Linguo-Cognitive Approach in Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

The article addresses the problems of learning a foreign language and teaching it. The solutions are encouraged to look through the prism of the main provisions of cognitive linguistics, particularly the theory of the conceptualization of the obtained knowledge, the layered structure of the concept of conditionality and its contents to the peculiarities of national perception, national consciousness, and the linguistic view of the world. Comprehending a foreign language, the student gets acquainted with a new linguistic picture of the world, which is a verbal reflection of the content of linguistic cognition and consists of fragments of knowledge, “units of storage”, “and elementary units of knowledge”. The basis of the lingua-cognitive approach is the attention to the word as a key unit of teaching the lexical side of speech, demonstrating the connection of lexical units with concepts, notions. The lingua-cognitive approach determines all components of the language learning process: the selection, introduction, organization and learning of lexical material. Lingua-cognitive approach is associated with a large amount of complex information and its optimal learning, so the conceptual arrangement of the material helps to memorize vocabulary more firmly. In the logic of these provisions key positions and approaches in teaching a foreign language are built, according to them the basis of this process is not mechanical memorization of words based on the native language, but the explanatory method, revealing the features of all levels of language use based on the conceptual content and conceptual relationships within the target language.