The linguistic and methodological potential of the holiday in teaching Chinese students Russian communicative behavior (based on the topic “Birthday”)

  The article is devoted to the relevant methodological issue of teaching Russian as a foreign language, namely, the formation of foreigners’ skills of communicative behavior characteristic of Russian linguoculture. The theme of the holiday opens up wide opportunities for solving this important linguistic and methodological issue. The article is based on Russian and Chinese holidays, which differ significantly in cultural and historical traditions, and modern formulas of speech etiquette, used in festive situations of congratulations, wishes, gift giving and expressing gratitude. A teacher, working with Chinese students, should be able to identify the linguistic and methodological potential of the holiday and reveal it in educational materials, related to teaching communicative behavior.

   The purpose of this article is to present an algorithm that a teacher can use in preparation for the presentation of the holiday theme to Chinese students. The article substantiates the use of a personal holiday – a birthday, which students observe and experience in a foreign cultural environment, acting in the communicative roles of a birthday person or a congratulator.

   The ignorance of the festive speech etiquette norms can lead to communicative failures. The proposed algorithm for developing the topic includes the following stages: the analysis of scientific and methodological literature and the survey results in order to identify similarities and differences in the two holiday cultures and their lexicon; the analysis of its representation in dictionaries and textbooks of Russian communicative behavior in a holiday situation; the development of educational materials taking into account the identified differences and the need to supplement the textbook material. The article presents the verbal and nonverbal communicative behavior of Russian and Chinese people in a birthday situation, revealed during the analysis of scientific literature and the results of the survey of Russian and Chinese students. As an example, the article provides an educational text, developed in the format of recommendations and tips, to help overcome intercultural interference. The practical significance of the study is confirmed by the introduction of the developed materials into the educational process of Pskov State University.

1. Bochina, T. G. (2019). Urok-prazdnik kak sposob aktualizatsii stranovedcheskikh znanii i razvitiia rechevykh umenii [A Lesson on Holidays as a Way to Actualize Country Study Knowledge and Develop Speech Skills]. II Vsemirnyi kongress v real'nom i virtual'nom rezhime “Vostok – Zapad: peresecheniia kul'tur”. Vol. 2, pp. 414–420. Kioto, Tanaka print. (In Russian)

2. Skirgailo, T. O., Akhbarova, G. Kh. (2019). Etnokul'turologicheskii podkhod k prepodavaniiu russkogo yazyka v obshcheobrazovatel'nykh organizatsiiakh [Ethnoculturological Approach to Teaching Russian in General Education Organizations]. Sovremennaia nauka: aktual'nye problemy teorii i praktiki. Seriia: Gumanitarnye nauki. No. 2, pp. 88–91. (In Russian)

3. Yusupova, Z. F. (2016). Realizatsiia lingvokul'turologicheskogo podkhoda v natsional'no-orientirovannykh uchebnikakh russkogo yazyka [Implementation of the Linguocultural Approach in Nationally Oriented Textbooks of the Russian Language]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki. No. 12–2 (66), pp. 210–212. (In Russian)

4. Fan' Minsian' (2002). Sovremennyi Kitaisko-russkii slovar' [Modern Chinese-Russian Dictionary]. Pekin, izdatel'stvo prepodavaniya i izucheniya inostrannykh yazykov. 1104 p. (范明贤. 现代汉俄词典. 北京. 外语教学与研究出版社，2002. 1104页). (In Chinese)

5. Din Shu (2014). Russkii yazyk. Uchebnik dlya 7-9 klassov. V 3-kh chastiakh [The Russian Language. A Textbook for Grades 7–9. In 3 Parts.]. Pekin, izdatel'stvo narodnogo obrazovaniia. (丁曙. 俄语. 七八九年级. 全套三册. 北京. 人民教育出版社, 2014). (In Chinese)

6. Van, Ts., Bochina, T. G. (2015). Komitativnye konstruktsii v kitaiskom i russkom iazykakh [Commitative Constructions in Chinese and Russian]. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta im. M. A. Sholokhova. Filologicheskie nauki. No. 2, pp. 52–60. (In Russian)

7. Van, P., Chzhen, V. (2017). Natsional'no-kul'turnyi i yazykovoi analiz dareniya podarkov v Kitae i Rossii na primerakh dnia rozhdeniia i svad'by [National-Cultural and Linguistic Analysis of Gift Giving in China and Russia Based on Birthdays and Weddings]. Vestnik Kazanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta kul'tury i iskusstv. No. 4, pp. 17–21. (In Russian)

8. Vostryakova, N. A. (2012). Kak pozdravliat' s dnem rozhdeniya. Kommunikativnyi trening dlya kitaiskikh studentov bazovogo urovnya vladeniya RKI [How to Wish a Happy Birthday. Communicative Training for Chinese Students of Basic Level of Proficiency in Russian as a Foreign Language]. Russkii yazyk za rubezhom. No. 3 (232), pp. 11–27. (In Russian)

9. Lu, V., Rostova, E. G. (2018). Traditsii prazdnovaniya dnya rozhdeniya v russkoi i kitaiskoi kul'ture [Birthday Celebration Traditions in Russian and Chinese Culture]. V mire russkogo yazyka i russkoi kul'tury. Pp. 99–101. Moscow, IRIaP im. A. S. Pushkina. (In Russian)

10. Nikitina, T. G., Rogaleva, E. I., Piao Lixiang (2021). Slovarnaya reprezentatsiya lingvokul'turnykh stereotipov: kommunikativnoe povedenie russkikh v tematicheskom slovare poslovits [Dictionary Representation of Linguistic and Cultural Stereotypes: Communicative Behavior of Russians in the Thematic Dictionary of Proverbs]. Nauchnyi dialog. No.10, pp. 117–133. (In Russian)