MAKING A TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Extensive Guidance & Practice in Grammar of text for 3^rd year students

ВОРОНЕЖ -ИСТОКИ

2009

Печатается по решению научно-методического совета факультета романо-германской филологии ВГУ.

Making a text in English: Extensive Guidance & Practice in Grammar of text for 3^rd year students: учебное пособие (Изд. 5-е, испр. и допол.) / Сост.: О.О.Борискина, С.Л.Лукииа, Н.С.Черникова- Воронеж: издательство "ИСТОКИ", 2009. - 109 с.

Isbn 5-88242-418-5

Учебное пособие состоит из двух частей. Первая часть представляет собой сборник материалов, подготовленных для решения учебных задач по созданию и передаче текста на английском языке. Вторая часть содержит описание средств выражения возможных отношений между частями текста в английском языке и предназначена для самостоятельной работы студентов по закреплению навыков языкового оформления таких отношений в устной и письменной речи.

Навыки по освоению текстовых отношений являются неотъемлемой частью коммуникативной компетенции изучающих английский язык по специальностям «Перевод и переводоведение», «Филология», «Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация».

ПИК 81.2 Англ

©

Isbn 5-88242-418-5

Коллектив авторов, 2009 © Издательство «Истоки», 2009

Making a text in English:

Extensive Guidance & Practice in Grammar of Text

for 3^rd year students

A book that no 3^rd Year Student can afford

to neglect!

Why do we need to learn grammar of text?

We traditionally associate knowledge of any language with an ability to generate a message freely and appropriately both in oral and written speech. This is what we bear in mind when mastering either our native or a foreign language. Generally speaking, a language is a system consisting of two main parts: vocabulary and grammar. By the former we mean not only sets of words but also the mystery of "collocation rules", by the latter - traditional issues, such as tenses, conditionals, modals, articles, etc. Bringing these into focus is undoubtedly important as a learner needs to get acquainted with the fundamental characteristics, or linguistic identity, in the first place. However, for further mastering the language and generating a text we also need to know how to complete the language "puzzle", i.e. the technique of linking naturally and correctly parts of sentences within a sentence, within a paragraph and finally within a text.

A learner of English, especially, when it conies to studying the language for professional linguistic purpose applying it either to teaching or translation, must be able to express correctly logical and semantic relations in the text. Linking can take place either on semantic level only, when we open the second separate clause with a linker, or both on syntactic and semantic levels, when joining clauses into one sentence: He was watching TV while I was reading the magazine/ He was watching TV. Meanwhile / was reading the magazine. The ability to identify correctly the type of the logical relations enables learners to structure their speech logically and think logically. This is what grammar of text focuses on.

Its importance becomes obvious, especially, with regard to teaching translation. A translator begins tackling the text with a preliminary analysis, which includes identifying conceptual relations, such as cause and effect, purpose, inclusion/ exclusion, etc., and thus maps the logical structure of the text following the idea development. This skill can also help to produce a correctly structured text when making presentations at speaking classes or when given such an assignment in real life. A clearly structured text is more effectively perceived by the target audience as

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the arguments are logically and clearly arranged. Hence, such presentation is certain to succeed.

The variety of linking words is amazingly wide. Yet, unfortunately, learners often do not take trouble to pay due attention, let alone using actively, various linkers, which mark logical relations between the ideas or the speaker's attitude to what is said. The scope of what they use appears quite limited and includes such devices as: and, but, also, besides, so and few others. As a result, they are unable to cover effectively all the ideas they would like to express.

Another difficulty is that there is 110 direct correspondence between linkers in English and Russian (for example, плакать от горя/радости - cry with grief/ for joy, умереть от тифа - die from typhus, стонать от боли -groan in pain ; or кроме - besides, apart from, except for). Moreover, those in English require more differentiation (for example, as a result/ consequently/accordingly thus/therefore, etc).

Taking all this into consideration, the necessity for teaching grammar of text is evident. It can be divided into four main stages: I) teaching cohesion, i.e. linking words and relations they indicate; 2) teaching coherence, i.e. discourse markers and reference elements; 3) combining the acquired skills (1,2) in producing texts through such tasks as compressing given sentences into a text or reporting a dialogue into a text; 4) translation from Russian into English and back.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1. COMBINING MESSAGES: COHESION