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“POLITICAL DISCOURSE AS A MEANS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTS AND TRANSLATORS” LEVENKOVA E.R.
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Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Nov 11, 2014

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Education

Вебинар посвящен одной из важных проблем в рамках компетентностной парадигмы обучения лингвистов и переводчиков:
В программе вебинара:
выбор современных учебных материалов, обеспечивающих формирование всего комплекса общих и специальных компетенций;
методические возможности включения политического дискурса - публичных выступлений лидеров Великобритании и США - в учебный процесс иллюстрирует спецкурс "Англоязычный политический дискурс" для студентов 4 курса факультета иностранных языков ПГСГА;
материалы курса, построенного на сопоставлении британского и американского политического дискурса, позволяют решать задачи формирования целого ряда компетенций на основе анализа связи языка и культуры, специфики дискурсивных практик двух стран."
Для просмотра видео нужно перейти по ссылке: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLYeiJCZDaE
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Page 1: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

“POLITICAL DISCOURSE AS A MEANS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTS AND

TRANSLATORS”

LEVENKOVA E.R.

Page 2: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Speeches of political leaders of the UK and the USA are characterized by powerful teaching potential in developing language students’ general and vocational competences. These competences are equally vital for students majoring in foreign languages and in translation within the Competence-based Approach.

INTEGRATING ANGLO-AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN ELT IN TERTIARY SETTING

Page 3: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

“ANGLO-AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE”

“Anglo-American political discourse” is the elective course for fourth-year students of the Povolzhskaya State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities which includes 20 hours of classwork.

Page 4: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The aim of the course is to make Anglo-American political discourse accessible to University students of EFL, to make it possible for them to analyze it, but also to go further: to use it for developing students’ competences in cultural diversity of World Englishes, for improving the quality of their linguistic skills as well as those of textual organization.

Page 5: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Educationists claim that the range of materials currently available to the teacher of English is wide and varied. However, speeches of political leaders of English speaking countries are not regarded as an important source of linguistic materials and cultural information.

Page 6: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

DISADVANTAGES OF USING POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN ELT: • politics (and especially ideology) is now

considered unfashionable;

• political discourse is thought to be too “difficult” as it is authentic and in no sense graded;

• political communication is irrelevant to the “needs” of the learners.

Page 7: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

BENEFITS OF INCLUDING POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN THE RANGE OF TEACHING OPTIONS:• convenient authentic materials including the issues of the

day and eternal themes;

• socio-cultural information and values of the British and the Americans;

• real-life situations and communicatively meaningful language contexts;

• a variety of genres and idiolects of accomplished orators;

• students’ motivation to communicate due to vital issues of political rhetoric;

• development of linguistic skills.

Page 8: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

TASKS THE TEACHER IS ABLE TO SOLVE INTEGRATING POLITICAL DISCOURSE INTO ELT:

• to provide facts, themes and ideas that are socially and ideologically significant;

• to improve cross-cultural awareness in ELT classroom in general and cultural diversity of World Englishes in particular;

• to widen the context of language application as a vital component in a learner’s capacity to communicate effectively;

• to develop language and cognitive competences of students.

Page 9: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

KEY TERMS OF THE WEBINAR AND THE COURSE: POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND COMPETENCE

“Political discourse” is public speaking of professional politicians, persuasive communication based on national rhetorical traditions and practices (speeches of British Prime-ministers and American Presidents within the period of 1980-2014).

Page 10: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

COMPETENCE AS THE DEFINING CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE TEACHING“Linguistic competence” (N.Chomsky) vs “communicative competence” (Hymes)

Linguistic competence means acquiring knowledge of linguistic structure

Communicative competence is what a person “needs to know in order to communicate effectively in culturally significant situations.” [Hymes 1974:75]

Page 11: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

DEVELOPMENT OF GENERAL AND SPECIFIC COMPETENCES IN THE ELECTIVE COURSE

General competences include:

• acquisition of socio-cultural and cross-cultural skills that are required for professional interaction (GC-3)

• cognitive competence (GC-7)

Page 12: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES INCORPORATE: • improvement of linguistic skills as well as

understanding of different registers (SC-1)

• awareness of different moral norms and behaviors as well as social situations and typical scenarios of intercultural interaction (SC-2)

• understanding of communicative, semantic and syntactic structure of utterances and texts (SC-4).

Page 13: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Today it’s time to meet innovative demands and shift the focus to cultural differences in the World of Englishes. These differences hamper and complicate cross-cultural communication. British English and American English as two basic varieties of World English reflect substantial differences in all cultural spheres and a learner of English – a linguist or a translator - should be aware of them.

 

Page 14: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

This kind of awareness, however, is not easily achieved as culture-specific differences of the British and the Americans can be trickily concealed behind the idea of World Standard English [Crystal 1995:111]. The term, in fact, stands for a cross-cultural discourse of a specific status which incorporates a number of Standards.

Page 15: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The widely-aired quotation by B. Shaw about America and Britain divided by a common language gets paradoxical development in studies which affirm that between America and Britain “is a Great Philosophical and Cultural Divide, which is obscured by the familiar lingo. Americans and Brits cherish widely different values and aspirations, and have developed separate habits of mind ” [Walmsely 1999:8].

Page 16: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The study of Anglo-American political discourse does not only illustrate how language and culture are linked, but also proves that public speaking of British and American politicians constitutes the core of cross-cultural communication.

Page 17: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The course, if we don’t touch upon its theoretical aspect, has 3 main objectives: 1) to develop cross-cultural awareness by providing cultural information and deepening students’ socio-cultural understanding of the world; 2) to analyze links between language and culture and their linguistic manifestations; 3) to practice and improve important language skills while focusing on discursive units and textual organization of speeches.

Page 18: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

To achieve the objectives we have developed a method of inter-variant comparison of British and American variants of political discourse. Parameters for the comparison of the Anglo-Saxon world and that of America include basic discourse characteristics of references, concepts, intertexuality and imagery.

Page 19: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

A culture is regarded as broken down into various components. In this country we assume that these components are linguistically represented by four categories: a) direct references, b) imagery and metaphors, c) associations, and d) evaluative and emotional connotations [Dobrosklonskaya 2000:202]. The 4 categories of cultural components in British and American discourse are studied at two levels in our course.

Page 20: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

THE FIRST LEVEL OF INTER-VARIANT COMPARISON OF NATIONAL VARIANTS

The first level deals with references to the people, places, institutions, customs and traditions of a target community. These references reflect a fully fledged cultural type which political discourse faithfully reproduces as an encyclopedia of life in the 21st century.

Page 21: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The references of the first level are identified and analyzed in each of 4 units of the course. The units are devoted to inter-variant comparison of conceptualization, intertextuality, cognitive metaphorization and textual organization in political communication. The units of the book offer texts which contain different types of direct references.

Page 22: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

The most frequently used references are those to the places and people; that’s why they are analyzed at the initial stage of our work. These words constitute an integral part of political speech making and unmistakably point at British or American national culture.

Page 23: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

GEOGRAPHICAL AND PROPER NAMES IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh [B.Obama, 20.01.2009];

Page 24: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

. Concord is a symbol of American Revolution (1774-1783), a place where in 1775 first shots of war were fired and the first British blood was spilled

At the battle of Concord the redcoats had suffered 272 casualties, the patriots had suffered 93 casualties.

Page 25: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Gettysburg is another symbol, that of the Civil War (1861-1865). In the battle of Gettysburg (July 4, 1863) Union won a key victory and Southern troops, though they displayed unforgettable courage, suffered almost 4,000 dead and 24,000 missing and wounded.

The name of Khe Sanh stands for one of rare victories in the Vietnam War (1969-1975).

Page 26: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

We have seen it in the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground, passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer [G.W.Bush, 20.09.2001].

Explaining the unalienable rights of men, Jefferson said, “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time” [R.Reagan 08.03.1983].

Page 27: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

TASKS HELPFUL WITH THESE MATERIALS: categorizing references and writing explanatory notes for them;

completing deleted references in speeches. (name of the 1st President or the greatest Englishman, names of the Founding Fathers). As a rule, students are motivated to participate in these tasks and motivation is a key factor in successful teaching.

Page 28: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

THE SECOND LEVEL OF INTER-VARIANT COMPARISON OF NATIONAL VARIANTS At this level students are taught to evaluate such nationally relevant elements as metaphors, nationally specific notions, and cultural associations of words. Thus, cultural associations of such words as ‘Britain’, ‘nation’, ‘Europe’ are linked with positive view in the world of British politics, for example:

We British are as much heirs to the legacy of European culture as any other nation. Our ancestors – Celts, Saxons, Danes – came from the Continent [M.Thatcher 20.09.1988].

Page 29: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

As the course develops, students pass on to the analysis of another cultural component – metaphors. Discursive realizations of metaphors in political communication are, as a rule, nationally specific.

Page 30: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Culture permeates political discourse through metaphors American civilization began its life as a branch of the English oak [M.Thatcher 11.05.1996];

Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people [B.Obama 04.11.2008].

Page 31: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

THE TASKS DESIGNED FOR THIS MATERIAL ARE:

• compare linguistic units (metaphors, similes, idioms) in texts devoted to the same theme in British and American national variants;

• comment on associations and evaluative connotations of metaphors ( for example, “Path”) in two national traditions.

Page 32: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Within the second level of comparison the students identify the so called “national concepts” [Karasik 2009; Maslova 2004]. These concepts, which constitute a category of its own, are defined as markers of nationally specific discourse.

‘British genius’, ‘Englishness’, ‘the British way of life’;

‘American spirit’, ‘the American promise’, “the American Dream”.

Page 33: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

ANALYZING NATIONAL CONCEPTS

The activity that works well with concepts is comparing their definitions. The task enables students to identify cultural references in the descriptions of the national concept, and answer the question “What makes this English?” or “What makes this American?” An illustrative example in this case is the concept of the American Dream: Traditionally, Americans have sought to realize the

American Dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work [W.J.Clinton 22.01.1993].More Americans are buying and building houses – a central part of the American Dream. The homeownership is now 68%, close to the highest ever [G.W.Bush 07.01.2003].

Page 34: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Define national vision of POWER in British political discourse. Which metaphor sums it up?

“And the principles of my reforms are these: Government giving more power to Parliament; both government and Parliamet giving more power to the people...” [G.Brown,2007].

“Removing Saddam and his sons from ower, as with removing the Taliban was over with relative ease” [T.Blair, 2007].

Page 35: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Read the fragments. Define national vision of the concept POWER represented in American political discourse. Compare metaphors used by politicians in the USA and in the UK. 

 

1.“Our government has no power except that granted by the people”[R.Reagan,1981]; “...for the first time in history, government was not our master, it is our servant; it has only power that which we the people allow it to have” [R.Reagan, 1985].

2. «Heavenly Father, write on our hearts these words “Use power to help people”. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve peple» [G.H.Bush, 1989].

Page 36: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

I’d like to conclude with the idea that political discourse can serve as a Tool for Building Better Communicative Competences of language students, as a type of discourse with practically unlimited teaching potential. Translators and linguists can use it to acquire cross-cultural awareness based on two basic varieties of World English.

Page 37: Политический дискурс как средство развития профессиональной компетенции лингвистов и переводчиков

Thank you.

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