The History of Designations for ‘stupid’ and ‘crazy’ in the French Language

Objective of the article is to determine the similarity and difference in the expression of nouns’ gender category in the French and Russian languages, to indicate the way and rules of revealing gender category based on lexical, grammatical and comparative analyses. Applied methods : Lexical, grammatical and comparative analyses, which allow determining the peculiarity of the expression of nouns’ gender category in the French and Russian languages; to consider the techniques of the formation of nouns’ feminine gender in the French language, the formation of nouns’ masculine, feminine, neuter genders in the Russian language. Results . The similarity of the expression of nouns’ gender category is revealed by manifesting the word-formation suffixes, substantial adjectives and participles, words of different basis, sequence of mutual gender words; and the differences revealing the absence of neuter and common genders in the French language, the presence of homonyms where gender determines the nouns’ meaning. Conclusion . The article deals with the expression of nouns’ gender category, the formation of nouns’ feminine gender in the French language, the formation of nouns’ masculine, feminine, neuter genders in the Russian language, the affix word-formation. The problem of vocabulary’s feminization in the French language is also considered. The list of homonyms is given too where gender determines the nouns’ meaning. The study of the nouns’ gender category is emphasized as actual.

The article analyzes the language policy of the French state and the activities of public institutions to support the French language. It is noted that despite the fact of a fairly wide spread of the French language on the planet, there is currently a tendency to weaken it as a language of international communication, so France is trying in every possible way to strengthen the position of the French language by developing and implementing an active language policy aimed at strengthening the position of the French language as one of the largest world languages in the world. The article analyzes the activities of such organizations as the General Delegation of the French Language and Languages of France, the Supreme Council for the French Language, the French Alliance, the University Agency of Francophonie, the International Organization of French-speaking Countries, whose main goal is to preserve the role of French as a language of international communication, as well as to ensure its wide study not only in France, but also in other countries. The role of the media in the implementation of language policy is shown. It is suggested that the numerous efforts of the French state to implement a targeted language policy will contribute to the fact that the French language will strengthen its status as the language of international communication and become one of the main languages of the world and an asset of globalization.

We consider the problem of the development of the lexical competence of the future linguists who study French language after English in the higher education system. We also analyze English borrowings in French language, consider their adaptation in the receiving language and reveal the semantic features of foreign words. It is disclosed that the lexical competence of a future linguist who studies French in multilingual terms, is the ability of the learner to determine the contextual meaning of foreign words, to compare the volume of their meanings in English, French and Russian languages, to explicate the meanings of words showing sensitivity to differences in lan-guages. Future linguists have the opportunity to learn the phenomena of the French language, ac-cept them, or through dialogue and textual analysis of linguistic information correct their mistakes. It is revealed that at the semantic stage of the integration of anglicisms into French language, their semantic expansion or restriction occurs. It is proved that the knowledge component of students’ lexical competence includes ideas about interlanguage lexical correspondences, word-formation structure of the word and their semantic features. Different strategies are used to study lexical units: searching for information in paper and electronic dictionaries, language supports, interlanguage contrasting exercises, which contribute to the improvement of the lexical competence of students in multilingualism terms. The use of information and communication technologies allows to develop receptive and productive lexical skills of students, contributes to the expansion of their vocabulary, leads to the development of future specialist’s awareness.

This study examines Socio Educative Activities, Language environment and Pedagogical approach as determinants of Students’ Proficiency in French language in Nigerian French Language Village, Badagry. The study adopted descriptive research design of correlational type. The population of the study was all University students in French Language Village, Badagry, Nigeria. 100 students were randomly selected from 2000 students in French Language Village Badagry, Lagos State. Twenty French language Lecturers were randomly selected from 30 Lecturers of French Language in French Language Village Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria. In all, a total number of 100 French language students and 20 French language Lecturers participated in the study. Four instruments were used in this study. These include: Questionnaire on Social Educative Activities (QSEA), Questionnaire on Students’ Attitude to Language Environment (QSALE), French Language Lecturers’ Classroom Practices Observation Scale (FLTCPOS) and Students’ French Language Proficiency Test (SFLPT). The findings show that majority of the students were highly proficient in French as their score fell between 60 and 98. The result indicates that students’ proficiency in French language had positive moderate and significant relationships with socio-educative activities. The result also shows that students’ proficiency in French language had positive high and significant relationships with lecturer’s pedagogical approach while it had positive low and non-significant relationship with attitude to language environment. The findings further revealed that the joint contribution of the three independent variables (Socio-educative activities, language environment and lecturers’ pedagogical approach) to students’ French proficiency was significant. The result indicates that the relative contribution of lecturers’ Pedagogical Approach was significant while the relative contributions of Socio-Educative Activities and attitude to Language Environment were not significant. It was therefore recommended that more emphasis should be placed on socio-educative activities and teacher pedagogical approach in order to enhance the foreign language proficiency of the learners of French Language. Article visualizations:

The paper aims to show how the syntactic position of adverbial construction components influences their homogeneity. The article analyses functioning of homogeneous coordinate adverbial modifiers in the French and Russian languages. Scientific originality of the research lies in the fact that the author provides a comparative study of the form and semantics of homogeneous coordinate constructions. Using factual material of the French and Russian languages, the researcher for the first time examines influence of the syntactic position of adverbial construction components on their homogeneity. The analysis of linguistic material indicates that in the Russian and French languages, replacement of homogeneous sentence members promotes evolution of their linguistic features, in particular, transformation of homogeneous adverbial modifiers into non-homogeneous ones.

This article deals with systematization of main principles of system typology put forward by G.P. Melnikov and that have become a methodological basis of the present research. The importance of concept of the internal determinant of the language is stipulated by the use of morphemes of different class - prepositions, prefixes and affixes - in the languages of different types by actualization of the uni-versal strategy. The triadic principle applicable for linguistic analysis was projected to the Dative under-stood from the point of view of the strategy derived through the universals of the natural semantic meta-language. The importance of the research is stipulated by insufficient study of aspect of Dative from the point of view of the system typology. The object of the research is prepositional-and-nominal and verbal-and-prefix constructions, where universal case conceptual basis of Dative is actualized in Russian, English, French, Spanish and Uzbek languages. The subject of the research is semantics of morphemes pri, to, à, a, -ga in Russian, English, French, Spanish and Uzbek languages as a model of the universal case meaning of Dative. The analysis done on the material of belles-lettres of five languages of different types has shown actualization of the strategy through the language units, the morphemes. Main methods used in the paper include abstracting, analysis, synthesis, analogy, cognitive-and-communicative and typological methods, as well as principles of morpheme analysis and cognitive modeling. As a result of the research it has been established that the Dative markers are preposition to in the English language, prepositionв à in the French language, preposition а in the Spanish language, prefix pri- of the Russian language and the Uzbek agglu-tinative affix -ga.

This article aims to analyse the ideological struggles reflected in the identity construction of French-language users in Indonesia. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, it examines how Indonesians users, with their ideologies, adapt or adopt the French language and culture, as well as the different patterns and models they use to do so. The informants of this research consist of 9 students in deep interviews, 60 students in class observation, and 15 lecturers at 12 Indonesian universities who have taught the French language and culture for at least two years. Data from the interviews is compared to French instruction books and media discourses using intertextuality and interdiscursivity analysis. This research identifies three models used by French users in Indonesia: to adopt French language and culture, to adapt it, or to abstain from the reproduction of both. Users of the first model completely adopt all aspects of French culture, including in their consumption and style. Meanwhile, users of the second model tend to select and accept only those aspects considered positive within their own value system. Those using the final model tend to ignore many aspects of French culture and language.

The research discusses key issues of the dictionary description of formally coinciding and semantically similar/dissimilar units of the vocabulary of the French and Russian languages. The relevance of the study is dictated by the absence of a dictionary of French-Russian lexical parallels in Russian lexicography and the significance of such a dictionary for the translation and linguo-didactical sphere of activity in the conditions of the spread of artificial bilingualism in modern globalized world. The novelty of the research lies in the representation of the dictionary description of French-Russian lexical parallels, different from the lexicographic experience of V.L. Muravyev. The purpose of the article is to analyze the existing interlexical semantic relations of dialexemes of the Russian and French languages and selectively present the results of their systematic lexicographic description in a number of so-called ‘new generation dictionaries’. The research material was associatively correlated lexemes of the Russian and French languages, identified and selected by bilingual and explanatory dictionaries, as well as national text corpora of the languages under consideration. The methodology of the study consisted of the methods of continuous and selective sampling; quantitative, contrastive, comparative analysis; description; as well as the distributive method. The research focuses on the selection of a word-list, on the specifics of its organization and representation in dictionary entries. The work on the format and content of the dictionary is based on the standard model of the dictionary of lexical parallels for two synchronously compared languages, developed and implemented by V.V. Dubichinsky. The article presents a brief-course into the history of the description of lexical parallels, including false friends of the translator, lexical internationalisms of French origin and gallicisms in the Russian language and identifies the main points of V.V. Dubichinsky’s theory of lexical parallels. The authors comment on the issue of the terminological apparatus of the phenomenon described and analyze the typology of French-Russian lexical parallels and the principles of their lexicographying. Each of the existing types of French-Russian lexical parallels is considered separately. In order to internationalize Russian as a second language in the global communicative space and to facilitate the study of the Russian language by French-speaking students, we propose a modern model of the dictionary description of full, partial and false lexical parallels, as well as interlingual homonyms and interlingual paronyms of Russian and French.

Knowing at least one foreign language has become almost a necessity. However, in learning a foreign language, communication definitely plays a crucial role. Moreover, without communication there is no interaction, language teaching or learning. Communication is considered as very important and more and more is used as a useful tool to organize a pupil – centered lesson. In this article is treated the need to strengthen and highlight the communicative aspects in teaching foreign language, in our case French language, for a better learning of the language. The objective of learning a foreign language is to develop at pupils the communicative competences in this language. More and more we are going towards a method where communication is the one that realizes successfully the process of teaching and learning. The hypothesis that is set in the article is: Is communication the core element in teaching and learning a foreign language? Other research questions and cases that will be treated are: Communication methods of the foreign languages. What communicative skills are required to develop at pupils/students who learn a foreign language and the strategies of their lessons?; Linguistic competences and their communication role; Communication and the importance of interaction; Oral communication in teaching / learning French language, in the French and Italian language department, in “Aleksandër Xhuvani” university, Elbasan.

This review analyses The French Language in Russia: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History, a book by an international research group (D. Offord, V. Rjéoutski, G. Argent). It deals with the peculiarities of French language use and attitudes towards it in the Russian Empire from Peter I to Alexander II. The book’s authors consider the history of French language teaching and determine the functions of French at court, high society, diplomacy, administration, fiction, journalism, private correspondence, diaries, and memoirs. They also examine attacks on gallomania in Russian comedies and novels between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. D. Offord, V. Rjéoutski, and G. Argent argue that Russian society, despite the widespread use of the French language, was never monolingual. They claim that the Russian language developed due to active contacts with French and other languages in the political, social, cultural, and literary spheres. Thus, francophonie became one of the crucial factors of Russia’s westernisation. Without questioning the relevance and importance of the conclusions, the reviewer points out the underestimation of historical inertia which let the French language shape the cultural image of Russian society until the Revolution of 1917.

Knowing at least one foreign language has become almost a necessity. However, in learning a foreign language, communication definitely plays a crucial role. Moreover, without communication there is no interaction, language teaching or learning. Communication is considered as very important and more and more is used as a useful tool to organize a pupil – centered lesson. In this article is treated the need to strengthen and highlight the communicative aspects in teaching foreign language, in our case French language, for a better learning of the language. The objective of learning a foreign language is to develop at pupils the communicative competences in this language. More and more we are going towards a method where communication is the one that realizes successfully the process of teaching and learning. The hypothesis that is set in the article is: Is communication the core element in teaching and learning a foreign language? Other research questions and cases that will be treated are: Communication methods of the foreign languages. What communicative skills are required to develop at pupils/students who learn a foreign language and the strategies of their lessons?; Linguistic competences and their communication role; Communication and the importance of interaction; Oral communication in teaching / learning French language, in the French and Italian language department, in “Aleksandër Xhuvani” university, Elbasan.

This article aims to analyse the ideological struggles reflected in the identity construction of French-language users in Indonesia. Using a critical sociolinguistic approach, it examines how Indonesians users, with their ideologies, adapt or adopt the French language and culture, as well as the different patterns and models they use to do so. The informants of this research consist of 9 students in deep interviews, 60 students in class observation, and 15 lecturers at 12 Indonesian universities who have taught the French language and culture for at least two years. Data from the interviews is compared to French instruction books and media discourses using intertextuality and interdiscursivity analysis. This research identifies three models used by French users in Indonesia: to adopt French language and culture, to adapt it, or to abstain from the reproduction of both. Users of the first model completely adopt all aspects of French culture, including in their consumption and style. Meanwhile, users of the second model tend to select and accept only those aspects considered positive within their own value system. Those using the final model tend to ignore many aspects of French culture and language.

Whether or not to use students’ native language (L1) in second or foreign language classes has always been debated by many scholars and researchers. This controversial issue has taken place in the literature with various case studies and findings. The current study investigates into both students and teachers’ perspectives on using L1 in foreign classes. The study was conducted in a state university offering compulsory language education for at least one academic year in three foreign languages, English, German, and French in 2016-2017 academic year. As data collection instruments, two Likert-type questionnaires were administered to instructors and students. Ten English, seven German and three French Language instructors participated in the study together with 217 students from three compulsory foreign language preparatory classes. Descriptive data were analysed in order to determine the students and instructors’ perspectives about L1 use. ANOVA test was also used to find out whether there exist significant differences among students and instructors with regard to L1 use. The results reveal that there is a statistically significant difference between English and German language students and between French and German language students with regard to L1 use in the foreign language classrooms. However, there is not a statistically significant difference between English and French language students with regard to L1 use in the foreign language classrooms. The findings also indicate that there is no statistically significant difference among English, French and German language instructors concerning the use of L1 in the classes.

Knowing at least one foreign language has become almost a necessity. However, in learning a foreign language, communication definitely plays a crucial role. Moreover, without communication there is no interaction, language teaching or learning. Communication is considered as very important and more and more is used as a useful tool to organize a pupil – centered lesson. In this article is treated the need to strengthen and highlight the communicative aspects in teaching foreign language, in our case French language, for a better learning of the language. The objective of learning a foreign language is to develop at pupils the communicative competences in this language. More and more we are going towards a method where communication is the one that realizes successfully the process of teaching and learning. The hypothesis that is set in the article is: Is communication the core element in teaching and learning a foreign language? Other research questions and cases that will be treated are: Communication methods of the foreign languages. What communicative skills are required to develop at pupils/students who learn a foreign language and the strategies of their lessons?; Linguistic competences and their communication role; Communication and the importance of interaction; Oral communication in teaching / learning French language, in the French and Italian language department, in “Aleksandër Xhuvani” university, Elbasan.

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