DIGITAL LIBRARY
FIRST STEPS IN LEARNING GERMAN: HOW TO LEARN LEXIS
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia RUDN University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN17 Proceedings
Publication year: 2017
Pages: 9554-9556
ISBN: 978-84-697-3777-4
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2017.0800
Conference name: 9th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 3-5 July, 2017
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
When students start learning a foreign language the main difficulties they face are usually related to the differences of the native and foreign languages. When they start learning the second foreign language the interrelation of the languages becomes greater. The paper examines the interference of Russian as a native language, English as a first foreign language and German as a second foreign language when the learners have some level of proficiency in English and start learning German. Though English and German are the languages of the West Germanic linguistic branch of the Indo-European language family, but there are distinctions in the forms, meanings and use of the language units of both foreign languages. Such distinctions may make a negative effect on learning German as a second foreign language.

The goal of the paper is to examine the problems, which Russian students of non-linguistic university meet when they start learning German as a second foreign language. Special attention is paid to learning German lexis and interlinguistic interference occurring in this aspect. The findings of the teaching experiment held in the RUDN University (Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia) are reported.
Keywords:
Teaching foreign languages, interlinguistic interference, findings of teaching practice, teaching lexis.