Advantages of the periodical literature over the educational textbooks and school textbooks

At the present stage of learning any foreign language it is necessary to study not only a language itself, but also the cultural process of the country. Texts which are presented in the textbooks sometimes are not able to cover the entire amount of material for students to be provided with. For this reason, mostly periodic literature is used in practice.

The usage of the current newspaper articles as an additional teaching material for foreign language classes has many advantages over other teaching materials. Among the advantages of the periodical literature we can define the following:

- the newspaper materials are devoted to the topics, which will help to unfold the modern trends in English society, to understand the main questions which are of great interest of the representatives from English-speaking countries, to review and remove existing stereotypes;

- the newspaper publications include not only a great number of lexical units to the given issue, but also some clichés, stable lexical phrases precisely reflect quite a difficult concept;

- the publications in the periodical literature contain a large number of phraseological and idiomatic expressions. The study of clichés, turns of speech is especially important, because there is often a tendency to formulate and express one’s own opinion, using the so-called "loanings" (especially while discussing issues which require complex statements);

- the newspaper articles include disputable questions, which will help to organize and motivate the formulation and expression of an idea of those who study a language.

Thus, the periodical literature either may present the information about culture, stereotypes of behavior, current processes which occur in the society, or it may be used as the materials for the development of communicative skills and the formation of language competence.

Sytnyk I.

(Vinnytsia)

The creative potential of stylistic foregrounding

 "Foregrounding" literally means"to bring to the front." By foregrounding we also mean the ways of focusing the reader’s attention on the definite elements of the message and defining semantically relevant connections between the elements of one or more frequently of different levels. Linguist M. Halliday has characterized foregrounding as motivated prominence: "the phenomenon of linguistic highlighting, whereby some features of the language of a text stand out in some way" (Exploration in the Functions of Language, 1973).

There are three types of foregrounding: convergency, coupling and deceived expectation.

Convergency is defined as the concentration of the stylistic devices with a similar stylistic function in a textual fragment: e.g.:“And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience” (Herman Melville “Moby-Dick”).The rhythm which is created in the sentence makes us feel the presence of the sea, the sound of the waves. This rhythm is created with the help of repetition and inversion of the verb “heave”. It is also supported by polysyndeton (and…and). We cannot but mention the word “unrestingly”. It is the neologism created by the author. The unusual way of comparison, when the image of the large waves is created with the help of the abstract notion “conscience”, is used here with the same aim - to show us the ferocious, alarming sea. So, in this case we have the concentration of different stylistic devices with a similar stylistic function (description of the waves).

Coupling is defined as the usage of the similar elements in similar positions imparting integrity to the text. Similarity of the elements can be phonetic:

e.g.: “The possessive instinct never stands still”(alliteration); “Tenderly bury the fair young dead” (assonance);

The similarity may also be structural (similar morphemic structures or syntactical constructions) and semantic (the usage of synonyms, the words of the same semantic field).

Deceived expectation – is defined as the breaking of a pattern by the usage of an element of law predictability: e.g.: “Talk all you like about automatic ovens and electric dishwashers, there is nothing you can have around the house as useful as a husband” (Ph. McGinley “Sixpence in Her Shoe”). It is quite obvious that the logical sequence is broken here and that is why the second part of the sentence is unpredictable for the reader.

Summarizing everything that was mentioned above, we can say that the aim of foregrounding is to focus the reader’s attention on the definite elements of the message. Foregrounding is a stylistic device used by different authors with the aim of forming high creative potential.

Sources:

1. Мороховский А.Н. Стилистика английского языка. – К.,1991.

2. David S. Miall, literary reading: Empirical and Theoretical Studies Peter Lang, 2007.

3. Paul Simpson, Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge, 2004.

Trembitska T.

(Vinnytsia)