Abstract:

According to recent analyses of my technical students’ essays written in general or technical English most of them lack accuracy in using polysemantic vocabulary acquired in class which is often caused by an inconsistent and superficial manner of studying the semantic structure of polysemantic lexical and phraseological units, which should be looked up in dictionaries and studied in contexts revealing secondary meanings of words which might be actualized due to mechanisms of metaphor. Average language learners often relying on their “language feeling”, and general ideas of the text under consideration, the correct semantics of the vocabulary (including stylistic and contextual features) they study is usually disregarded.

The language learning problem the paper is devoted to might also arise due to differences in the semantics of lexical and phraseological units in their mother tongue and their English equivalents.

A language is called a mirror reflecting national and cultural, scientific and pseudoscientific knowledge about realities of human life that unveils a nation’s cultural and historical lifestyle. Besides, lexicology and phraseology of a national language denote objects and processes of the environment a nation has been living in, focusing on the most relevant features characterizing people’s actions, behavior, stereotypes and conceptual thinking caused by lots of factors including even climatic peculiarities and, thus serving as the foundation to perceive and evaluate the world, and comprehend and classify things around.

Acquiring a language as a dynamically developing and complicated system based on unique national concepts might be interfered by a learner’s native language and their national mentality in terms of vocabulary, syntax and sentence building. Looking into the problem from this point of view motivates us to strive for effective teaching and learning methods implying a consciously learning approach to information to be analyzed and learnt.

Highlighting the importance of a learner’s conscious approach to studying a foreign language (English) with the help of research techniques in the learning process, this paper describes methods for analyzing secondary meanings of polysemantic words and contexts they are actualized in as part of the English teaching methodology for Russian native speakers. Also, the article comments on the stages of a student's research work, which results in comparing and contrasting shared and specific features in the semantics of English and Russian general and technical vocabulary, allowing them to carefully and accurately choose language to communicate ideas, taking into account its unique features.

To develop a student’s language research skills we analyze English-written scientific and technical articles, essays and books in terms of vocabulary, syntax and text which, undoubtedly, improves their oral and written academic skills, enlarging and enriching their professional vocabulary and empowering their communication skills.

Keywords:

Derivation, secondary meaning, metaphor, semantics, polysemy, English-teaching methods, comparative and contrastive linguistics.