Improving upper secondary students’ pragmatic competence by means of electronic corpora of the English language

This article examines the possibilities of improving high school students’ pragmatic competence by using electronic English language corpora. The formation of a modern multicultural linguistic personality requires mastering the basic norms of a foreign language as well as the accompanying linguistic, socio-cultural and other components of foreign language communicative competence, including pragmatic competence. Despite the importance of pragmatic competence as an element of foreign language communicative competence, which is required for the formation of a full-fledged multicultural linguistic personality, the study of the pragmatics of the English language in modern high school seems to be unsystematic. Insufficient development of the competence in question increases the risk of discursive, linguistic, cultural and sociolinguistic interference, as well as of the pragmatic interference of other kinds. It also seems to be an obstacle to successful communication in a foreign language. The issue of the possibilities of using electronic language corpora to improve the pragmatic competence of high school students seems to be insufficiently investigated. The contextual approach of A.A. Verbitsky and the competence approach of I.A. Zimnaya are proposed to be a methodological framework of the study. In the course of the research, methods of analyzing scientific literature and normative documents on the topic, modeling, classification, experimentation, comparative analysis, questionnaire, synthesis are used. Two approaches to defining the place of pragmatic competence in the structure of foreign language communicative competence are considered. The first one considers pragmatic competence an independent component of foreign language communicative competence. The second one distributes pragmatic functions between several other competences instead. Based on the analysis of different interpretations, the generalized definition of the concept of pragmatic competence is given. It is considered a communicant’s ability to build his own speech correctly and to interpret one of a communication partner according to the context of a communicative situation. Based on the analysis of modern models of pragmatic competence, it is revealed that the structure of pragmatic competence includes three main components: 1) operational subcompetence, which is the ability to choose correctly linguistic and non-linguistic means to achieve a particular communicative goal within the framework of discourse; 2) discursive subcompetence, which is the ability to ensure the compositional and semantic integrity of speech in compliance with the accepted rules of communication and the construction of a communicative act; 3) linguosociocultural subcompetence, which is the ability to correctly interpret data on the socio-cultural and historical structure of the countries of the native and studied languages, as well as to use the acquired linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge in the process of intercultural communication. Based on B. Fraser's classification, the types of pragmatic markers representing each subcompetence were determined. It is proposed to improve the pragmatic competence of high school students by using the electronic corpus of the English language on the basis of the author's model. The main preconditions for the creation of the model are social and professional requirements for future specialists in the field of foreign language proficiency, contradictions between the didactic potential of electronic language corpora and their actual application for improving pragmatic competence in school, as well as current state documents regulating the teaching of English in high school. Improving the pragmatic competence of high school students with the help of corpora is proposed to be the learning objective. The main psychological and pedagogical conditions of learning are high school students' proficiency in English at the A2 level or higher, as well as high school students' and teachers’ proficiency in computer and digital literacy at an intermediate or high level. A number of additional psychological and pedagogical conditions of the organization of the process of learning a foreign language in high school are also analyzed. The foreign languages competence-based approach of I.A. Zimnaya, the contextual approach of A.A. Verbitsky and the self-regulating learning (SRL) approach are proposed as the methodological basis of the model, as well as a number of additional approaches, such as the learner-centered approach, the systemic approach, etc. As the technological foundations of the model, a combination of traditional teaching methods (for example, the method of the reproduction of information) with interactive methods such as the communicative method, the creative method, the project method, the problem-based learning method, the case method, etc., as well as with the test method and the questionnaire method as control methods, is proposed. The most suitable learning format seems to be the mixed one, which combines group classroom classes with independent remote students’ work. It is supposed to use traditional teaching tools (e.g. the teaching kit) in combination with modern ICT tools (mainly an electronic language corpus). Additionally, it is proposed to use the spiral curriculum method as well as other ICT tools at different stages of learning. The evaluation apparatus of learning consists of three criteria (operational subcompetence proficiency, discursive subcompetence proficiency and linguosociocultural subcompetence proficiency), each criterion corresponds to its own indicators. The result of the learning is the development of students' practical competence to the level of B1 or B2, depending on the basic or advanced level of English language learning. The proposed learning algorithm includes three stages and five steps: 1) stage of educational activity (step 1: orientation and cognition, step 2: forming); 2) stage of educational and practical activity (step 3: modeling, step 4: control and evaluation); 3) stage of practical activity (step 5: self-education). The thematic content of the learning is based on the analysis of Exemplary work programs on the subject "English" (basic and profound levels). Additional tasks aimed at improving the pragmatic competence of high school students in the field of English are proposed. A set of corpus tasks is proposed. It includes tasks for: 1) determining the pragmatic meaning of a linguistic unit based on context; 2) the study of the use of grammatical tenses and other grammatical constructions depending on the context; 3) the compilation of collocations according to the rules of lexico-grammatical and pragmatic compatibility; 4) the study of pragmatic ambiguity, determining the activation conditions of a particular pragmatic meaning; 5) the comparison of pragmatic meanings of semantically similar units and constructions within the studied language or in comparison with another foreign language; 6) determining the frequency of use of linguistic units in exact pragmatic meaning. The initial approbation of the proposed model was carried out within the framework of pedagogical practice on the basis of the International Center for Foreign Languages "Speakers United" from 04.13.2024 to 04.26.2024. The study involved 16 students in Forms 10-11 in Tambov city. The main methods of evaluating the quality of education according to the proposed model are testing and questionnaire methods based on the Quizizz application. The majority of students positively assessed the use of electronic English language corpora to improve pragmatic competence. Based on the results of the survey, methodological recommendations for the proposed model are formulated. Based on the study, it is concluded that corpora provide a wide range of possibilities for studying the pragmatics of a foreign language. The proposed model seems to be effective for improving high school students’ pragmatic competence by using corpus technologies. It seems necessary to further develop the proposed model, as well as to appraise it profoundly using statistical calculation methods. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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