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The Features of Phrases in the Interlanguage of Chinese Students Studying Russian

Chzhen Qianmin

Postgraduate student, Department of Russian Language and its Teaching Methods, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

123290, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, 39k1 Shmitovsky Ave.

toujie@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Viktor Mikhailovich Shaklein

Doctor of Philology

Professor, Department of the Russian language and its teaching methods, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10k2, office 524

vmshaklein@bk.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2023.2.39714

EDN:

HWBWQY

Received:

02-02-2023


Published:

22-02-2023


Abstract: The purpose of the study is to find out the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian language. By analyzing a number of works related to the term "interlanguage", comparing the concept of interlanguage in the publications of various specialists, in the article the concept of the term "interlanguage" is clarified, which has been updated in recent years in Russian and foreign linguistics, and similarities and differences in their understandings are found. Highlighting the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese student studying Russian language is an important and urgent task that contributes to the study of interlanguage as a whole. The subjects of the research are oral and written language materials collected by teachers with the help of classroom tests and homework among two groups of Chinese philology students studying Russian language at the Faculty of Philology in Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the authors for the first time systematically summarized and analyzed such features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian language as literal translation from native language to target language, the absence or excessive use of preposition, incorrect choice of preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian language, and the reasons for the existence of these features. The result of the study provides useful advices in the direction of improving the effectiveness of learning Russian language – in classes of second language acquisition, especially in classes of teaching Chinese students Russian language.


Keywords:

feature, phrase, interlanguage, Russian language, Chinese students, Russian linguistics, literal translation, the absence use of preposition, incorrect choice of preposition, learning Russian language

This article is automatically translated.

IntroductionRussian Russian language students and Russian Chinese language students are constantly increasing due to the close economic, political and cultural contacts between Russia and China.

In the process of mastering a second foreign language, students create their own individual language system, which researchers have called "interlanguage" [15, p. 210].

Most of the previous research on interlanguage has focused on phonetic and syntactic aspects. Less attention is paid to the lexical part of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian. That is why the study of the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is important and relevant.

To achieve the purpose of the study, it is necessary to perform the following tasks:

1) consider the research related to the term "interlanguage", compare the concepts of interlanguage in the publications of various specialists and find similarities and differences in their judgments;

2) systematize and analyze the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.

The following research methods are used to perform the tasks: corpus text analysis method, descriptive method, distributive analysis method, oppositional method, formalization method, comparative analysis method, etc..

Russian Russian language students are interested in studying the peculiarities of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students due to the fact that in the language materials collected by the authors from classroom tests (oral and written) developed by teachers and homework assignments among two groups of Chinese philology students studying Russian at the Faculty of Philology at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, certain patterns and specific features are manifested.

The practical significance lies in the fact that the research materials can be used in universities of the humanities in the study of courses and seminars on practical, comparative terminology "interlanguage". Russian Russian At the same time, the results of the study provide useful suggestions in the process of educational and methodological activities - in classes on teaching the Russian language, especially in classes on teaching Chinese students Russian. The achieved results of the research can be used in the process of compiling textbooks and teaching materials on the discipline of the Russian language or applied linguistics.

 

The main partThe term "interlanguage" was first proposed by the American linguist L. Selinker: "interlanguage refers to the separation of a second language learner system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target languages" [15, p. 210].

In other words, "interlanguage means a language system that occupies the status of an intermediary between the native and the studied languages" [13, 2017, p. 171]. Before L. Selinker defined the term "interlanguage" in Russian and foreign linguistics, most researchers considered this linguistic phenomenon as linguistic errors. 

The theory of interlanguage originated and developed in the USA, then, "in the second half of the twentieth century, this theory began to arouse interest among Russian and foreign researchers, since it shows the development of interlanguage in accordance with specific, but at the same time similar laws of the development of "natural", natural languages" [7, p. 297].

According to A.O. Ovsyannikov, "the interlanguage is characterized by instability, variability: in terms of diachrony, we are talking either about progress, with a gradual approach to the norm of the studied language, or about regression associated with the gradual loss of skills and automatisms; in terms of synchrony, variability manifests itself primarily at the level of implementation of linguistic competence, depending on the type speech activity" [9, p. 106].

The inter-language specialist A.Ya. Jafarova means "a phenomenon, such as a personal pidgin, which can develop into an entrenched form in the absence of correction by the teacher" [3, p. 36]. From her point of view, "the interlanguage is perceived by the teacher as a natural step towards the formation of a more complete knowledge of the language" [ibid.].

N.V. Loseva, L.N. Metelskaya give the following definition of the term "interlanguage" – "the individual language system of the student, which is formed in his mind when learning a non-native language and is in an intermediate state between the native language and the foreign language being studied" [8, p. 73].

Having studied the works devoted to the concept of an interlanguage in Russian linguistics, O.V. Starinina emphasizes that an interlanguage is "a so–called intermediate language formed in the mind of a foreign language learner, different from the language that is present in the mind of its native speaker" [12, p. 112]. In her opinion, "the interlanguage is a springboard between the native language and the studied one, the transfer of language experience, in which the native language plays an important role" [ibid.].

According to N.N. Rogoznaya, "the linguistic system of the interlanguage is relatively independent and includes elements and units of both native and non-native languages in its structure" [11, p. 61].

Having examined the definitions of the interlanguage of Russian and foreign researchers, we can see that the concept of the term "interlanguage", which came to Russian linguistics in the late 90s of the XX century, is the same as in foreign linguistics. At the beginning of the XXI century, the theory of interlanguage began to gradually develop in Russian linguistics. From the beginning of this century to the present day, a number of works by such Russian researchers as A.V. Bagdueva, S.A. Deryabina, A.A. Zalevskaya, E.A. Kostina, E.V. Loginov, N.V. Losev, Z.G. Proshina, N.N. Rogoznaya, O.V. Starinina, V.M. are devoted to the phenomenon of interlanguage. Shaklein et al . [1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 10; 11; 12; 13]. The study of the works of these scientists formed the theoretical basis of this study.

After analyzing and comparing the characteristic features of the interlanguage put forward by Russian researchers, V.M. Shaklein and Zheng Qianmin come to the conclusion that the interlanguage has such common features as consistency, individuality, dynamism [14, p. 271]. S.A. Deryabina notes that the individuality of the interlanguage "depends on the cognitive abilities of the individual, his experience in learning foreign languages, learning strategies, knowledge about the structure of the native language system, personality qualities" [2, p. 57]. N.N. Rogoznaya in one of her recent works summarizes such features of the interlanguage as: "1) independence; 2) phasing; 3) dynamism; 4) consistency; 5) regularity" [11, p. 63].

1. Literal translation from the native language in the phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian. Under the influence of the native language, incorrect phrases are often used in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, which are literally translated from Chinese.

Table 1

Russian Russian examples of the literal translation of some stable phrases in the Russian language, in Chinese, in the interlanguage of Chinese students who study the Russian language

Phrases in RussianPhrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Phrases in Chinese

black tea

*red tea

( (?:red)

dark chocolate

*dark chocolate

(:black)

low-alcohol beverage

*alcoholic beverage with low degrees

strong tea/coffee

*concentrated tea/coffee

/(: concentrated)

coffee without sugar

*bitter coffee

(::bitter)

 

As can be seen from the examples, language habits in different languages differ significantly. It should be noted that to describe the same food in Russian and Chinese, different colors and adjectives are used. In the phrases listed in the table (Table 1.), in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, a literal translation from their native language, namely from Chinese, is manifested. Russian Russian-speaking Chinese students, in addition to the examples in the table (Table 1.), use phrases such as *wash clothes / wash laundry (in Russian it should be to wash clothes / wash underwear /), since in Chinese the verbs "wash" and "wash" are used transmitted in one word – ?.

2. Using a descriptive phrase instead of one word in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.Russian Russian students also use whole phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students, due to interference from their native language, in situations where only one word could be used in the Russian language.

Russian Russian, for example, the word "Chinese woman" is translated into Chinese as the phrases "the Chinese language" / "the Chinese language"– in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, formed by two words: * "Chinese girl / Chinese woman", which are considered grammatically correct, but do not correspond to the language habits of the language being studied (Russian). Similar phrases are often used in the inter-language of Chinese students, for example: * "Russian girl () / French girl () / Spanish girl ()", etc..

Along with this, in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, there are other descriptive phrases instead of one word in situations when the students' vocabulary did not have this word. For example, in the vocabulary of students from China, you can often find such phrases as in the following table (Table 2.):

Table 2

Examples of using a phrase instead of a single word in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Phrases in RussianPhrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Phrases in Chinese

foreigner

*a foreign person

( (::foreign,?: human)

beet

*red vegetable

( (:red, ?: vegetable)

borsch

*red vegetable soup

( (:red, ?: vegetable, ?: soup)

sweet potato

*red potatoes (by color) or sweet potatoes (by taste)

( (:red, :: potato,: sweet)

 

Russian Russian is clearly visible from the examples presented in the table (Table 3.) that at some stage of mastering the Russian language in the vocabulary of Chinese students studying Russian, there are no words such as "foreigner", "beetroot", "borscht", "sweet potato", etc. Therefore, in order to achieve a communicative Russian Russian language learners, for example, use descriptive phrases in the interlanguage instead of one word, as it should be in Russian.  

3. The absence of a preposition or the use of an extra preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.

In Russian, the genitive case of nouns is used to describe objects. Due to interference from the native language or over-communication of the rules of the language being studied, prepositions are sometimes found where they should not be, or vice versa, they are absent where required. Examples of the absence of a preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian are presented in the following table:

Table 3

Examples of the absence of preposition in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Phrases in RussianPhrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

Phrases in Chinese

entrance to the shopping center

*shopping center entrance

( shopping center; entrance)

exam in Russian literature

*exam of Russian literature

(;;; Russian literature; exam)

lecture on the Russian language

*Russian language lecture

( Russian; ? lecture)

play football

*play football

(?, play; football)

 

    Based on the examples presented in the table (Table 3.), it can be concluded that the reason for the incorrect use of the genitive case or the absence of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is the re-communication of the rules of the language being studied or interference from their native language.

4. Incorrect choice of preposition in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.After analyzing the collected language materials, the authors notice that Chinese students studying Russian confuse prepositions "in" with "on"; "from" with "from", "with"; "after" with "through", since prepositions "in" and "on" are translated into Chinese the same way, namely "a"; prepositions "from", "from", "from" in Chinese are voiced with one word – "?"; as for prepositions "through" and "after", they are indicated in Chinese by one construction – "a......" Examples of incorrect use of prepositions in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian are given in the table (Table 4.):

    

Table 4

Examples of incorrect use of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

The use of prepositions in phrases in RussianThe use of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian

The use of prepositions in phrases in Chinese

On Wednesday

*for Wednesday

at the bus stop

at work

on the second day

*at a stop

*in operation

*on the second day

from Russia

*from/from Russia

……

from the heart

* from the soul

;?

after 4 years

*after 4 years

Therefore, the choice of a preposition is associated with the desire to emphasize, to highlight any shade of thought that is conditioned by the nature of the context.

 

One of the reasons for the incorrect choice of prepositions in phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is interference from their native language.

 

Conclusion Analyzing the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, we can draw attention to the following conclusions:

1. As a result of the search for clarification of the definition of the term "interlanguage" in research in the coming years, common characteristic features of the interlanguage have been identified: consistency, individuality, dynamism, independence, regularity, etc.;

2. In the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, you can often see a direct literal translation from their native language, which especially concerns the description of colors, food names;

3. In the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, descriptive phrases are often used instead of one word, which is due to interference from their native language or due to the lack of suitable words in the vocabulary of students;  

Russian Russian 4. As a result of interference from the native language, the reinterpretation of the rules of the Russian language in the phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, prepositions are either absent or used when it is not required.;

5. Under the influence of the native language in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, prepositions that are not suitable in meaning are often chosen in phrases.

In the study of the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, some data are not considered from a dynamic point of view due to the limited time of collecting language materials. Russian Russian Further research opens the door to a comprehensive study of the development of the interlanguage and its interaction with the native and the studied languages at different stages of mastering the Russian language, in other words, it becomes possible to track the dynamic features of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian.

References
1. Bagdueva A.V. Violation of morphemic composition of words in Chinese speech of Russian-speaking students // Bulletin of SUSU. Series "Linguistics". 2020v. Vol. 17. No. 4. – P. 61-66.
2. Deryabina S.A. The phenomenon of the interlanguage of typewritten text // Speech technologies. – Moscow, 2019. – No. 1. – P. 54-66.
3. Jafarova A.Y. Features of correcting errors in students' oral speech according to the program “SELTA” // Bulletin of the Moscow State Linguistic University. Education and pedagogical sciences. – Moscow, 2017. – ¹ 2 (773). – P. 34-41.
4. Zalevskaya A.A. Questions of the theory of bilingualism. – M.: Direct-Media, 2013. – 144 p.
5. Kostina E.A., Hackett-Jones A.V., Bagramova N.V. Influence of interlanguage on bilingual behavior of students in the process of mastering a foreign language // Bulletin of the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University. – Novosibirsk, 2017. – Vol. 7. No. 4. – P. 93-107.
6. Loginova E.V. Phonological component of the Vietnamese-Russian interlanguage // Bulletin of the Buryat State University. – Ulan-ude, 2010. – No. 10. – P. 79-83.
7. Loseva N.V. Some aspects of the use of the theory of interlanguage in the methodology of teaching foreign languages // Man and his language: materials of the anniversary conference of the XVI International scientific school-seminar named after L. M. Skrelina, RSPU named after Herzen. – St. Petersburg: Scythia, 2013. – P. 296-310.
8. Loseva N.V., Metelskaya L.N. Experience of experimental research of interlanguage interference in the situation of educational multilingualism // Philology and culture. – Kazan, 2018. – ¹ 2 (52). – P. 72-81.
9. Ovsyannikov A.O. Linguodidactic aspects of approximation theory in teaching reading in a second foreign language / IX International Scientific and Practical Conference // Modern trends in the development of science and technology. – Belgorod, 2015. – No. 8. – P. 105-109.
10. Proshina Z.G. The Russian language as an intermediary in the communication of the peoples of East Asia and Russia (problems of indirect translation) abstract. dis. ... Candidate of Philology Sciences: 10.02.20: defended 24.05.02 / Proshina Zoya Grigoryevna. – Vladivostok, 2002. – 39 p.
11. Rogoznaya N.N. Language contacts: Bilingualism. Interlanguage. Interference: a monograph. – Moscow, State. IRYA named after A. S. Pushkin, 2022. – 200 p.
12. Starinina O.V. Methodology of interlanguage transfer as a condition for the formation of a bilingual personality at the initial stage of learning // World of science, culture, education. – Gorno-Altaysk, 2021. ¹ 3 (88). – P. 112-113.
13. Shaklein V.M., Zheng Qianmin Interlanguage: in search of a specific term / V.M. Shaklein, Zheng Ts.M. // International Scientific Research Journal. – Yekaterinburg, 2017. – ¹ 5 (59). – P. 170-175.
14. Zheng Qianmin, Shaklein V.M. On several problems in the research of interlanguage. – Gorno-Altaysk: International scientific journal "World of Science, Culture, Education" ¹ 4 (65), 2017. – P. 269-272.
15. Selinker L. Interlanguage communication, IRAL. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10 (1-4), 1972. – P. 209-232.

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The question of an objective assessment of the processes of mastering a particular language remains open in science. There are quite a lot of observations and specialized studies at the moment, but the emerging new options for developing this problem complement the dialogue that has been started for a long time. As noted at the beginning of the peer-reviewed work, "in the process of mastering a second foreign language, students create their own individual language system, which the researchers called "interlanguage"; interlanguage manifests itself in oral and written speech products, which is the main material for theories of second language acquisition, since instrumental methods (for example, tomography) before They are still rarely used in this field. The term "second language acquisition" can also apply to the study of the third, fourth and other languages, since the study of subsequent languages follows the same path. It can be noted that the study of such a situation is possible with the submission of a contrastive analysis, it is more productive and conceptual. Explaining the relevance of writing the article, the author noted: "Most of the previous research on interlanguage focuses on phonetic and syntactic aspects. Less attention is paid to the lexical part of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian. That is why the study of the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian is important and relevant." The work is quite interesting, the given series of illustrations is used not only as nominations, but as an open proof. The search tasks are verified and accurate – "to consider the research related to the term "interlanguage", compare the concepts of interlanguage in the publications of various specialists and find similarities and differences in their judgments; to systematize and analyze the features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian." I think that such specifics make it possible to achieve the set goal. The formal blocks of the article are sustained, the main part is focused on the systematization of data on the existing issue, and a comparative analysis of the processes is given here. Successfully, in the course of the essay, the author introduces comments-bundles: for example, "under the influence of the native language, incorrect phrases are often used in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian, which are literally translated from Chinese," or "as can be seen from the examples, language habits in different languages differ significantly. It should be noted that different colors and adjectives are used to describe the same food products in Russian and Chinese. In the phrases listed in the table (Table 1.)..." etc. The style of work correlates with the scientific type itself, terms and concepts are used with the correct connotative load. The materials are both practical and theoretical in nature, most of the provisions can be used in the development of language disciplines. The conclusion is related to the main part, no discrepancies have been revealed. The bibliographic base is complete, the formal requirements of the publication are taken into account, the text does not need serious editing and additions. Russian Russian is a very deliberate statement in the final of the work about the potentially possible continuation of research in this direction: "further research opens the door to a comprehensive study of the development of the interlanguage and its interaction with the native and studied languages at different stages of mastering the Russian language, in other words, it becomes possible to track the dynamic features of the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian." In my opinion, this is very good, so the author shows his indifference to the subject of analysis. I recommend the article "Features of phrases in the interlanguage of Chinese students studying Russian" for publication in the journal "Litera".