IV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2012

 The linguistic basis of our paper is A.V. Kunin´s phraseological theory and his method of phraseological identification [Кунин 2005: 9] and T.N. Fedulenkova´s ideas on the development of business phraseology in English [Fedulenkova 2002: 247].

To begin with, a number of teachers of English as a second language believe that foreign students should not be taught English phraseology or idioms as it may ´spoil´ their ´received´ English. Those teachers, we maintain, have a very vague or a very narrow idea of phraseology. They generally think of slang and jargon set expressions as idioms. But that is, evidently, the lowest layer of the language, which is described in special, still not numerous, dictionaries [Spears 1991].

As an analytic language, English is extremely rich in idioms, and although it is possible to converse correctly in non-idiomatic English, students with only a superficial knowledge of English phraseology and idioms will find themselves at a serious disadvantage in their reading, and even more so when one taking part in discussions and debate [Gulland, Hinds-Howell 1994: 7]. There are so many colloquial phraseological units belonging to common literary style that it does not even occur to native speakers that they make use of idioms which need to be explained to a foreigner: to be in two minds - ´to be undecided´ (Gulland 1994: 115), to change one´s mind - ´to make a new and different decision or choice´ (Seidl 1983: 32), it stands to reason - ´there is only one conclusion to be drawn´ (Gulland 1994: 117), etc.

Many English idioms serve as specialised terms in specific domains:

• a) advertising: prime time - ´the time of day when the greatest number of people listen to the radio or watch television and when advertising rates are highest´ (Tuck 2000: 321); reply coupon - ´a printed form that can be detached from a magazine page, a leaflet, etc and used to ask for advertised goods´ (Tuck 2000: 357);
• b) accounting: sales ledger - ´a book or a computer file in which the money owed or paid to a company for the goods it sells is recorded´ (Tuck 2000: 371); prudence concept - an accounting principle in which expected losses are recorded at the highest possible rather than the lowest possible amount (Tuck 2000: 332); above the line - ´relating to a figure included in a statement of a company´s profits and losses before tax has been paid, not after tax (Longman 2007: 1); to allow a claim - to decide that an amount of money claimed for insurance, damages etc is correct and should be paid Longman 2007: 18);
• c) banking: the rate of interest - ´the amount of money charged by the bank, or paid by the bank for the loan or use of money´ (Seidl 1983: 203); refer to drawer - ´words written on a check that the bank will not pay, usually because there is not enough money in the account´ (Tuck 2000: 350); Basle ratios - an international agreement on the amount of capital financial institutions must have in relation to the amount they lend out (Longman 2007: 42);
• d) business: a sleeping partner - ´a person who provides a percentage of the capital of a business but who does not have a part in the management of a business´ (Seidl 1983: 204); to shake hands on a bargain/ deal -´to express agreement that it is binding´ (Adam 1993: 226);
• e) buying and selling: to run up an account (with a shop) - ´to buy a number of things on credit´ (Seidl 1983: 204); hard sell - a forceful way of getting people to buy things (Tuck 2000: 190); good/ big seller - a product that sells well (Longman 2007: 487);
• f) commerce: price ring - ´a group of sellers in the same industry who have agreed to fix a minimum price for a product´ (Tuck 2000: 320); market forces - ´factors such as the amount of raw materials and goods available and the amount wanted by customers that influence the price of goods and the way they are distributed and sold´ (Tuck 2000: 255); halo effect - ´when people think that a company is good because it is owned by or connected with another company that is famous and important´ (Longman 2007: 173);
• g) economics: free market - ´a market where prices are allowed to rise and fall according to supply and demand, without prices being fixed by governments´ (Tuck 2000: 178); bilateral monopoly -´a situation where there is only one buyer and one seller in a market´ (Tuck 2000: 271); essential industry - an industry that a country considers is very important to its economy and may support with government money, taxes or imports, etc. (Longman 2007: 266);
• h) finance: revolving fund - ´a source of money from which loans are made and repaid with interest so the fund is maintained and the money can continue to be lent´ (Tuck 2000: 364); easy money -´money that is earned without difficulties´ (Tuck 2000: 145); above par - at a price that is above the original value when shares and bonds were first made available (Longman 2007: 1); bare squeeze - when share prices rise because it is known that people have sold these shares without actually owning them, hoping to be able to obtain them more cheaply later, before they have to deliver them to the buyer (Longman 2007: 42);
• i) stock exchange: government bonds - ´securities issued by a government in the form of debenture stocks with a fixed interest that is paid at regular intervals´ (Tuck 2000: 186); hot money - ´money that is passed quickly from country to country to take advantage of differences in interest rates and exchange rates´ (Tuck 2000: 194), above board - AmE honest and legal (Longman 2007: 1); etc.

Our long experience in management (V.V. Kovalenko), in accounting (A.S. Khromova) as well as in teaching ESP (T.N. Fedulenkova et al) at the universities of Smolensk (Central Russia), Pavlodar (Republic of Kazakhstan), Tyumen (Western Siberia), Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk (Arkhangelsk Region) testifies to the fact that all the idioms and other types of phraseological units that have been mentioned above are widely used in business, economics and management. Consequently, these linguistic features are particularly relevant when teaching English to students of business and finance.

We maintain that the terminology of business, economics and finance should be taught in several stages. The learner is recommended to begin with mastering traditional lexical collocations and set expressions which show no signs of semantic transformation of their components. As a rule such terminological word combinations have full equivalents in the Russian language which enables students to master the terminology in the shortest possible time, e.g.: comparison of indices - сравнение показателей, approximate estimate - приближенная оценка, banking establishment - банковское учреждение, superabundance of capital - избыток капитала, board of creditors - кредиторский совет, to ease customs formalities - упрощать таможенную процедуру, to sustain competition - выдерживать конкуренцию, column balance - столбец баланса, consumer budget - потребительский бюджет, etc.

These items evidently present no difficulty either in reading or listening comprehension, and Russian students of ESP do not hesitate to use them in professional communication, especially as the majority of these terms are international and are easily understood by the participants in the speech situation, e.g.: statistically equivalent, transport company, unified code, a commercial bank, credit at the bank, information service, latent form of capital, etc.

Nevertheless, students reading business papers, economic periodicals and other publications related to their subject often come across expressions which are extremely difficult to understand because they are semantically encoded. Among such terms there are, for example, the following idiomatic expressions: to be loaded up, the meaning of which may be interpreted as ´to have a big bag of fund valuables which are very difficult to realize´; Treasury note, the meaning of which may be deciphered as ´a middle term security paper´; constructive receipt, the meaning of which may be defined as ´supposed income, i.e. income not having been received in reality but which is considered to have been received for the aims of taxing´; over spot - currency addition at long term agreements; loan strings - money given under certain political and economic conditions and restrictions, and many others.

In practice it is not only beginners but advanced business students as well who find great difficulty in decoding such terms since, being phraseological units with complete transference of meaning of their components, they are indeed very difficult to identify, even if the learners are experts in business and economics. Let your ESP students try and guess the meaning of such financial terms as a) Monte Carlo technique, b) Wilson formula, c) Massachusettes rule, d) Delphi method, e) Ockham´s razor and the like and you will see that they will be unable to do it without your assistance. The meanings of the terms are as follows: a) method of statistical tests, b) means to find out the most economical volume of order, c) code of reasonable behaviour while investing money according to the letter of confidence, d) method of expert estimation, e) law of minimal admittance in the economic model.

When even the student encounters an idiomatic term with partial transference of meaning when some components of the phrasal term are used in their direct lexical meaning, it is often the case that he needs the ESP teacher´s help to disambiguate the expression. For example, the meaning of the word combination a sleeping partner does not imply any sexual intercourse. On the contrary it implies quite a certain kind of business dealings between individuals where the person who supplies money for the business or some other enterprise does not appear in public and does not take part in the meetings of the stock holders, but only receives his share of profits. The set expression sharp practice is also often misunderstood, as it appears to have the meaning of business dealings, which are not honest (Seidl 1983: 204). The term a vested interest, though simple enough in its form, still needs explanation of its meaning ´a connection with some enterprise that involves personal gain´ (Seidl 1983: 51).

To sum up, we want to press the point that the ultimate practical aim of teaching a foreign language is to help students to acquire complete mastery of the form and content of the language, so that they can fully and freely communicate using vocabulary items, idioms and grammatical constructions correctly and appropriately. The educational aims of teaching a second language involve developing of student´s cognitive abilities [Baranov, Dobrovolskij 1996: 409] and intellect. Foreign language teaching also promotes students´ general educational and cultural growth by increasing their knowledge of foreign countries.

Summing it up, we would like to press the point that the English language is full of pitfalls for the foreign student - bizarre spelling, illogical rules of grammar - but the most common problem lies in understanding and using the vast array of idioms. That is why one of the main targets in teaching ESP is to be seen in paying especial attention to the study of terms belonging to phraseology, on the one hand, and in teaching the basic phraseology, on the other hand.

 

Список литературы и  фразеографических источников

1. Кунин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка. - М., 2005.
2. Adam J.H. Longman Dictionary of Business English. - Harlow: Longman Group Ltd., 1993.
3. Baranov A.N., Dobrovolskij D.O. Cognitive Modelling of Actual Meaning in the Field of Phraseology // Journal of Pragmatics, 1996, № 25, pp. 409-429.
4. Fedulenkova T. Idioms in Business English: Ways to Cross-cultural Awareness // Domain-specific English: textual practices across communities and classrooms / Giuseppina Cortese & Philip Riley (ed.). - Bern; Berlin; Bruxelles; Frankfurt am Mein; New York; Oxford; Wien: Lang, 2002. - P. 247-269.
5. Gulland D.M., Hinds-Howell D.G. The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms. -Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1994.
6. Longman Business English Dictionary. - Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2007.
7. Seidl J., McMordie W. English Idioms and How to Use Them. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
8. Spears R.A. Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. Special Edition. - Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, 1991.
9. Tuck A. (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of Business English for Learners of English. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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