Calendar as a way to create an artificial language environment in teaching a foreign language

The article, for the first time in linguodidactics, comprehends the methodology of using the calendar as a genre of printed materials with the aim of creating an artificial language environment when teaching a foreign language. The practical significance of the article lies in the description of ways to introduce different types of calendars into educational communication in foreign language class. The creation of an artificial language environment in classes on Russian as a foreign language is a necessary condition for compensating for the lack of communication in the foreign language being studied in the absence of a natural language environment. In addition to the methods and techniques for organizing an artificial language environment already discovered by methods of teaching foreign languages, we propose to use the calendar genre. The practice of modern domestic didactics shows the active use of interactive calendars in teaching Russian as a foreign language, but the methodology for its use has not previously been comprehended. A review of accumulated experience and analysis showed the high activity of the calendar genre as a means of organizing an artificial language environment. We conducted an experiment on introducing a medical interactive calendar into teaching Russian as a foreign language to medical university students (general language proficiency level A2). The results of the experiment give grounds to assert that the thematic calendar as a teaching tool helps to implement many tasks: introduce elements of subject teaching in classes in Russian as a foreign language (general profile), update “passive” vocabulary and bring it into students’ speech; both paper and interactive versions of the calendar have high potential in organizing an artificial language environment: students contact the calendar on a daily basis, accessing up-to-date information about the current day of the week/month/year; the use of a calendar in classes on Russian as a foreign language also contributes to the development of cross-cultural communication skills, providing students with reasons to establish contact in the form of congratulations on a particular holiday to teachers and foreign-speaking friends.

artificial language environment, calendar, RFL for doctors, medical Russian, content and language integrated learning (CLIL), congratulation (genre)