Abstract:

The key aim of the present paper is to elaborate on the approach to outdoor advertising as the source for creating teaching materials for proficient English learners at the PR and advertising department.

Outdoor advertising texts are studied from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. To elaborate the teaching materials, it is important at the first stage of the project to outline and investigate prevailing concepts in outdoor advertising, work out and describe methods of analysis applied to multimodal texts and concepts in them. At this stage, methods of analysis employed are conceptual, contextual, definitional analyses.

To conduct the research, we collected 170 examples of modern English-language billboard advertisements in several English-speaking countries of the world. The choice of the linguistic material was justified by the goal of the project: to introduce to the students cultural differences in multimodal texts of outdoor advertisements. Thus, applying the ligua-cultural approach, we introduce global and local trends in ad creation and teach language through culture.

Further development of the learning materials for use in the classroom focuses on investigating multimodal advertisement texts from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Multimodal texts contain both verbal and non-verbal elements, thus involving different semiotic signs. Moreover, due to their complex structure, multimodal advertising texts appear as effective means of modern communication.

The findings of the paper show that it is possible to single out several dominant concept groups in the examples selected. The author elaborates an ingenious method of grouping, analysing and describing such concepts in modern outdoor advertising texts that can apply in the process of teaching English. The research shows the specifics of the recipient’s interaction with reality at conceptual and linguistic levels. The paper proves that copywriters intentionally develop ad elements and concepts to trigger the attention of customers. The article describes how advertising slogans help to decode the ideas hidden in the textual unit.

Even proficient students can face problems while decoding concepts, ideas and interpreting information in outdoor advertising texts. The author proves that ad examples discussed in the article can be used in teaching students to decode multimodal linguistic and cultural content. The author concludes that multimodal advertising texts improve students’ language skills and raise students’ awareness of culturally based topical issues in advertising. Finally, the research gives methodological recommendations for further practical use in the classroom.

Keywords:

Teaching English, cognitive linguistics, multimodal text, advertising, concept.