Journal of the National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI”: Philology and Educational Studies

Peculiarities of electronic textbooks for studying English for Professional Purposes

N.Yu. Drozdovych

This article is a review of the existing points of view concerning application of electronic textbooks in educational process in the higher educational institutions on the basis of experience of the foreign universities. Advantages of electronic training materials are given. The accepted formats of electronic textbooks are considered. Possibilities of application of electronic textbooks in foreign language ESP courses at a technical university are explained. The advantage of an electronic textbook is its accessibility of reading on different platforms of electronic devices. The training electronic materials created by the authors at the Department of English for Engineering № 2 of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” for students of the Faculty of Aerospace Systems, in particular, the explanatory dictionary, a terminology trainer, electronic ESP courses. The experience gained in the course of the active implementation of electronic means of study will allow further activity in the selection of lexical units for adjacent areas. The further activity will imply the creation of electronic textbooks oriented on mobile systems of communication, for example, with the use of ePub or fb2 technologies.

Students’ lexical competence formation in the field of air and rocket building

S. V. Vadaska

The article considers the issue of students’ lexical competence formation. Aerospace industry is an important branch for the development of economy in Ukraine. Therefore, we need highly qualified engineers who have the potential to promote this field. The main task of the ESP teaching is to train the communicative competence which depends on the quality and quantity of students’ vocabulary. The ways of vocabulary training and the review of the ESP materials are introduced. The special attention is paid to the vocabulary training by the students of aerospace field. Authentic text is considered to be the main source of vocabulary increasing and improving. Students are capable to know the meaning of the words from the context. Distant courses are used to provide the self-study work. They help to increase students’ motivation, to make learning process more interactive. The terms that students encounter in the authentic materials are related to different topics of aeronautics. Terms systematization can considerably improve vocabulary training. Thus, the dictionaries are referred to the ESP materials. The article provides the short review of the dictionary types, considers their benefits and features. The Internet technology and services can be used for creating terminology thesaurus by the group of students and teachers.

Effective use of authentic video materials in EPP classes. Focus on individual students` work

L. G. Svyrydova

The successful training of highly-skilled engineering stuff in terms of transformations of education system becomes a real challenge for educators. Competitive specialists, able to competent performing of responsible and effective professional activity, ready for solving of working issues independently and adequately, as well as to provide efficient interchange of professional experience with colleagues from foreign countries are of great demand in our country and abroad. The article deals with using of authentic video materials in English for Professional Purposes classroom for developing confident communicative skills, implementing them for individual work of students for reinforcing their self-study skills, and therefore, strengthening the students` motivation for learning English for Professional Purposes. Also in this paper we highlight the criteria of authentic video materials choosing and suggest the list of recommended sources with short description which we use for individual students` work either inside or outside the classroom.

The introduction of innovative educational technologies within higher education

Ye. S. Krukova

The article researches the important and essential problem dealing with the professional training of innovative educational technologies. Among the problems of modern pedagogics priority there are the issues of innovative activity as a basic constituent of educational innovation, special scientific discipline that exposes general principles of theory of innovative-pedagogical processes. The purpose of this article is to analyse the scientific literature regarding the integration and use of innovative technologies and to examine, what teaching and learning processes can be improved through the use of innovative technology. The necessity of the using of innovative educational technologies is exposed in the article. The term “innovative educational technology” was represented. The article explains the advantages of using innovative technologies in language teaching and describes different types of them. The innovative technologies encourage learners to interact, to be creative and positive in using the language in a meaningful way and cooperation. Students want to take part in different activities. They also encourage trainers to keep interested in the lesson and a teacher can use them to create contexts in which the language is useful. Innovative technologies are used as various techniques to involve students in learning.

Pragmatic variation language means in the texts of English modernist writers

N.V. Glinka

This article is devoted to the question of language variation means in the texts of English modernists. The purpose of our article is to distinguish the features of language variants in modernist texts and to determine the peculiarities of their functioning. The background of the article gives a general overview of pragmatics as a linguistic science and the characteristics of pragmatically determined linguistic means used by English modernists. Our article also considers the factors that have direct influence on the linguistic variability. Moreover, we generalise the variational linguistic means that function in modernist texts. Also, the classification of the phonetic, grammatical, morphologic, syntax and lexical variants of modernist texts is provided. Finally, we make the general conclusion about the peculiarities of variation means functioning and state the reasons for their usage in the modernist texts of English authours. It is also mentioned that variation and synonyms are the fields where the most important lexical potential is accumulated. This is adjusted by a statement that variants form a powerful reserve which provides functional diversity and good conditions for realization of material resources and the figurative language potential, and the English modernist writers have used all these to the fullest. Also, the research perspectives are putting the results of our theoretical review into practice when studying literature and its linguistic specifics.

Axiological content of the concept youth in modern British and American literary discourse

O. V. Beshlei

The proposed study focuses on establishing the content of the concept of YOUTH and its axiological potential. The paper uses an interpretive-textual analysis of the discursive embodiment of the concept in the process of distinguishing its cognitive features. The qualification of the referents is expressed by nominative lexemes for designating youth and young people as the main hypostases of the concept under study. The study qualifies the referents both explicitly – on the basis of revealing literal meanings of verbal expressions, and implicitly – on the basis of establishing the characteristics that follow from the text interpretation. The axiological content of the concept of YOUTH is structured in accordance with the meaning of its cognitive features. In the work we distinguish ontological, teleological, utilitarian, representative, parametric cognitive features, which are stipulated by significant socio-cultural, historical, moral and ethical standards and ideals. Discursive implementation of the concept of YOUTH involves analyzing the compatibility of the elements of the conceptual structure. The analysis points to the differences in the nature of the disclosure of the phenomena under study at the linguistic and cultural levels. In the English-language literary discourse of the twenty-first century young people appear as a kind of “fuel” for the demographic and socio-economic prosperity of the society; at the same time, youth is regarded as a period of determining the individual’s place in life, the development of world outlook and values, and the achievement of economic independence. The suggested analysis allows us to draw conclusions about the evolution of the concept of YOUTH in the literary discourse.

Fantasy Hero as a Linguocultural Character Type: Feauters and Typology.

Yu. O. Zaichenko

The article is dedicated to the research of a fantasy hero as a linguocultural character type, which embodies the cultural ideals of a society of a certain period, and connection of this kind of character with the ancient and medieval mythological archetypes. The author considers the definition of a fictional linguocultural character type as a recognizable image in the fantasy works, outlines the conceptual component of the “hero” character type, defines the general characteristics of the fantasy hero as the most common protagonist type occurring in such kind of texts as well as its linguistic features. Common peculiarities of the typical hero in the English-language fantasy texts include certain positive physical and personal characteristics which an average reader would prefer to possess, such as: physical (or magic) power, dexterity, external attractiveness, quickness of wit, readiness to self-sacrifice, kindness, charity, justice. According to such criteria as physical and personal features, motivation of actions and peculiarities of the hero's quest, the author differentiates three groups of typical English-language fantasy heroes: the warrior-hero, the noble hero and the small hero. The research is based on the material of popular American and British literary texts written in the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular the Conan series by R.E. Howard, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit: or There and Back Again” by J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Chronicles of Amber” by R. Zelazny, “The Song of Ice and Fire” by G.R.R. Martin, the “Forgotten Realms” series by R.A. Salvatore etc.

Specificity of Language Means and Organization of the Semantic Space of the Suggestive Discourse

М. А. Zaitseva

In the article the authors analyze the phenomenon of suggestive discourse on the material of the texts of court speeches. The authors consider the phenomenon of suggestion and suggestive discourse, which reflects the complex social processes that are occurring in modern society. Nowadays taking into consideration certain extralinguistic factors is an integral part of modern linguistic researches. It should be noted that in conditions of modern reality there is a shift from persuasion to influence during the speech act. Moreover, the word influence is the key one. In the suggestive discourse it is extra-linguistic factors that determine the choice of linguistic means. The authors pay attention to the fact that the addressee in the texts of court speeches uses mainly syntactic and stylistic linguistic means that have a strong suggestive effect. Some of them perform the function of visualizing the text and create a special rhythm of the text that also contributes to the intensification of suggestive effect. The speaker rarely uses adjectives and does not use emotionally charged adjectives. Regarding the organization of the semantic space of texts of court speeches, this text is presented by three semantic blocks: simple life, a conscious decision, and evidence

Communicative Strategies and Tactics of the English Language Literary Text Author

N.V. Glinka

The paper is devoted to the study of the communicative strategies and tactics of the English language literary text author. According to the analysis of theoretical sources and empirical data, the main functional types of communicative strategies and tactics of their implementation have been outlined. The major stylistic, graphical, lexicо-stylistical, and grammatical means of realization of the tactics of presentational strategy as the dominant type were illustrated by the examples from the novel of Virginia Woolf «Mrs. Dalloway». Considering the main types of communicative strategies and tactics, their sub-strategies and detailed classification, the article analyzes the main stylistic, graphical, lexical-stylistic and grammatical means of realization of the presentation strategy. These are the tactics of stimulation, change of speaking subjects, a compliment of the speaker to the addressee, feigned politeness, distraction the addressee's attention from the existing problems and reactive. These tactics are realized in speech by the use of imperatives, rhetorical questions, inclusive, impersonal sentences, stylistically colored parts of speech, repetitions. The implementation of the intimisation tactic involves graphical tools such as the repetition of colons, exclamation, expressive punctuation, the division of text into the paragraphs, change the font size. Some authors use a lexico-stylistic means (such as slang, emotive words, as well as grammatical means (to implement the tactics of evaluation, shortening the distance between the narrator and the reader). During the study of communicative strategies and tactics both linguo stylistic and pragmatic approaches are integrated to be applied to address those areas of communications where the senders consciously and purposefully plan their communicative actions.

The theory of borrowing in the linguistic literature

I.P. Borkovska

The article examines main aspects of the theory of borrowing, stressing that enrichment of any language is connected to the process of the borrowing of foreign words. We conducted a thorough analysis of necessity or unreasonableness of borrowing process. In the research, we included a notion “purism” whose main objective is to achieve absolute purity of the Ukrainian language by replacing borrowings with Ukrainian ones. It is emphasized that foreign words penetrate to the several spheres of society and word-borrowing of one industry often “is moving” to another one. The article argues that borrowing is an active process and language-recipient, borrowing some words, rebuilds them and submits to its own linguistic laws. According to the article, a borrowed word comes in the morphological system of language-recipient and receives appropriate grammatical category. We give an overview of developed interpretations of the concept “borrowing”. It is emphasized that borrowing can originate from the language source in both spoken and written ways. The article concentrates on Anglicisms as a form of borrowing, which shows the specific stage of human development, addressing specific marker of globalization. According to the formal and functional characteristics of the borrowings adjustment features to the language–recipient, the process of borrowing is accompanied by assimilation on morphological, phonetic, derivational and lexical-semantic linguistic levels. Usually, subordination of foreign words to the laws of the language recipient is a time-consuming process that involves initial, advanced and final stages of adaptation.

Phraseological means of expressing cultural identity of representatives of English and Ukrainian linguistic cultures

Y. G. Tikan

The article considers linguo-cultural aspect of phraseological units as the language “signs” of culture and their role in expressing cultural identity of representatives of American and Ukrainian linguistic cultures. The concepts “family” and “home” which are the main values of all cultures, are shown as the examples of cultural identity representation in English and Ukrainian phraseological units. The phraseological units of the English and Ukrainian languages for denotation of these concepts affirm that they are closely interconnected and remain one of the key values for every person, means of expressing the cultural identity of the representatives of these linguistic cultures . Moreover, the phraseological units are a kind of mirror of culture, which reflects the social consciousness of the people, lifestyle, traditions, customs, the system of values, and that is why they serve as valuable material for studying the issues of cultural identity of representatives of a certain linguistic culture. The phraseological units of the language reflects cultural identity not only as a fragment of real reality, given to the ethnic community in direct perception, but also in the way of life, worldview and attitude, national character, temperament, system of values, - the mentality of the people, their social consciousness in general.

Linguistic means of representing the category of expressiveness in English-language publicism and the peculiarities of their translation

Ya.G. Tikan

This article is devoted to the research of the use in the English-language press of means for the realization of the category of expressiveness and the problems of their translation into the Ukrainian language. The article defines the means of expressiveness and explores the types of their presentation in journalistic texts. The variety of lexical, stylistic, syntactical and morphological means of expressiveness gives wide opportunities for their research in the context of this topic. Especially widely means of expressiveness and emotionality are presented in publicistic texts on the basis of political speeches or public appearances. The article deals with practical examples of the use of lexical means of expressiveness and their role as a stylistic instrument. Also, the peculiarities of the translation of texts with means of expressiveness from English into Ukrainian with the use of certain translational transformations are examined here. Proposals are made to improve the quality of the translation of means of expressiveness, taking into account their specific features. The use of means of expressiveness and emotionality is characteristic of public speeches and media texts to attract readers' attention to certain problems, events, election promises, etc. A lot of expressiveness is found in the public speeches of political leaders, famous people and other popular media persons, as can be seen in the speeches of Donald Trump and Edward Snowden;

Parallelism in E.E. Cummings’ poetry: The research of foregrounding

H. Morozova

Following the introduction of the ideas of Russian Formalists and Prague Structuralists, the foregrounding theory appeared as a new paradigm, based on linguistic models that claimed to provide insight into poetic technique and gain a grasp of the effects generated by this technique in the readers. Thus the article focuses on the analysis of stylistic tools to create the foregrounding effect in the poems by E. E. Cummings. The famous American poet, essayist, playwright and painter, he is famous for his very special style of writing and poetic innovations as he skilfully used various types of foregrounding in his poems, and therefore attracted scholarly attention. Hence, in this article the authors offer the outline of theoretical background of foregrounding research as they systematize different approaches to research in the area. On a practical note, the article details the issue of linguistic parallelism as a way to create the foregrounding effect. The authors hold that parallelism can occur at different language levels: morphological, phonological, syntactic, grammatical and lexical. In E.E. Cummings’s poems it is predominantly created by means of anaphora, epistrophe, asyndeton and parallel constructions per se and is in itself a powerful tool to generate an effect on readers

Graphical features of newspaper headlines

D. R. Kanius

The article deals with the graphical features of the English-language headlines which were illustrated by examples from the American newspaper The New York Times, the British - The Daily Mirror and The Independent, and the Ukrainian English-language digest The Day. The topicality of the study is due to the fragmentary studies of graphical features and, as a consequence, insufficient number of studies of this aspect. Considerable attention was paid to revealing common and distinctive features of graphical design of newspaper headlines of different editions. Also, individual graphical features of the headlines from each newspaper presented in the article, which foreground the graphically-distinguishing and advertising functions, as well as the function of influence on the addressee, were singled out. It was found out that the specialization of newspaper headlines with features of the graphical character is due to the high competition among print media and the need to attract attention to a particular publication of as much as possible readership and influence it.