English and IT specialist: English owl on Russian globe?

People with a technical mindset in all seek to find a system. When studying English, which is so much in demand in IT, many programmers are confronted with the fact that they cannot understand how this language and its system work.

"Who is guilty?"

What is the problem? It would seem that a programmer, who often speaks several formal programming languages, or a sysadmin who effortlessly handles complex systems, would easily have mastered such a simple language as English.

Unfortunately, the common practice of learning English is not so simple. Teach the language and write manuals humanities with a different mind than the technical experts. Conventionally, the creators of the programs presented on the today's market for learning English can be divided into two categories:

• Russian-speaking humanities practitioners of the grammar-translation method ;
• Native speakers, humanitarians, practicing a communicative approach .

Both approaches to learning English have both positive aspects and disadvantages. Combines their common feature: the methods are built from elements to the general, i.e. to the system to which, more often than not, in practice it never comes.
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Starting learning on the basis of such a principle, a person does not have a clear idea of ​​what kind of language system he will study. During the learning process, the student does not have a clear idea of ​​exactly which segment of the system he is currently coaching, how the element being studied is embedded in the general scheme, and where exactly it will be in demand. In general, there is no structure necessary for a technical profession specialist (and not only) in order to meaningfully train the skill.

Russian-speaking authors of manuals based on the grammatical-translational principle are practically implemented in the exercises a descriptive, or descriptive, grammar, which the linguists-theorists are engaged in, which has only an indirect relation to speech practice. Despite the deep elaboration of grammatical elements, which distinguishes this method, the result obtained, as a rule, boils down to well-developed elements of the system, which often remain only fragmentary knowledge from the student, not collected in the practical system of a living language.

The communicative approach is reduced to memorizing speech patterns, which, in turn, also does not provide meaningful knowledge of the language at the level of the speech creator. Since the creators of the communicative approach are the carriers themselves, they can only offer their own idea of ​​the language from the inside, being unable to submit it, interpreting it from the outside as a system that contrasts with the system of the native language of the Russian-speaking learner.

Moreover, the speakers do not even suspect that their Russian-speaking students are in a completely different language paradigm and operate with completely different grammatical categories. Therefore, paradoxically, speakers who do not speak Russian cannot convey to the Russian-speaking language all the nuances of their native English.

Global problem owls

The system of Russian and the system of English is contrasted even on the cognitive level. For example, the category of time in English is understood quite differently than in Russian. These are two grammars built on the opposite principles: English is an analytical language, while Russian is synthetic .

Starting to learn a language without taking into account this important nuance, the student falls into the trap. By default, naturally striving to search for a familiar system, our consciousness believes that it is learning the same language as Russian, but only English. And no matter how much a student learns English, he loops through himself, unwittingly, continuing to “pull the English owl on the Russian globe”. This process can take years and even decades.

“What to do?” Or Depliment to the brain

Breaking a dead-end practice can be very simple in the framework of the “ Method 12 ” approach, tailored to the peculiarities of Russian-speaking technical specialists. The author solves the above difficulties by entering into the training two unusual elements.

First, before starting to learn English, the student clearly learns the difference between Russian and English grammar, starting in their native language to distinguish between these two ways of thinking.

Thus, the student acquires a reliable immunity from falling into the “bug” of the intuitive “stretching English into Russian”, which delays the learning process for a long time, as described above.

Secondly, the framework of the cognitive logic of the English language is loaded into the consciousness in the native language before the study of English itself begins. That is, learning is built from mastering a general grammatical algorithm to working out its particular elements. Further, filling this framework with English-language content, the student uses grammatical structures already familiar to him.

“Russian Revolution”, or Miracles of Psycholinguistics

At both stages, it takes about 10 academic hours of classes with a teacher or some time for a student to work independently on materials laid out in open access. Such a preliminary investment, in addition to being a rather fascinating process for a student, representing a kind of mind game, saves a tremendous amount of time and financial resources, creates a comfortable environment of conscious mastering of skills, and significantly increases the student's self-esteem.

As the practice of using this method has shown, English grammar is better and faster than the rest of the students by specialists in IT, an algorithmized and deterministic approach to grammar, the simplicity and logic of the system correlate as well as the professional skills of techies.

The author called this system academic life hack “Method 12” by the number of basic types of temporary forms (or, as it is known, “times”) that make up the framework of the grammatical system of the English language.

It should be mentioned that this applied method is the practical realization of the theoretical principles of psycholinguistics, formulated by such eminent scientists as N. Chomsky, L. Scherba, P. Halperin.