РОЛЬ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ ЛЕКСИКИ В РАЗВИТИИ ЭРУДИЦИИ

Introduction   

In Russian language as well as in any other language the appearance of loanwords is the result of a natural global process of transition of the elements of one of the languages into another language system as the consequence of international political, sociocultural and business contacts. The radical changes in Russian social and economic spheres at the end of the twenties and the beginning of the twenty first century became stimuli for activating new dynamic processes in Russian language. Though the notion of a “loanword” or “word taken from another language” [1, P.506] was listed in dictionaries long ago, it is still a contemporary term in every modern language. Hence, the definition of a loanword as “a word taken over from another language and modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language” [2, P. 248-256]  and the statement that  such words have “identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source” [ibid.] can be regarded as universal for stating precisely the meaning of such vocabulary and its likeness in different languages. Usually, new words or terms appear due to the progress in science, denoting abstract notion in terminological systems like the typical indicators of inventions of the twentieth century: “antenna, antibiotic, atomic, automation, autostrada, betatron, bionics, cybernetics” [ibid.] and many others. Such mutual influences of languages from ancient times to the twentieth century had been deeply researched by Smirnickij in his work on History of English language, in which the relations between languages reveal the historical and linguistic links between languages, like English and Scandinavian words in son, sun-u, sun-r and Russian сын [3, P. 21], for example. The Latin and Scandinavian influences, the Norman Conquest, and even the appearance of Russian words in English language in XVI – XVII centuries, such as boyar боярин, Cossack казак, muzhik мужик, voivode воевода, tsar царь, altyn алтын, rouble рубль, copeck копейка, verst верста, poud пуд, telega телега, samovar самовар, kvass квас, [3, P. 217] led to significant changes in English vocabulary, that now influences other languages through different cross-culture activities. The earlier edition of the Russian authoritative dictionary of foreign words lists 20 000 loanwords and terms [4, P. 5] from different languages with articles including origin, definition, examples of usage. Among the dictionary entries, there are words from different spheres of human activity, like sport, fashion, cinema, entertainment: football футбол, match матч, out аут; jersey джерси, pullover пуловер; film фильм, club клуб, jazz джаз [4, P. 86-765]. Additionally, the Russian handbook of spelling and punctuation recommends to keep new foreign words closer to their pronunciation and graphical form in case they are not totally assimilated to Russian language, like alma mater альма-матер, black and white блэк энд уайт, goodbye гуд-бай, comme ll faut комильфо, motto мотто, OK о’кей, five o’clock файвоклок, all right ол-райт [5, P. 96-97]. Another dictionary of the newest foreign words lists 3500 words that mostly denote modern trends and “internet” notions: banner баннер, badge бейдж, gadget гаджет, street racer стритрейсер, usability юзабилити [6, P. 51, 54, 109, 418, 558]. Even the intention of linguists to use a foreign word only in case when there is no satisfactory substitute for it, cannot displace the flow of internet words that soon will dominate in every language.

Obviously, this kind of international vocabulary should be introduced as a studying challenge for the learners of foreign language. Thus, the goal of the research is to examine the various international loanwords through the lens of classroom practice. Agreeing with Arnold, that “the treatment of international words at English lessons would be one-sided if the teacher did not draw pupils’ attention to the spread of the English vocabulary into other languages” [2, P. 256], it would be important to explain the origin of  international words in order to find similarities between the words that appear almost concurrently in many languages. The comparative approach in analyzing the issue of loanwords allows to illustrate the high frequency usage of the old and new borrowings in textbooks of English and learners’ essays. Such comparison shows that the difference between Russian and English words lay mainly in a visual dissimilarity of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. However, the tasks on recognizing loanwords could make the process of learning the vocabulary more productive. Already the first pages in the foreign textbook of English contain sentences in which international words might sound familiar to Russian learners of English: content, unit, tourism, conservation, international, technology, grammar, aspect, subordinate, perfect, cohesion, future, passive, character, radio, brochure, series, iconic, car, quiz, message, innovation, test, stereotypes, criticism, fitness, system, debate, materialism, etc. [7, P. 2-3]. Quite a few English words, such as essay, composition, student, text are alike visually to their “pairs” in Russian language (see table 1).

Table 1 – International words in the English and Russian languages

Such words were borrowed by Russian Language from other languages, French, German, Polish in the eighteen-nineteen centuries. The western European languages were the source for the further borrowings of political, cultural, literary and technical terms: ballet балет, genre жанр, Roentgen рентген [8, 132-133]. Some of the words’ history could be traced back to significant events that happened at a certain period of time, like the English word parliament, which was formed from the French word parle in 1265 [9, P.69] when the first political council was organized in England  and the English became the national language of this country. Later, the same word was loaned by Russian language and assimilated with the same lexical meaning.

 As a rule, the words and phrases that learners use in their written assignment are taken from samples in a textbook, therefore, there are quite a few international words which could be repeated by several students while they are writing their essays. The highlighted English words in students’ sentences are listed in Russian dictionaries of foreign words [4], [6] having one origin and similar meaning in both languages:  

A substantial number of released films are based on books.

A screen adaptation of a book.

Films do not always live up to all the hype around them.

A writer and a director have to be contemporaries.

Authors can be screenwriters.

Cinematography appeared at the end of 19 century.

There are a great number of films based on popular books.

There is a tendency that most of films are not as good as a book.

These films can be based on famous novels that millions of people enjoy.

Small budget of films doesn’t let directors invite outstanding actors and buy expensive decorations.

The latest tendency to internationalization in higher education demonstrates the increased flow of foreign words into university textbooks as the reflection of this process in different humanitarian spheres. The highlighted words from the online text illustrate the maximum usage of international vocabulary in describing the notion of internationalization of education on a global market:

“In recent years Internationalization has become of vital concern in Higher Education and all indications are that this will be increasingly the case. Globalization, privatization and mobility of students, seeking internationally accredited qualifications relevant to a globally-mobile workforce, are increasing the pressure on institutions around the world to take action in Internationalizing curricula and professional practice” [10] (see table 2).

Table 2 – The sameness of English and Russian words in transliteration

Though, some of the highlighted words from the mentioned text [ibid.] are not completely assimilated phonetically, graphically and grammatically they are recognizable in both English and Russian languages. Furthermore, the articles from Russian dictionaries can add the valuable data regarding origin, meaning and usage of the loan words (see table 3).

Table 3 – The comparison of loan words in a dictionary article

Since most students find it hard to learn English vocabulary without making comparisons with their native language, it would be more productive to study international words by means of finding out the links between the words in different languages. The most obvious way to explain such close ties between languages is to compare the active vocabulary from a textbook [12] with the words that are listed in Russian dictionaries of foreign words (see table 4).

Table 4 – The textbook’s words in Russian dictionaries of foreign words

Obviously, a textbook of foreign languages introduces vocabulary from different areas of human activity, including international words that are listed in Russian dictionaries of foreign words. This fact proves the possibility to simplify the process of learning the “new” vocabulary, that appears to be not new but international in many aspects. The survey, conducted among thirty students to know whether the new internet words are familiar to them prior studying the textbook of English [12, P. 102], shows the positive result (see table 5).

Table 5 - The students’ survey data

Additionally, the students were asked to write in their own words the definition of the word meme from the given list of new internet words [12, P.102]. As a result, the majority of students could write similar definitions in a period of time of two or three minutes (see examples a – i): 

1. it is a kind of internet joke;
2. meme is a funny picture, it is primitive, eye-catching, easy to understand;
3. meme is connected with some current affairs or historic events, science, or just some funny things;
4. it can contain a picture and some words;
5. meme is a very funny picture or phrase;
6. usually young people use mems to talk about strange situations;
7. meme is a funny online picture, photo or video;
8. meme – a very amusing funny picture of something with catchy words that make you laugh.

In the completion of the task to write sentences with the words from table 5, the students reveal the ability to compose short sentences with the new internet words in one-two minutes: troll makes meme in photoshop, spams in blogs;  cyberbullying is common among trolls; there are podcasts, buzzwords and ‘pop-culture’ memes”, etc. Thus, the tendency is clear: spending more time dealing with the constant stream of messages, students learn new internet words naturally without any effort to memorizing such words. At the same time, the dictionary article on meme can deepen the learners’ knowledge by explaining the origin of the new word meme that came from genetics to media as it was described in a book written by professor R. Dawkins in the twentieth century [6, P. 250].

It is known, that in the twentieth century to develop a good vocabulary and erudition a learner needed to spend years in libraries reading books of distinguished scholars and studying textbooks of foreign languages. According to the author of the twentieth century, Norman Lewis, “in the highly verbal, highly intellectual civilization in which we now live, the man with a better vocabulary has a better chance of success, other things being equal – a better chance of success in his personal life, his business life, his intellectual life” [14, P.10]. Nowadays, the learners of a foreign language absorb the trendy international vocabulary easily on internet, and by the time they open the textbook of English they already know how to compose sentences, using new internet words. Though, there are some pessimistic motives in a contemporary guidebook on academic writing that “the internet has made society less efficient, less informed, and less healthy” [15, P.36], it is clear that learners obtain common vocabulary not only from the written samples in the textbooks of foreign language, but from the internet sources.    

For a sake of improvement of quality of studies and adjustment to the situation when students are lack of time to read, write and memorize, but across the Globe they are learning more through their digital connections, it is obvious to change the approach to constructing the textbook of a foreign language. For the development of learners’ erudition in the time of internationalization in education, it is more productive to compose the textbooks’ international vocabulary in a comparative way with the references to origins, definitions, derivatives, pronunciations, examples of usage, showing similarities in languages.