CONTRASTIVE EXERCISES IN MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION

• Main Author: Ludmila M Malykh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2017-12-01
• Series: Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices
• Subjects: contrastive exercises; native tongues; multilingual education; positive transfer
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/polylinguality/article/viewFile/16569/14738
• ISSN: 2618-897X; 2618-8988

Many modern languages of the world are forced to give ground in the competition with more prestigious languages. In response to such an unbalanced language situation as this many researchers and methodologists offer a new educational approach to languages - the so called multilingual education. It facilitates language learning by introducing at least three languages simultaneously. The important requirement is that one of languages under study is the mother tongue of the students. One of basic principles of this educational trend is the principle of co-studying various languages on a contrastive basis. The goal of the article is to show the possibility of implementing this principle through the system of contrastive exercises. The possibility of introducing contrastive exercises in the process of multilingual education of different age groups is studied. The introduction of such a system of exercises results in the positive transfer from the previously studied languages, native tongues including, into a new language. A systematic comparison of language units in form and meaning makes it possible to considerably expand the amount of language memory, develop imagination and creativity, facilitate the process of positive transfer, enhance motivation to study less prestigious languages.