Linguistic and Didactic Potential of Working with Text in the Course of Proffessionally Oriented Teaching the Russian Language to Inophones — Future International Lawyers

Abstract

Communicative and functional co-direction in the process of learning and teaching any foreign language gives the text the function of the highest unit of teaching speech communication. The article aims to study the linguistic and methodological basis of teaching foreign students professionally-oriented communication of international legal character in Russian. The aim of the study is to develop a comprehensive methodologically grounded approach to the process of teaching the language of specialty to future specialists in the field of international law and international relations. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach to the problem under study, since the formation of professional competencies in this group of foreign students takes place in the Russian language, which is primarily a means of obtaining a specialty for them. The general scientific methods of cognition used in this study include, in particular, observation of the speech behavior of foreign speakers in the educational and scientific spheres of their activity, analysis of textual and linguistic material relevant to the students, experiment as a means of approbation of the developed methodology, as well as analysis of the obtained results. The article substantiates a comprehensive approach to the study of professionally oriented text, describes grammatical, lexical and conceptual difficulties characteristic of professional non-adapted texts in the specialty “Jurisprudence. International Law”. The novelty of the approach lies in the description of the typology of pre-text, and post-text exercises and tasks that contribute to the acquisition of scientific speech norms by foreign speakers, the formation of receptive, reproductive and productive speech activity relevant for professional communication of a future international lawyer. At the same time, the lexical material, on the basis of which the above system of exercises and tasks (“ETS”) was created, has not been previously included in such studies. The final part of the article presents the results of the final testing of students, conducted for experimental purposes and confirming the effectiveness of the proposed integrated methodological approach. The methodology of working with professional texts in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language to future international lawyers presented in the article can be used by Russian and foreign methodologists in order to create a linguistic and didactic model of professionally oriented teaching for other contingents of foreign students, as well as by practicing teachers working on the creation of professionally oriented teaching tools (textbooks, teaching aids) in the context of an interdisciplinary approach to teaching Russian as a foreign language