Cognitive Approach in Teaching Russian Language (on the Example of Working with Poetic Text)

Abstract

The article provides a methodological substantiation of the idea of implementing a cognitive approach in teaching Russian language, and gives the main definitions of the notions “cognitive activity”, “cognitive competence”, “cognitive skills”. The principles on which the cognitive approach to teaching is based are the ones of consciousness and activity, developing and educating learning, systematicity and consistency, the relationship between theory and practice. The following three goals are recognized to be leading for cognitive learning: the formation of linguistic consciousness and metalanguage consciousness; the development of linguistic thinking; education by means of language. Developing, problematic and communicative methods and techniques for developing students’ cognitive abilities in the process of linguistic analysis of a poetic text are taken into consideration. Linguistic analysis of a poetic text is carried out using language search problems that help students apply the linguistic knowledge gained in the classroom and understand the functions of various linguistic phenomena in the text. Linguistic search tasks are compiled in accordance with the topic of the Russian language lesson and are based on the achievements of cognitive linguistics. Linguistic semantics directs students’ attention to the lexical meaning of unfamiliar words, which they define with the help of context; it helps to understand the influence of individual words on the expressiveness of poetic language and the meaning of the entire text. Functional linguistics reveals the role of certain linguistic units in a literary text. Communicative linguistics allows to build a speech utterance or written text with a certain set of linguistic units, depending on the speech situation. Systemic linguistics helps students to understand the level structure of the language, to understand the connections between language units. Implementation of the cognitive approach in teaching serves the development of linguistic consciousness, i.e. promotes conscious use of language and speech, helps to reflect one’s own activity. As a result of such training, the language knowledge of students is deepened, they can apply it in a new situation, which indicates development of their creative potential.

Keywords:

cognitive linguistics, cognitive approach to teaching, cognitive competence, cognitive abilities, linguistic consciousness, linguistic thinking, linguistic analysis of a literary text