Abstract:

In teaching a foreign language, an important role is played by authentic documents, carriers of the original language and speech material, the possession of which is necessary to ensure effective foreign language communication in the context of intercultural communication. Understanding a foreign language text, the ability to extract relevant information from it, analyze and interpret language material allow students to develop a successful communication strategy.

The most popular type of authentic documents used in a foreign language lesson at an advanced stage are media texts dedicated to a certain historical period. Working with them is of a pronounced interdisciplinary nature, requiring the involvement of data from linguistics, history, geography, sociology, political science, and intercultural communication. One of such periods is World War II/Great Patriotic War.

So, in the classroom on French as a foreign language at the university, French media texts from the period 1939-1945 are studied from the point of view of their linguistic, pragmatic and sociocultural components. The linguistic component is realized in the lexical and grammatical material characteristic of the journalistic style and reflecting the topic of publications. The pragmatic component consists in the speech influence exerted on the reader, and is provided by the use of various techniques, tactics and strategies due to the political role of France in the historical period under study. The sociocultural component reflects the specifics of World War II, the position of its participants and the national and cultural features of the journalistic product of France.

This article examines the techniques for working with French media texts placed in the electronic library of the National Library of France Gallica and dedicated to the Ural rear as a strategic outpost of the USSR. The proposed tasks are aimed at working out the linguistic material, and also describe the ways of interpreting media texts from a pragmatic and sociocultural point of view. These skills contribute not only to improving the foreign language communicative competence of students, but also to a deeper understanding of the historical role of the Ural region in 1939-1945 through the studied foreign language. The described methodology is used in the lessons of French as a foreign language at the South Ural State University.

Keywords:

French as a foreign language, media discourse, authentic documents, Gallica, the Urals, World War II, Great Patriotic War.