A very important cultural reference point of modern foreign language education is linguoculturology as one of the most actively developing areas of knowledge in recent times.
The linguo-cultural approach in teaching foreign languages was formed in the 90s. What studies linguoculturology? This is a science that studies objects and phenomena of a particular culture, concepts. The subject of the study of cultural linguistics is the cultural background – a world perception which is specific to a particular nation, represented in mythology, legends, proverbs, sayings and in other forms of folklore in precedent texts. According to the researcher V.A. Maslova, the subject of study of linguacultural studies are the standards, stereotypes, symbols, images, speech behavior and speech etiquette [6, p. 37].
The following methods of studying cultural concepts are distinguished: “analysis of proverbs, aphorisms, inner form of words, precedent texts, plots of works of art, psycholinguistic experiment with native speakers” [6, p. 37].
V.N. Telia considers linguoculturology as a part of ethnolinguistics, which devoted to the study and description of language and culture correspondence in their synchronous interaction.
Researchers note that, finally, that the merging of problems of linguistic knowledge into the one interdisciplinary field may lead to the fact that it will be possible to speak about linguoculturology not only as synthesizing, but also as systematizing science [7, p. 37].
Linguo-cultural approach considers language as a carrier of culture (V.A. Maslova, Y.S. Stepanov). The study of culture involves the inclusion of background knowledge about the personality of a native speaker, acting as an object of studying cultural specifics into the context of teaching. This focuses on the understanding and development of a certain students’ behavior. Cultural background knowledge can be considered as the basis for the development of students’ intercultural competence. Modeling of the intercultural communication aims to use the language in various situations that are close to natural. The learner is required to present himself in a particular role. This makes it possible to “compare the sociocultural background and the communicative style of behavior in the native and foreign language culture (cultural and pragmatic knowledge)” [3, p. 4-6].
This approach reveals the cultural-oriented content of language and speech, the study of culture through language. In the context of teaching foreign languages, there are two ways of sub studying of the language and culture: purely philological (through a word and verbal complexes through explication of a system of national-cultural concepts), sociological (through the study of culturally-based essence of communication).
Communicative competence – possession of skills and abilities in different types of speech activity. Language (linguistic) competence – theoretical knowledge in the field of language. In general, in the methodology of teaching foreign and non-native languages, language competence refers to a set of specific skills and abilities in the language system, which includes the subject’s speech experience and knowledge of languages.
N.A. Akhmetova, M.R. Kondubaeva, T.I. Kapitonova and L.V. Moskovkin, consider communicative competence as a complex multi-component education, which includes the following components of competence: linguistic (knowledge of phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, as well as the ability to use them in their productive speech and understand other people in speech);
sociolinguistic (ability to take into account the sociolinguistic context of the communicative act, the specifics of the situations of communication, the social status of the partner);
sociocultural (knowledge of the ethnocultural peculiarities of the country of the language being studied, the rules of speech and nonverbal behavior in typical situations and the ability to exercise one’s speech behavior in accordance with this knowledge), in linguodidactism, the concepts of sociocultural competence are close to the repeatedly formulated notions of regional, linguistic, cultural, linguocultural and intercultural competences;
discursive (knowledge of the rules for constructing of a coherent oral or written message); strategic (ability to select and use the most effective strategies for solving various communicative tasks); subject (knowledge of subject information, which allows students to generate or recognize statements) [1, 101].
Linguoculturology focuses on a new system of cultural values which put forward by the new thinking, the modern life of society, to complete, objective information about the cultural life of the country.
The main unit of description for this approach is the linguoculture as a special complex unit that represents the dialectical unity of linguistic and extralinguistic (conceptual and subject) content and includes segments not only of a language (linguistic significance), but also of a culture (extra-linguistic cultural meaning), represented by an appropriate sign. In contrast to the word and the lexico-semantic version, the linguoculture represents both as a linguistic representation itself and an “extra-linguistic, cultural environment” (situation, reality)- a stable network of associations. Therefore, the word signal will inevitably be in a person who knows the language, not only the meanings (as a hint), but the entire totality of the “cultural halo”. The ignorance of the “cultural halo” of the word leaves the recipient at the language level, does not allow penetrating into the deep network of cultural associations, i.e. in the meaning of the statement of the text as a reflection of the cultural phenomenon [4, p.47].
As can be seen, the structure of the linguaculture is more complex than the actual linguistic units. Here, the cultural-conceptual component is added to the usual components (sign-value) as an extra-linguistic content of the linguoculure. Language mark as one of the components of linguoculture, i.e. as its form, signals not only its “superficial”, proper linguistic meaning, but also the “deep” content (meaning) as a fact (element) of culture. A lingoculturema can be represented in one word, as a phrase, or an entire text (an extract from it), widely known to native speakers.
In this approach, “acculturation” occurs through the “cultivation” of language units, which leads students in the direction from the meaning of “guessing” to knowing and incorporating the sign-subject into the network of cultural associations which is characteristic to a given nation. Thus, it becomes obvious that with this approach, where culture is included as an object of study, the presentation of the material is based on the principle “from a cultural unit” and not from a language unit [5, p. 99-102].
The ability to intercultural communication is the formation of secondary cognitive consciousness in students by mastering a foreign language, which can be achieved through linguacultural study of quite representative cultural fragments. In this case, with a linguacultural approach, culture becomes an object of knowledge, which responds to the psychological characteristics of the process of a foreign language learning in a language university, when the language is no longer recognized as an object of knowledge and becomes itself a means of obtaining information about the world.
As noted above in the linguacultural approach, the focus is based on the reflection in the language of a representative “piece” of national culture in the connection with specific cultural units found in foreign language discourse. Thus, it is advisable to present sociocultural information contained in language units or simply related to the discussed problem, in a systematic way, in blocks, organized by the topic. The choice of a culture fragment, the sphere of communication determines the course content. I.I. Khaleeva identifies four main macrospheres of communication, where a person interprets through consciousness and a language, real-life relationships in the world, accordingly, four macrospheres of language usage: the sphere of production activity is special speech; everyday life – colloquial
(everyday) speech; cultural studies – literary and scientific speech; social activity – journalistic speech (including newspaper, public, television speech, as well as the speech of other media) [11, p. 230].
Since the linguacultural approach includes a culture as an object of teaching a foreign language, the presentation of the material should be based on the principle “from a cultural unit” (linguacultural), and not from a language unit. In this approach, emphasis is placed on the point registration of certain cultural information, extracted from a certain language unit, and on the reflection in the language of a certain representative block of national culture in connection with the commented language (speech) units. The study of a specific fragment of a culture by the method “from culture” is carried out using the construction of a lingual-cultural field, understood as the hierarchical structure of a multitude of linguistic culture that has a common (invariant) meaning characterizing a specific cultural sphere. The predominantly field-based approach to the study of objects in the field of culture stems from the general nature of the field as a synthesizing unit. Thanks to this phenomenon of the external world, the gaps in the conceptual system are so imperceptible. For the purposes of teaching a foreign language and culture, the field system should include minimally sufficient, but necessary linguoculture, which characterizes the difference between the two cultures [5, p. 102-105].
The fiction texts record certain cultural norms, they are the source of cultural information. The artistic text as a source of cultural background knowledge can be presented in different forms, to bear the author’s world outlook, picture or image of the world, the meaning of past and subsequent cultures.
Currently, there is no unambiguous and generally accepted definition of text in linguistics and linguodidactics. The existing text definitions reflect the various scope and content invested in this concept. The text is considered as a structure, message, sentence flow, speech unity, a multidimensional phenomenon, a secondary semiotic communicative system, an upper limit in the hierarchy of language units, a speech product, lengthy syntactic units, a sequence of utterances, a speech work, a product of speech activity, a product of a written language variant, result of language realization, the work of human cogitative activity, etc.
In the fiction text can be identified a) conceptual; b) contextual; c) the actual text or informative plan; d) language plan, including a combination of different language tools [10, p. 132]. All this together allows us to consider a fiction text as a dynamic system creating a model of a foreign language culture. Considering the text from this angle, it is possible to build a linguocultural paradigm.
Each fiction text is informative and is able to transform and generate messages (Yu.S. Stepanov). In the Fiction text, the national-specific picture of the world appears in the form of a cultural and pragmatic space: the world around us, the way of life, the stock of knowledge and the cultural foundation, representatives of a different linguistic and cultural community.
Thus, fiction texts are the source of cultural background knowledge. The principle of culturally related co-study of languages involves the isolation of cultural values and the comparison of the selected linguacultural correspondences. A cultural material for the selection of texts should have a practical orientation, contain tasks that develop the ability to interpret cultural information, be fascinating and relevant and has a cognitive character. Textbooks in a foreign language can be supplemented with illustrations, photographs, music, audio materials.
When teaching Russian as a foreign language, the teacher must adhere to the principle of communicative orientation, differentiation and integration, as well as the principle of taking into account the native
language [9, p. 34-36].
Basically, in the classroom they use the textbook by N.A. Akhmetova “Practical syntax of the Russian language” [2].
In modern conditions it is important to teach the student to think creatively and freely navigate the cultural space of the native and foreign language culture. The personality must have not only the ability to intercultural communication, but also to the heuristic procedures of constant knowledge of new elements.
Theoretical analysis of the thematic literature allowed to determine the linguacultural approach as the most effective approach aimed at the formation and improvement of the skills and abilities of intercultural communication by studying a foreign language as a cultural phenomenon. Under this approach, along with the language, culture is the main content of education.