Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation: problems and new vistas
The article outlines the way the English system of punctuation marks is presented in contemporary ELT research and practice. The following types of sources are considered and analyzed in the article: grammar books for teaching English as the first, second or foreign language; reference books and web...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Samara National Research University
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Вестник Самарского университета: История, педагогика, филология |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.ssau.ru/hpp/article/viewFile/8645/8201 |
| _version_ | 1827782231226056704 |
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| author | E. V. Mikhailovskaia O. V. Sapunova |
| author_facet | E. V. Mikhailovskaia O. V. Sapunova |
| author_sort | E. V. Mikhailovskaia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article outlines the way the English system of punctuation marks is presented in contemporary ELT research and practice. The following types of sources are considered and analyzed in the article: grammar books for teaching English as the first, second or foreign language; reference books and web-sites aimed at preparing students for IELTS and TOEFL; books belonging to the genre known as popular science; purely scientific works on punctuation in general and the semicolon in particular. The main goals of the research are to reveal the central tendencies in teaching English punctuation on the example of the so-called weighty stops of vertical segmentation, namely the semicolon, and to see whether they manage to present a certain norm of using the stop. Thus, the present paper focuses on the semicolon one of the most controversial stops in the system, which has been proved to function both at the syntactic and stylistic levels. It is shown that a formal / grammatical approach is the most common way to treat punctuation in ELT literature; however, it does not take into account stylistic and prosodic peculiarities of the stops and thus fails to show the whole spectrum of its usage, as well as its phonetic and stylistic potential. Consequently, such an approach should not be applied to English one of the languages exhibiting a semantic-stylistic type of punctuation. It is proposed that the approach to be used in teaching English punctuation most effectively is pragmalinguistics, since it exploits a wide range of methods and means of analyzing a text, and also considers and highlights all the aspects of using the stops (their syntactic function, stylistic capacities and prosodic characteristics). Moreover, the article poses the question that the current methodology of the approach has to be further developed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:29:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e2ec2f4a1c00459ba1e85183d688d2df |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2542-0445 2712-8946 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:29:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Samara National Research University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Вестник Самарского университета: История, педагогика, филология |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2ec2f4a1c00459ba1e85183d688d2df2023-10-27T08:09:10ZengSamara National Research UniversityВестник Самарского университета: История, педагогика, филология2542-04452712-89462021-04-012719510210.18287/2542-0445-2021-27-1-95-1027832Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation: problems and new vistasE. V. Mikhailovskaia0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7726-4333O. V. Sapunova1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2179-6592Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityLomonosov Moscow State UniversityThe article outlines the way the English system of punctuation marks is presented in contemporary ELT research and practice. The following types of sources are considered and analyzed in the article: grammar books for teaching English as the first, second or foreign language; reference books and web-sites aimed at preparing students for IELTS and TOEFL; books belonging to the genre known as popular science; purely scientific works on punctuation in general and the semicolon in particular. The main goals of the research are to reveal the central tendencies in teaching English punctuation on the example of the so-called weighty stops of vertical segmentation, namely the semicolon, and to see whether they manage to present a certain norm of using the stop. Thus, the present paper focuses on the semicolon one of the most controversial stops in the system, which has been proved to function both at the syntactic and stylistic levels. It is shown that a formal / grammatical approach is the most common way to treat punctuation in ELT literature; however, it does not take into account stylistic and prosodic peculiarities of the stops and thus fails to show the whole spectrum of its usage, as well as its phonetic and stylistic potential. Consequently, such an approach should not be applied to English one of the languages exhibiting a semantic-stylistic type of punctuation. It is proposed that the approach to be used in teaching English punctuation most effectively is pragmalinguistics, since it exploits a wide range of methods and means of analyzing a text, and also considers and highlights all the aspects of using the stops (their syntactic function, stylistic capacities and prosodic characteristics). Moreover, the article poses the question that the current methodology of the approach has to be further developed.https://journals.ssau.ru/hpp/article/viewFile/8645/8201elt research and practiceenglish punctuationexpressive syntaxpragmalinguisticspragmaphonostylisticsstops of vertical segmentationsemicolon. |
| spellingShingle | E. V. Mikhailovskaia O. V. Sapunova Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation: problems and new vistas Вестник Самарского университета: История, педагогика, филология elt research and practice english punctuation expressive syntax pragmalinguistics pragmaphonostylistics stops of vertical segmentation semicolon. |
| title | Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation:
problems and new vistas |
| title_full | Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation:
problems and new vistas |
| title_fullStr | Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation:
problems and new vistas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation:
problems and new vistas |
| title_short | Contemporary methodology of teaching English punctuation:
problems and new vistas |
| title_sort | contemporary methodology of teaching english punctuation problems and new vistas |
| topic | elt research and practice english punctuation expressive syntax pragmalinguistics pragmaphonostylistics stops of vertical segmentation semicolon. |
| url | https://journals.ssau.ru/hpp/article/viewFile/8645/8201 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT evmikhailovskaia contemporarymethodologyofteachingenglishpunctuationproblemsandnewvistas AT ovsapunova contemporarymethodologyofteachingenglishpunctuationproblemsandnewvistas |