Tashkent state pedagogical university named after nizami faculty of foreign languages

CHAPTER 3. TEACHING NEGATION IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM


3.1. Recommendations for overcoming difficulties in teaching English negation


Often the difference in the inner structure of the native and target languages can cause difficulties in learning some concepts, structures or lexemes. Thus, we should think about the ways of overcoming difficulties in teaching negation and as a way we have chosen teaching negation on linguocognitive basis. In this part of our research we would like to recommend some exercises based on the chosen approach.
One of the key features of teaching a foreign language at the present stage is its communicative orientation, aimed at developing students' speech and discursive competence. Within the framework of this paradigm, the target language is not considered just as an object of study, but as a means of communication in class, and to form the required communicative competence, students must master a wide range of grammatical, syntactic, lexical, phraseological means of expressing the required meanings.
The communicative-cognitive and linguo-cognitive approaches make it possible to systematize a number of different-level linguistic means through their transmission of particular meanings, that is systematic nature of teaching. One of the key semantic categories is negation.
Having a functional nature negation has a wide range of linguistic means of expression and conveys a number of important meanings, without which almost no communicative situation can do. Among such functional characteristics of negation we can identify: absence; inconsistency; negative assessment; negative communicative reaction.
Each of the mentioned characteristics may be present in real speech situation, however, it is the latter that has a clear pragmatic orientation. It is based on conceptualization mismatch of goals and speech intentions of communicants [22, p. 11], which predetermines its expression precisely in the speech process. The characteristic of a negative communicative reaction has a number of functions that determine a communication-oriented nature of negation and the pragmatic aspect. These functions include: prohibition; correction; rejection; disagreement; refutation; refusal; challenging.
The given types of communicative reactions based on negative meanings potentially encompass almost the entire range of speech situations, in which is the interaction of communicants, their knowledge and worldview positions. Moreover, if the correction, disagreement and challenge imply verbal communication and exchange of arguments, then a number of negative communicative reactions, in addition to linguistic means, can be transmitted by non-linguistic means.
So, in the structure of the communicative act, reactions such as refusal and rejection are often expressed non-verbally by gestures, facial expressions, body movements. According to G. Totti's refusal and rejection are not strictly linguistic and even inherent exclusively by humans, since a dog can reject food. In its turn, prohibition and refusal, being by nature anthropocentric, that is, inherent precisely to a person, are widely expressed in the structure of communicative situations both verbally and non-verbally.
Thus, in preparing students for real communication conditions should pay attention not only to a variety of verbal modes of interaction, but and on gestures, facial expressions, movements of the interlocutor, aimed at transferring one or another meaning. In this aspect of learning, the cultural specificity of the student is also manifested in language, since within the framework of various linguistic cultures, non-verbal means of transmission the interlocutor's reactions may vary, and the lack of awareness of students about such features of the studied linguistic culture may manifest itself in a misunderstanding or misunderstanding of the interlocutor that endangers the act of communication itself and can lead to communication failure.
Therefore, an important aspect of comprehensive teaching a foreign language in general and denial in English in particular is taking into account the non-verbal aspect of communication and features of means of their expression. The advantage of the linguo-cognitive approach here is the fact that teaching negation is based on principles of maximizing the explored language in class, and new material, including grammatical, for the explanation of which previously had to resort to the native language, now it is possible to convey through other means, in the first turn - non-verbal.
Based on the role assigned to students in structure of tasks, R. Holm allocates means active and passive perception of the material. The author considers a wide range of passive-oriented schematic images, diagrams, concept maps, explaining the nature of the studied phenomenon in connection with the relevant conceptual structures and mechanisms. On the contrary, active-oriented funds imply direct participation of students in the process of generation, visualization, modification and interpretation of meanings.
These means include movements, gestures, facial expressions, using of which solves the problem of not only better involvement of students in educational process, as students themselves embody the meanings under consideration, but also their awareness of non-verbal communication in the studied linguoculture.
Moreover, such organization of lessons allows you to give learning is interactive way and keeps students motivated at a high level. Perceiving material is not an abstract information, but a sensory tangible experience, students can better to understand and master it.
The prospect of using such linguo-cognitive approach to learning grammar students in English demonstrated by M. Giovanelli [9]. Instead of explaining the material in native language for students of the language, he suggested a number of ways visualization and various linguistic phenomena, and the meanings and cognitive mechanisms behind them through movements, facial expressions, gestures. According to the researcher, this method of presenting material, in addition to increasing the level of student involvement in the educational process is in good agreement with the communicative orientation of teaching a foreign language, contributes to the work of students in groups and the general student-centeredness of the lessons.
As an illustration of this approach teaching negation can be an example such an aspect of it as negative communicative reaction of the prohibition. As noted above, such way of teaching can be based on visualization of the meaning of the statement through movements, body position, facial expressions.
In addition, this approach allows to increase the level of awareness in the perception of the material, to form separate mental structures in the consciousness of students, similar to those of native speakers. So thus, the level of interference is reduced between conceptual frameworks associated with the learners' mother tongue and related to the target language.
The lexical aspect of teaching negation in linguocognitive way
The lexical aspect of teaching negation in English should be analyzed more detailed in the context of the lexical and phraseological means of conveying negative meaning. The peculiarity of these means is that the negative meaning is often expressed in them implicitly. This complicates the perception of the material by the learners
This complicates the assimilation of the material by students, since for identifying the negative component of the meaning here it is required to resort to the definitional analysis of the lexical unit, or stable expression, and take into account pragmatic, cultural, stylistic the possibility of using such a language means of conveying negative meaning.
In addition, unlike prototypical means of expressing negation (negative particles, affixes, pronouns), capable of transmitting any negative meaning (absence, inconsistency, negative assessment, communicative reaction), the mentioned lexical means are less universal and often express only some of the meanings. However, this does not mean that knowing these means is less valuable to students.
On the contrary, assimilation by students of some features of transmission of of some negative meanings, as well as awareness of a wide range of multilevel ways of expressions of negation in the target language, seems to be one of the key components of modern communication-oriented learning, within which the emphasis is made on communication of the student in groups, discussion, exchange of views.
To better illustrate perspectives of integration of developments in cognitive linguistics in the process of teaching a foreign language, we can use teaching phraseological units and stable expressions, because these language means most clearly reflect the features of the language in its inextricable connection with the culture of the country of the target language, at the same time illustrating both cognitive and cultural conditionality of linguistic units.
The way of thinking of groups of individuals, due to cultural characteristics, may differ to some extent from other groups with different cultural features, and the products of thinking - stable and phraseological expressions, closely intertwined with culture - they can also differ and not even find analogues in other language. Moreover, such expressions become important, and sometimes irreplaceable, elements of the language, without knowledge of which communication is often difficult. Let us refer to the classification of idiomatic means of expressing negative meaning in English. According to the classification, they can be divided into formulas and previously formatted expressions. Formula are associated with:
- certain, repetitive speech situations (No doubt);
- function of structuring discourse (Last but not the least);
- transfer of the speaker's assessment, his attitude to the situation (Isn’t that a fact?).
On the other hand, formatted expressions include:
- sayings, proverbs, aphorisms (It ain't over till the fat lady sings);
- catchy phrases and clichés (Hobson's choice, Castles in Spain. Involvement of definitional analysis reveals negative components of meaning: Hobson's choice - no choice at all [29, p. 110]; Castles in Spain - possessions that have no real existence [29, p. 41]);
- whole texts, or parts of them (religious, poems, lyrics. Here you can give an example from the work of Z.Y. Schmidt [31] mentioning a text generally expressing the meaning of "Don't go to the jungle").
The above classification illustrates the fact that these means of conveying negative meanings affect a wide range of linguistic situations and are an integral part of everyday communication, folklore, fiction. Moreover, being stylistically and culturally determined, in their study they require the involvement of a wide context, including the cultural one. In other words, a person studying a foreign language, can meet similar expressions in completely different conditions, and, not having the appropriate level of linguocultural competence, will not be able to build the right communication, which will ultimately be expressed in misunderstanding and even communication failure.
On the contrary, teaching negation as an integral part of the communication process and organizing such teaching using data from cognitive linguistics, we adapt to the peculiarities of the functioning of a person's thinking, his tendency to systematize, generalize and the association of knowledge obtained from different sources and in different conditions into an integral structure [33, p. 28]. Thus, teaching negation as an essential element of communication, has a beneficial effect on the level of language proficiency in general, and on the cultural awareness of students.
Teaching negation should include the following components:
1. Accessibility and clarity (maximum accessibility is achieved by visualizing the cognitive mechanisms behind the expression of certain functions of negation).
2. Anthropocentricity and explicability (various ways of representing information in the structure of the lesson, the effectiveness of which has been proven by cognitive science [5], - visual, acoustic, kinesthetic, motor - allow you to optimize the educational process in according to the individual characteristics of each learner and build training on the principles of explaining linguistic and cognitive phenomena in their relationship).
3. Structured (obtained knowledge is structured according to principles of organizing mental structures in the mind of a person for the best accessibility).
4. Motivation (emphasis on the explicative nature of the information provided, as well as various types of information visualization with the elements of a game, increase the motivation of students)
5. Communication orientated (linguistic units and cognitive the structures behind the expression of negative meanings are considered in inseparable connection with the speech context in the structure of communication-oriented learning).
6. Cultural conditioning (the cultural conditioning of such linguistic phenomena as implicit negation, double negation, multiple negation, being inherent part of the discourse and culture of the country of the target language).
7. Reflexivity (explaining the cognitive mechanisms behind the formation of negative meanings allows students to comprehend the features of the interaction of mental and linguistic structures, and methods of analysis offered by cognitive linguistics (for example, conceptual, prototypical, frame analysis) used in the structure of the lesson to explain this interaction, allows to teach learners the basics of research).
Along with the mentioned criteria we should follow some certain criteria in choosing material. I have chosen the following ones:
1. The principle of compliance of the content to the age of students in general education schools.
2. The principle of taking into account the unity of the content and procedural aspects of education, implying the representation of all types of human activity in their interconnection.
3. The principle of the structural integrity of the content of education at different levels of its formation, taking into account the individual development of the student, which assumes mutual proportionality, poise and harmony of all components of education.
Teaching denial in English in all its diversity seems important because it is fundamental to any process of communication, conveying the meanings of absence, inconsistency, negative assessment and communicative reaction [17; 18], which find their expression in almost any communicative act.
At the same time with the linguocognitive way of teaching negation in English classes we can use communicative exercises for forming basic knowledge about negation. While teaching negation we can use the following exercises.
As it was mentioned in the previous chapters one of the ways of using negation in English is using negative affixes - Prefixes to form Negatives. We should step by step introduce learners with the negative prefixes and start using them in communication.
Table of negative prefixes