Students' lexical skills: Essence, nature and assessment in the analysis of Francophone concepts

In the modern conditions of the post-globalization era, teaching languages to students being transmitters of cultural differences is changing the vector of its research. The need has arisen and strengthened to abandon the monopoly of one linguaculture in favor of presenting to students a palette of socio-cultural differences of the peoples of different countries speaking the same language. An example of such an orientation is the focus on teaching French as a tool for conveying the values of the Francophone world in its entirety and at the same time in the uniqueness of the countries participating in the Francophonie as an international organization. The rejection of "France-centricity", of the titular French culture leads to the need to rethink the technologies of teaching French, especially its lexical component, which is most capable of conveying the palette of Francophone cultures, values, traditions, norms, rules adopted in a particular state whose official language is French. The image of the world, which is formed in the consciousness of a particular people, is fixed by concepts that are embodied/materialized by lexemes. It is in the deciphering of concepts through the analysis of lexical units that the nuances of meanings specific for a particular people speaking French can be identified. These nuances act as differentiating features of those conditions (historical, geographical, socio-cultural, political, economic, etc.) in which the national identity of representatives of a particular linguistic society was formed. The study proposes a multi-level model for specifying the nuances of meaning of lexical units in the French language with identification of the following levels: a) semantic core of a lexeme, the same for all variants of the French language regardless of the area of its distribution and use, b) perinuclear zone of the lexeme meaning, representing minimal incomplete semantic similarities, c) near periphery of the lexeme meaning, denoting incomplete essential semantic similarities, d) far periphery of the lexeme meaning, demonstrating complete semantic divergences, in their own way reflecting the parameters of the worldview of representatives of various representatives of Francophone countries. The work offers examples of identifying and diversifying the shades of meaning of lexical units, reflecting the concepts inherent in the national consciousness of native French speakers in different countries (Canada and France). The students' focus on finding common and different things in the mentality of native French speakers requires the formation and development of specific lexical skills, the presence of which can become a guarantee of the harmonious development of their own cultural self-determination and the formation of their national identity. The problem of developing lexical skills taking into account the above stated factors has not been considered in detail in linguodidactics; the emphasis was mainly on determining the nature of lexical skills and developing technologies for their formation. Only recently have scientists begun to talk about the importance of developing students' ability to consciously operate (analyze, select, compare, etc.) lexical units - about lexical competence, the structure of which includes lexical skills. To date, there is a limited number of studies of their essence, a register of such skills has not been developed, and multicultural factors have not been taken into account in establishing the specifics of lexical skills. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the importance, linguodidactic essence and develop a set of lexical skills necessary for students of a language university (future linguists and teachers) to master the French language as a means of conveying the differences in the conceptual spheres of the countries of the Francophone world. The study presents for the first time a classification of lexical skills from the standpoint of a multicultural approach, consisting of three groups: skills of perception and understanding, skills of differentiation and comparison, postanalytical skills. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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