In all developed countries, it is intellectual labor, knowledge, and information that bring more weight and therefore are valued above all else. That is why the problem mentioned above is gaining a social, state character today, in the era of strict laws of the market, market relations and competition [3, 267]. The problem of selecting a lexical minimum for teaching a foreign language is one of the most important. Language is a living phenomenon, it is constantly changing. The absolute completeness of dictionaries does not have much practical significance: at a certain level of vocabulary knowledge, almost all unknown meanings of words are accurately guessed or understood from the context without resorting to dictionaries. To communicate freely in English, you need to know a certain minimum of words that can replace yourself or describe any other concepts. " The history of this selection was dealt with by many scientists (Ogden, Richards, West, I. A. Gruzinskaya, Iv. Rakhmanov, G. Palmer, A. Hornby and others), as a result of which a rich arsenal of scientific provisions in the theory of selection of the lexical minimum was accumulated.
Over the past few decades, in the methodology of teaching English for special purposes, along with traditional approaches to teaching, a genre approach has been widely used. With this approach to teaching English for special purposes, the learning process focuses on understanding and producing text genres. The concept of “genre” (a combination of written and oral texts, united by one communicative goal) in the methodology of teaching English for special purposes first appeared in the mid 60-ies of the last century [4].
Many scientists involved in the methodology of teaching foreign languages the selection of lexical material, caused by various scientific approaches to this issue. On many issues of selection theory, the views of scientists converge. Thus, the unanimous recognition of the need to resolve the three main tasks of selection, such as establishing: 1) units of selection; 2) selection principles; 3) selection procedures. The recognition of traditional principles of selection is also common to all: the principle of frequency, the thematic principle, the principle of polysemy, the word-formation principle, the principle of drill ability, the principle of stylistic unlimited, semantic principle. At present, “the lexical minimums for schools and universities should reflect the penetration into everyday speech of the vocabulary of computer and Internet technologies, neologisms, already recorded in regularly published dictionaries of new words.” This article proposes additional principles for the selection of the lexical minimum, based on the genre approach to teaching English for special purposes (ESP) — the principle of intra-genre limitation and the principle of saturation with genre word formation.
In the legal specialty, scientists identified five main genres: “books”, “articles”, “legislation”, “legal proceedings”, “documents”. Studies by Israeli scholars have proven that “articles” and “books” are the basis for teaching English the legal specialty in higher education. These two kinds of genre cover the rest with their publications. But in view of such vast material, it is impossible to completely exclude a potential dictionary from the lexical minimum. Therefore, from the potential dictionary, we exclude only phraseological units, obsolete and slang words, thereby introducing an additional principle to rationalize the legal lexical minimum: the principle of intra-genre limitation. This principle will help us outline the range of sources of selection and thereby eliminate the problem of searching and arguing for the selection of sources for such types of genres as “legal documents”, “legal proceedings”. Since the lexical minimum for reading is considered the most extensive in comparison with the other minimums (for speaking, writing, listening), this principle will ensure its maximum compression. According to the principle of intra-genre limitation, the minimum will not include lexical units characteristic of such types of legal genre as “legal documents” that are not used in books or periodicals accepted as the basis for academic training.
In order for this minimum, due to its volume, to be as effective as possible for assimilation, it is necessary to introduce another additional principle that is directly related to the specifics of the legal genre. The principle of saturation with genre word formation will give students the opportunity to automate not only the skills of handling the most common word formation methods specific to a given genre, but will also expand the terminological paradigm of the words represented in the minimum. With each appeal to the dictionary, the student, automatically searching for the necessary words, will re-read the vocabulary again and again, will ensure its best memorization. The lexical minimum, compiled by us with this principle in mind, contains 47 suffixes (1,050 words), 13 prefixal (147 words), 26 suffixal-prefixal (86 words) word formation methods, 85 compound words and 85 compound words, which are most characteristic for the above genres of the legal specialty. With a few exceptions to complex and compound words, all word-formation patterns have been cut to vocabulary intended for active learning. For example, относящийся к обвинению — accusatorial; обвинительный — accusatory; обвинять, предъявлять обвинение — accuse; обвиняемый — accused; обвинитель — accuser.
The principle of saturation with genre word formation gives a clear idea of the specifics of genre word formation of a particular discourse. For example, one of the features of a legal specialty is the presence of two parties in a court case: the accused is the prosecutor, the plaintiff is the defendant, the guarantor is the pledge receiver, the donor is the recipient, etc. In English, there are several suffixes that mean «occupation», it is -or, -er, -ee, -ant. These suffixes are also used in legal English, but due to the presence of two parties in any process, it is difficult to navigate their specific use. Among the terms appellant, appellator, appellee, appellor, without the help of a dictionary, it is immediately impossible to determine which side (of the appellant or of the appellee) each of these terms belongs to. Therefore, even previously known word-formation methods are included in the minimum types of specificity of their meanings in a particular genre. The result is a rich synonymic word-formation series of legal terms.
All these examples are clear evidence of the need to apply the principle of saturation with genre word formation to obtain a more effective lexical minimum. This principle also has a positive effect on the process of memorizing vocabulary, since each appeal requires its selection among words similar to it, which automatically affects memorization. So, taking into account all the above features of vocabulary in various types of the legal genre, it is necessary to note the importance of introducing, along with the traditional principles of selecting a receptive lexical minimum, additional principles: the principle of saturation with genre word formation and the principle of intra-genre limitation, contributing to its improvement with both methodological and didactic points of view.
References:
- Lesokhina T. B., Simakova E.Yu. The specifics of modern professional communication in the field of productive written foreign language // In the collection of IN and intercultural communication.— Moscow: Moscow State University, 2001. —P. 17.
- Petrochenkov A. V. 135 of the most valuable words of the English language. English-Russian Training Dictionary. — Moscow: Publishing House NTs ENAS, 2002. —P. 3
- Khasanov E. R. The development of independent thinking skills is the main condition for improving the quality of education students' languages // Problems and Prospects for the Development of Education.— 2016.— P. 267–270.
- Lin, B. (2003) English in Singapore: An insider’s perspective of syllabus renewal through a genre-based. RELC Journal, 34 (2), 223–46.
