Search

MIND-MAPPING FOR DEVELOPING LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN CHINESE LANGUAGE LESSONS BASED ON CHENGYU ANALYSIS // Pedagogical Review. 2020. Issue 6 (34). P. 105-114

The article discusses the concept of linguistic and cultural competence and its role in modern intercultural communication. An overview of scientific literature on the problem of the development of linguistic and cultural competence is provided. A list of basic cultural units used for the development of the linguistic and cultural competence is presented as well. It is proposed to use Chinese idioms chengyu in order to develop students’ competence due to the fact that they contain information about the aesthetics, ethics, culture and history of the Chinese. The author also suggests employing mind mapping as it significantly facilitates the learning process due to an integrated, radiant, organized way of presentation. The article provides an example of a step-by-step analysis of a chengyu 万里无云 – wànlǐ wúyún – cloudless conducted in the Chinese language lesson (3rd year students, Chinese as a second foreign language). In addition, the article contains a list of 11 most frequently used idioms on the topic “Weather” which can be further used in Chinese language lessons. The main advantages of the method suggested in the article for the development of linguistic and cultural competence are outlined in the end of the article. It is concluded that the linguistic and cultural analysis of Chinese idioms chengyu along with mind-mapping can serve as a way to develop linguistic and cultural competence, as well as contribute to the development of both individual and collaborative research skills.

Keywords: language and culture, intercultural competence, mind maps, Chinese idioms, distance learning