

4.     Леонтьев А. А. Национально-культурная специфика речевого поведения. – М., 1977.

5.     Сепир Э. Избранные труды по языкознанию и культурологи. – М., 1993.