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PSYCHOSEMANTIC INVESTIGATION OF VISUAL PERCEPTION OF ENGLISH ICONIC WORDS DEPENDING ON DE-ICONIZATION STAGE // Pedagogical Review. 2021. Issue 1 (35). P. 122-129

The present psychosemantic study investigates visual perception of English iconic (imitative) words by Russian L2 learners. The Lexical decision task was conducted to collect the data. The participants (N = 106) were visually presented with three type of experimental stimuli: 32 iconic words divided into four groups according to their de-iconization stage (8 words per group), 32 non-iconic words and 32 non-words constructed according to English phonotactic rules. The pre-selection of iconic vocabulary into four groups was performed by the method of diachronic evaluation of the imitative lexicon. The linguistic status of iconic words was controlled for in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the 3d edition (section “Etimology”). The stimuli were presented visually in random order under a strict time limit. The parameter under investigation – the stage of de-iconization of an iconic word – refers to the degree of preservation of original iconic (according to Pierce) associative connection between form and meaning. De-iconization takes place under the influence of two system factors: regular phonetic changes (“distortion” of a word form) and semantic shifts (“expansion”, broadening of a word’s meaning). The findings of the study revealed that the participants need a different amount of time to recognize 1) iconic and non-iconic words, 2) iconic words at different stages of de-iconization. The least de-iconized words are characterized by slower recognition time and higher error rates than non-iconic words and highly de-iconized words, which makes them similar to non-words. It signifies a delay in cognitive recognition of these most “vivid” iconic words. Word recognition impairment may also be accounted for by the interference of the expressiveness parameter and by the semantic processing. It is assumed that the use of iconic words in language teaching contributes to vocabulary learning. This assumption is not fully supported by the empirical data of our study since deiconization is an important variable in psycholinguistic studies of this kind. The results of our research enable us to gain a better understanding of cognitive mechanisms of the perception of iconicity.

Keywords: psycholinguistics, sound symbolism, iconicity, phonosemantics, English, Lexical decision, visual recognition of verbal stimuli

Online training of secondary school graduates for the State Unified Exam in English (parts “Speaking” and “Writing”) // Pedagogical Review. 2024. Issue 2 (54). P. 36-44

The article discusses the online training of secondary school leavers for the oral and written parts of the State Unified Exam in English (sections “Speaking” and “Writing” respectively). A brief description of the examination tasks, taking into account the changes made in 2022-2023, is given. The concept of “distance learning”, its advantages and disadvantages, the main forms of its implementation in the training of language production, as well as the comparison of digital tools used for distance training for the Exam are presented. Scientific novelty of the research consists of (a) typical problems that teachers and students face preparing for the Exam in a distant format; (b) examinees typical mistakes in open-type tasks of the Exam; (c) stages of the online training for (1) the oral and (2) written (Writing) parts of the Exam, as well as (3) the use of social networks by school-leavers are discussed. The findings showed that tasks “An oral thematic monologue statement based on a plan” and “An extended written statement based on a table / diagram)” cause the greatest difficulties. As for the use of social networks for the purpose of foreign language learning, the vast majority of respondents reported having such experience and named Telegram© the most popular service. Also, the analysis of average results of individual tasks completion along with typical mistakes made by examinees in the oral part of the Exam in 2020-2021 is provided. Among them are errors associated both with a low level of communicative and linguistic competences, and with weak meta-subject skills. On the basis of the data obtained, the stages of online preparation for the Exam tasks using the services of Flipgrid© (preparation for the oral part) and Telegram© (preparation for the “Writing” section) were identified. These include: (1) the development of linguistic competence by activation of students’ lexical and grammatical knowledge, (2) work on the criterion “performing communicative task”, (3) the use of audio recordings of students’ answers, (4) maintaining emotional and visual contact during on-line conversations, (5) the use of verbal and visual supports in the construction of oral responses.

Keywords: English, productive speech, State Unified Exam, speaking, writing, distant format, Flipgrid©, Telegram©