LECTURE 11. Official Functional Style; Business English. Journalistic Functional Style.

Преподаватель: Липгарт Андрей Александрович, доктор филологических наук, профессор, кафедра английского языкознания филологического факультета МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова, профессор.

The English Language For the Russian-Speaking Students: A Corrective Course (курс читается на английском языке)

Английский язык для русскоязычных студентов: корректирующий курс (курс читается на английском языке)

Аудиторная нагрузка – 26 часов

Аннотация курса

With many students learning English tends to become an overlong and somewhat demoralizing process. This happens for a number of reasons: 1) distorting the natural order in which any language should be studied; 2) concentrating on various aspects of language in isolation and taking linguistic material out of context; 3) introducing wrong analogies with the learner’s mother tongue, 4) giving preference to some skills of comprehending and using the language to the detriment of others, etc. As a result after years of studying the language many learners fall far short of linguistic proficiency in the proper sense of the word.

The present course is aimed at helping the learners to bring some order in their often extensive but disarranged knowledge of English. After clarifying some moot points connected with English phonetics, intonation, morphology, lexis and syntax special attention will be given to the so-called functional styles of Modern English in order 1) to establish a certain hierarchy in mastering the language depending on the needs of a particular student and 2 ) to show the invariant features of, and the variability within, a) the conversational, b) the academic, c) the official, d) the journalistic and e) the imaginative functional styles of the English language, for this is something the user of any language including English should be aware of if his communication in this or that language is ever to become effective. The theoretical propositions made will be illustrated with vast authentic practical material, which implies an active participation of the audience in the discussion of various points, and optimized methods of learning and teaching the language will be suggested.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

LECTURE 1. A Practical Beginning To the Theoretical Exposition: the advanced students’ reading out a complicated text in English. The phonetic, prosodic, lexical, grammatical and syntactic difficulties of Standard English thus revealed. Standard English and the concept of norm. Native speakers, the Internet and the concept of norm.

LECTURE 2. Language Learning and Language Teaching: popular misconceptions. Linguistic proficiency as the capacity to comprehend and to generate oral and written speech on subjects a learner wishes to be able to discuss and cover in a style or styles appropriate to his needs.

LECTURE 3. General-Systematic Description of a Language versus Studying Its Functional Varieties. Standard English intonation as the reflection of the logical division of a sentence; the descending scale; logical and emphatic stresses as the secondary prosodic phenomena; English punctuation.

LECTURE 4. English Articulation Basisversus Russian Articulation Basis: English Vowels. Rules of Reading.

LECTURE 5. English Articulation Basisversus Russian Articulation Basis: English Consonants.

LECTURE 6.English Morphology:Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs, Articles.

LECTURE 7.English Lexis:general-systematic properties and stylistic differentiation.

LECTURE 8. English Syntax.

LECTURE 9. Functional Styles of English: linguistic theory and popular myths (“the newspaper language”, “the language of the Internet”, etc.). Conversational (Colloquial) Style.

LECTURE 10. Academic (Scientific) Functional Style.

LECTURE 11. Official Functional Style; Business English. Journalistic Functional Style.

LECTURE 12. Imaginative Writing.