Vol 19, No 3 (2021)

The research is devoted to one of the modern trends in linguistics - cultural linguistics. The topicality is related to the study of the Russian language functioning as the language of diaspora in the eastern region of Latvia - Latgale. The research aims to characterize the means of expressing the concept “fire” based on modelling and analyzing its associative field in the aspect of Latvian picture of the world. Theory and practice of the associative experiment were used as a methodological framework for the research. The method of free associative experiment reveals the specific features of different cultures, as well as the functional peculiarities of the linguistic consciousness both of a separate individual - a native speaker, and of a certain ethnic or national group. The word “fire” (Latvian - “uguns”) was suggested as a stimulus word. The received reactions were analyzed according to linguistic and cultural-contextual aspects. A comparative analysis of the associative fields revealed both the specific features of the Russian linguistic picture of the world, which combines the characteristics inherent in the Russian language of the metropolis and the ones that indicate the influence of the linguistic and cultural environment, and the features and signs that coincide or are identical in the Russian and the Latvian linguistic picture of the worlds. The data processing and the analysis define the concept “fire” precisely as a full-fledged concept in the perception of the native speakers of the Russian language in Latgale, since not only the dictionary meaning is actualized in their linguistic picture of the world, but also a multi-level associative field, unique in terms of contextual connotations, is modelled.

The paper is aimed at describing the convergent effect of the interaction of several linguistic consciousness sense-forming channels, when their joint nonlinear impact significantly exceeds the total potential of individual elements of discursive activity. The texts of Russian Chernozem region writers are studied. The novelty of the research is that the role of the conjugate work of creative and receptive minds forming the two levels of autochthonous text-generating discourse (immanent and representative) is revealed and evaluated. It is proved that the efficient mechanism of autochthonous text generation is the synergy of the discursive-modus concept - the phenomenon of nonlinear discursive activity. The idea is substantiated that immersion in the synergistic architectonics of the discursive-modus concept opens the way to understanding the playful origin of the author's linguistic consciousness: his abilities through the system of content (aesthetic, modal, expressive, etc.) and formal linguistic means to embody the strategic vision in a unique, non-trivial and creative way. The paper proposes a compromise solution to distinguish between the synergy of averbal (naive, trivial, folk concepts that have not yet undergone the processes of linguocreative semiosis) and verbal (linguistic) concepts. This served as the platform for applying a linguo-epistemic approach to regional literary concept which allows to implement the convergent synergy of two types of concepts, thereby contributing to understanding the literary discourse as the cognitive basis of text generation process.

The article studies the system of mythological names in I.A. Bunin’s poetic heritage. The relevance of the topic is due to the unexplored problems of word-formation motivation, semantics, structure, and the role of mythological names in I.A. Bunin’s prose and poetic texts. The aim of the paper is to analyze the connotative potential of different-structured mythological names which are significant for the artistic system of I.A. Bunin. The actual material of the study contains I.A. Bunin’s poetic texts written in 1888-1952. The main research methods are descriptive, etymological, contextual, semantic methods, and structural analysis. The inventory of more than 700 poetic contexts of I.A. Bunin made it possible to identify 152 mythological names from various sources. The selected units were systematized on four features: semantics, etymology, structure, and frequency of use. The analysis of the connotative potential of some simple, composite and complex mythological names allowed to come to the conclusion that they accumulate additional emotional-evaluative, symbolic meanings. New combinations of meanings, qualitative and quantitative changes in the connotative content of mythological names are provided by the individual author’s reinterpretation of primary sources, the complexity of motivational relations between producing units and derivatives, and the semantic environment of a particular unit. Mythological names are associated with the key motifs, themes, ideas, and value oppositions of I.A. Bunin’s picture of the world. The study of the features of the system of I.A. Bunin’s mythological names with the tools of linguistics and literary studies, philosophy, and cultural studies is one of the undoubted prospects of research.

The article describes the phonetization potential in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL) to philology students in the context of digitalization of education. The relevance of the topic is due to the connection between the quality of hearing and pronunciation skills formation and the processes of perception, understanding, memorization, programming an utterance in a foreign language, on the one hand, and the methodological capabilities of modern technologies, on the other hand. The purpose of the work is to present the theoretical foundations of phonetization in teaching RFL and methodological techniques to implement it, taking into account the opportunities of the digital educational environment. The material of the research includes the questionnaires of foreign students studying Russian in bachelor’s, master’s and postgraduate programs, aimed at determining the demand for continuing work on hearing and pronunciation skills formation at the basic and advanced levels. The authors used the following methods: analysis of scientific publications on practical phonetics, digitalization of humanitarian knowledge, listening and pronunciation skills formation by means of electronic linguodidactics, observation of the practical use of phonetization in teaching RFL, questioning the recipients. Basing on the results of the questionnaire survey of foreign students, the authors come to the conclusion that it is important to include work on hearing and pronunciation skills formation at the main and advanced stages of teaching the Russian language practical course in bachelor’s and master’s programs. In this regard, the theoretical knowledge necessary for the teacher to phonetize the learning process at the main and advanced stages is described, namely: the basic concepts in the field of the articulatory apparatus, the characteristics of sounds, the phonetic base of the Russian language, stress, rhythm and reduction in the Russian word, phonetic processes within the word and at the junction of words, the intonation form of the syntagma. The potential of the digital educational space for phonetizing the practical course of the Russian language at the main and advanced stages of university education is revealed, where the content of phonetic work is determined by the characteristics of a particular study group, teacher training, and appropriate methodological recommendations are given. The practical significance of the research lies in the student-philologist and the teacher’s theoretical knowledge generalization, necessary for the phonetization in teaching RFL and their potential application in the context of the educational space digitalization. This study opens prospects for further exploration of the digital educational space potential in order to improve hearing and pronunciation skills and create appropriate teaching materials.

Evaluation of text accessibility seems to be an extremely urgent and labor-consuming task in the process of preparing texts for teaching Russian as a foreign language. On the other hand, the procedure of assigning a text to one of the levels on the CEFR scale (from A1 to C2) is well-formalized and described in the professional literature, which opens opportunities for its automation. This paper presents Textometr - a new free web-based tool for estimating CEFR level and other key statistics from any given text in Russian that can be relevant for adapting it for foreign students. The automated assessment of the text level here is based on a regression model, trained on the dataset of more than 800 texts from Russian textbooks for foreigners, applying several machine learning and natural language processing methods. In addition to the CEFR level, the tool provides information relevant for adapting the text to educational tasks: lists of keywords and words for a potential vocabulary list, statistics on the text coverage by frequency lists and CEFR-graded vocabulary lists (lexical minima), a frequency list of the text, a forecast of the time needed for reading. The tool shortages at the current stage of development and suggested ways to solve them are also discussed. Finally, the results of the test on the tool quality and the vectors for its further development are reported. Textometr can provide helpful information not only to teachers and guidance teachers, but to authors of textbooks and publishers to check the compliance of the text content with the declared level and educational goals.

The study is devoted to the relevant topic - the search for the most optimal ways to prepare students for the “Writing” subtest (TORFL-I) based on the principles, forming in the examinee a complex of knowledge, skills and expertise, embedded in the state educational standard in the Russian language as a foreign language of the appropriate level. The purpose of the research is to present, summarize and demonstrate on the example of the developed test tasks the principles of preparing foreigners for the “Writing” subtest in the system of International State Examination in the Russian Language (TORFL-I). The research materials include tasks, texts, test materials of a training nature in writing. The authors used methods of theoretical research: axiomatic, hypothetical, analytical, systemic. Empirical methods of observation, description, comparison were used when fixing the specific features of the components in the system of preparation for linguodidactic testing in Russian as a foreign language, which is carried out at Transbaikal State University at the Local Center for Testing Foreign Citizens (Chita, Russia). The results of the study show that preparation for testing should be based on certain principles - integrity, continuity, unity of control and self-control. The article emphasizes the principle of integrity as fundamental. Integrity in preparation for test in writing has several manifestations and implies the development of linguistic, communicative, sociocultural, discursive competencies among students; development of knowledge, skills and expertise in the field of writing with simultaneous development of writing techniques; considering the lexical minimum and requirements of the State Educational Standards for the first level of general proficiency in Russian as a foreign language. We also consider the principle of continuity to be important, which implies consistency in preparation for the “Writing” subtest - making skills and expertise automatic by repeating, looping; considering the material learned at previous levels of proficiency in Russian as a foreign language - elementary and basic. The principle of unity of control and self-control is considered in the content-functional aspect: a system of test tasks has been developed and presented, which allows to increase the effectiveness of the control and self-control process and the effectiveness of forming the competencies - linguistic, communicative, sociocultural and discursive. The methodology, based on these principles, allows foreign students to quickly adapt to passing tests and the necessary material in full.