Published in Unesco Alsed-LSP Newsletter Vol. 2 No.3 (6) February 1979 - ISSN 0106-0341
© LSP Centre, CBS, Denmark
U3THAR HOFFMANN: THE LINGUISTIC W Y S I S AND TEACHING OF LSP IN 'ME GERMAN DDTKRATIC
a
REPUBLIC
0. Whilst t r a d i t i o n a l philology and language teaching have f o r a very long time almost
exclusively focussed a t t e n t i o n on the language of l i t e r a r y prose on the one hand and
on everyday conversation on the other, developments over the last 30 years have brought
about a constantly increasing i n t e r e s t i n t h e use of languages f o r s p e c i a l and profess i o n a l purposes (LSP, LPU). There are many reasons f o r t h i s general trend: the growing
importance of science and technology i n nearly a l l branches of i n d u s t r i a l and agricult u r a l production; the r i s i n g standard of education promoted by schools, t e l e v i s i o n ,
radio, newspapers, magazines, and, l a s t b u t not l e a s t , by the enormous output of highly
specialized publishing houses; nor should we forget the i n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n of the most
relevant branches of s o c i a l l i f e by p o l i t i c a l , technical, economic, and c u l t u r a l co-oper a t i o n and collaboration.
One of the innnediate r e s u l t s is the demand t h a t the teaching of foreign languages should
be i n many cases r e s t r i c t e d t o the needs o f occupational o r professional cormnunication,
i . e . t o the respective sub-languages of science and technology. I t is no use complaining
about the loss t o knowledge, occasioned by ab~ndoningthe foreign l i t e r a t u r e , l i f e and
i n s t i t u t i o n s component since t h i s was a l l too o f t e n nothing e l s e but a superfi-cial a t t r i bute of education i n the p a s t . Applied. l i n g u i s t s and teachers of foreign languages w i l l
be more successful i f they face the f a c t s and draw the obvious conclusions.
One of the f i r s t conclusions w i l l be t h a t t h e t r a d i t i o n a l subjects and consequently the
types of l i n g u i s t i c content must be s u b s t i t u t e d by new subjects and materials. An 4nns t r u c t i v e example of t h i s kind of change can be found i n the h i s t o r y of foreign language
teaching f o r s p e c i a l purposes a t the u n i v e r s i t i e s and technical colleges i n the GDR, a
nrocess which began exactly 27 years ago.
Since 1951 every student i n our country has had t o learn two foreign languages, as a general r u l e Russian and English o r French. He must be able t o read relevant s c i e n t i f i c
papers i n the o r i g i n a l and t o take p a r t i n a discussion on problems concerning h i s profession. This i s obligatory f o r undergraduates i n medicine, physics, and mathematics, as
well as philosophy, h i s t o r y , economics e t c .
During the f i r s t ten years the s e l e c t i o n of l i n g u i s t i c materials f o r t h i s kind of LSP
teaching w a s mainly ruled by i n t u i t i o n , experience, and good w i l l . A t the same time the
textbooks were elementary m u a l s of the respective sciences without any,or with very
l i t t l e , adaptation t o the needs of foreign language teaching. Grammatical i n s t r u c t i o n was
t r e a t e d independently. I n s p i t e of these d e f i c i e n c i e s , the r e s u l t s were not bad. But t h i s
was due t o the enthusiasm of teachers and s t u d e n t s , not t o the perfection of materials
and methods. This enthusiasm lacking r e s u l t s would have been, and i n some cases was, not
satisfactory.
Thus,we had t o find v a l i d principles and e f f e c t i v e methbds first of a l l f o r the s e l e c t i o n
and r e s t r i c t i o n of the l i n g u i s t i c phenomena t o . b e included i n the course, and secondly
f o r t h e i r organization (staging and grading).
As f a r as I know, there are four established approaches t o LSP: philosophical re1.
flexion, s t y l i s t i c description, terminological investigation, and s t a t i s t i c a l a n a l v s i s .
1.1. Philosophical reflexion is concerned with the question of whether language i s an
adequate vehicle of ideas o r , as Ti. H. Savory put i t , whether "science i s i n many ways
the natural enemy of language". A pessimistic answer would p u t an untimely end t o my
paper and I would nolens volens leave the f i e l d t o s c i e n t i s t s , who use a r t i f i c i a l languages,
i . e . symbols, formurae e t c . L i f e , however, has proved t h a t n a t u r a l languages though not
f u l l y adequate, are nevertheless an indispensable instrument f o r s c i e n t i f i c and profession a l thinking, and t h a t they a r e , t o a c e r t a i n degree, adjustable t o t h e growing needs of
science and technology. So we can go on w i t h the second approach.
1.2.
To s t y l i s t i c s as a s p e c i a l branch of philology we owe the d i f f e r e n t i a l view of
languages ; and t o f m c t i o n a l s t y l i s t i c s the c l a s s i f i c a t i o n of s t y l e s by t h e i r d i f f e r e n t
communicative i n t e n t i o n s %CGnds ;'-The-of t h e s t y l e s described by several schools (e.g.
Prague, Moscow) which contrasts with b e l l e t r i s t i c l i t e r a t u r e is the s c i e n t i f i c s t y l e ;
t h i s comes near t o what we c a l l LSP now. The r e s u l t s of functional s t y l i s t i c s are mainly
obtained by deductive methods which s t a r t from general concepts (more i d e a l than r e a l )
e.g. ' p r e c i s i o n ' , 'conciseness', ' o b j e c t i v i t y ' , 'absence of expressiveness and e m t i o n ' ,
and a r r i v e a t a catalogue of p e c u l i a r i t i e s on d i f f e r e n t language levels which s c i e n t i f i c
w r i t i n g does not share w i t h other s t y l e s ,
The merits of functional s t y l i s t i c s are a) its i n t e r e s t i n the functional d i v e r s i f i c a tion of language and b) lack of r e l i a b i l i t y , c) incompleteness, and d) r e s t r i c t i o n t o nat u r a l sciences and engineering. S t y l i s t i c analysis w a s mainly applied t o the mother tongue
of native speakers. Its r e s u l t s were too a b s t r a c t f o r the teaching of foreign languages,
and sometimes too commonplace. Another serious disadvantage was the lack of complete l i s t s
of l i n g u i s t i c elements and patterns t h a t could be used t o teach a functional s t y l e .
1.3.
Investigations i n t o terminology a r e p a r t of lexicology and lexicography, 'but a l s o
relevant to documentation and automatic information processing. Induqtive methods are preferred. In most cases terminologists have n o t s t a r t e d out from philology o r l i n g u i s t i c s ,
but from engineering and the n a t u r a l sciences. Progress has been made i n the national
and i n t e r n a t i o n a l standardization of terminologies. Conunittees have been constituted and
centres s e t up t o d i r e c t these a c t i v i t i e s (e.g. Infotenn i n Vienna) .
With regard t o LSP, the elaboration and dissemination of a general theory of terminology
would be of inestimable help. The same is crue of concrete models of word formation and
term creation, as we s h a l l see l a t e r . What must be c r i t i c i z e d , however, is the i d e n t i f i cation of LSP with terminology, i . e . the reduction of LSP t o t h e l e x i c a l level and here
again t o word formation and mutual exchange between "general language" and sublanguages.
The i s o l a t i o n of words r e s u l t s i n an obvious neglect of s y n t a c t i c f e a t u r e s , which are cent r a l t o LSP teaching.
The s t a t i s t i c a l analysis o f LSP on the lexicological as well as on the s y n t a c t i c
1.4.
l e v e l seems t o serve t h e needs of foreign language teaching b e s t of a l l , i f it is combined
with a systematic approach t o terminological and s y n t a c t i c systems. In t h i s paper I w i l l
t r y t o show the advantages of t h i s method, the most important of which i s the unbiassed
s e l e c t i o n of l i n g u i s t i c content by exact mathematical procedures.
2.
Before s t a r t i n g on l i n g u i s t i c a n a l y s i s , i . e . on the study and i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of
the l e x i c o l o g ~ c a,l morphological, s y n t a c t i c , compositional , and other d i s t i n c t i v e features of LSP, a t l e a s t a minimum of s o c i o l i n g u i s t i c work had t o be done i n order t o ident i f y and define t h e objectives of foreign language teaching a t the university and f u r t h e r
education l e v e l . Tne main task was t o give a survey o f the language needs i n university
departments, schools o f technology, research c e n t r e s , i n d u s t r i a l e n t e r p r i s e s , cooperat i v e farms, trade organizations, and other socio-comunicational spheres where young
people e n t e r a profession o r occupation a f t e r passing t h e i r examinations. I n some cases
inquiries were made through questionnaires (Dresden, Restock), b u t the most efficient
way was through d i r e c t contact with representatives of the d i f f e r e n t f i e l d s of profess i o n a l a c t i v i t y , o r with former students who knew by t h e i r own experience where foreign
language lessons had been useful and where they had f a i l e d . Tne most important points of
i n t e r e s t i n the questionnaires as well as i n the personal interviews were: a) the r e l e vance of c e r t a i n languages (Russian, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Czech e t a l . ) ;
b) the s k i l l s required (reading, writing; hearing, speaking; b u t also t r a n s l a t i n g , abs t r a c t i n g , indexing etc.) ; c) the nature of the predominant t e x t type (manuals, guides,
journals, reports, d i r e c t i v e s , agreements, patents e t c . )
.
I t i s true t h a t not a l l important socio-cormmmicational spheres have been examined as
y e t , b u t those inspected t o date have proved t o have some b a s i c c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s i n s o w
m n whkh may serve as the f u n d m n t a l s f o r a unified and a t the same time v a r i a b l e system of foreign language teaching. This system may be c a l l e d unified, because its l e v e l s ,
branches, and topics a r e harmonized with one another and bmught i n t o continuity. Varia-
- 4.
-
b i l i t y i s effected by the relative.autonomy of levels and s u b j e t s .
The teaching of LSP according t o this system proceeds from level I to level I 1 and on
to level 111 corresponding t o the terminal s k i l l s and l i n g u i s t i c content. These levels
are determined by communicative needs and proficiencies of d i f f e r e n t degrees. Leveis I
and I 1 a r e subdivided into branches a and b ; branch a emphasizes hearing and speaking,
branch b reading and translating.
s p e c i f i c professional demands are met. Finally,
beginning with l e v e l I1 a rough division i n t o seven professional categories and groups
of subjects i s made:
Category 1 f o r p o l i t i c i a n s , c i v i l servants, business executives, and journalists: polit i c s , economics, management, a f f a i r s o f s t a t e , administration i n law, c i v i l i z a t i o n and
culture, education.
Category 2 f o r a r t i s t s .(poets, w r i t e r s , painters e t c . ) , o f f i c i a l s working i n the Fine
Arts, and persons who have a general i n t e r e s t i n learning languages : c u l t u r a l policy,
l i t e r a t u r e , painting, music, architecture, h i s t o r y , geography, tourism.
Category 3 f o r personnel i n foreign trade, home t r a d e , t r a f f i c , t r a v e l agencies , gas tronomy: economics, trade, transport, t r a f f i c , t r a v e l l i n g , administration of hotels and
restaurants, service, cooking.
Category 4 f o r i n d u s t r i a l s t a f f : e l e c t r i c a l and electronic engineering, data processing,
power supply, metallurgy, chemical i n d u s t r i e s , architecture mechanical e n e n e e r m g ,
precision mechanics and optics.
Category 5 f o r employees i n agriculture, c a t t l e breeding, and food production: cultivat i o n and u t i l i z a t i o n of p l a n t s , breeding and u t i l i z a t i o n of animals, amelioration, agric u l t u r a l chemistry, a g r i c u l t u r a l engineering, forestry.
Category 6 f o r men of science: s o c i a l sciences, natural sciences, engineering, medicine.
Category 7 f o r the armed forces, police, custom o f f i c e r s : external and i n t e r n a l security.
Level I a is generally reached by secondary schools a t the end of the 12th class (8 years
Russian, 4 years English o r French). University and college students normally arrive a t
a level IIb towards the end of the 2nd o r at l e v e l I I a a f t e r the 3rd year. Level I I a is
obligatory f o r taking a doctor's degree. Level I11 has up t o now only exceptionally been
attained.
We s h a l l not examine 'any further d e t a i l s o f organization. I t may be i n t e r e s t i n g , however,
to d e t a i l those s k i l l s t o be developed a t the I I b level according t o the predominant
future needs of university students.
The student i s expected: a) t o read t e x t s on h i s special subject i n the o r i g i n a l w i t h out using dictionaries, grammars o r other books of reference, and give a summary i n h i s
mother tongue; b) to t r a n s l a t e authentic s c i e n t i f i c writing i n t o h i s own language resorting, i f necessary, t o dictionaries and s i m i l a r aids; c) t o understand (Ghmgh hearmg) s h o r t reports and discussions r e l a t i n g t o everyday l i f e , professional work, economics? p o l i t i c s , and culture; d) t o express h i s awn ideas concerning personal a f f a i r s ,
s c i e n t i f i c a c t i v i t i e s , economics, p o l i t i c s , and culture on a limited rider of topics ;
e) t o find adequate tagmemes, s t a r t i n g from welIknmn situations t h a t are described i n
h i s mother tongue (Sachverhalte) and by consulting reference books. In order to s a t i s f y
these requirements the student should have knwledge of about 5000 l e x i c a l units (3000
of which may constitute passive vocabulary, i . e . f o r comprehension only) and of standard granmar.
Compared w i t h IIb, in the I I a branch, h e c i n g and speaking play a f a r more important
p a r t , whilst translating is kept i n the ~ackground.
We have s o f a r defined the l e v e l s , branches; and categories as-ell as subjects and
s k i l l s , b u t nothing has been s a i d about the l i n g u i s t i c content of LSP teaching. Ling u i s t i c content should, therefore, c o n s t i t u t e our next point of i n t e r e s t .
3.
The l i n g u i s t i c elements and patterns of LSP i n textbooks, tapes, s l i d e s , and
other forms of presentation a r e i s o l a t e d by s t r u c t u r a l , semantic, s t a t i s t i c a l , compar a t i v e , and functional methods applied t o t e x t s t y p i c a l of w r i t t e n o r o r a l comunication. S t r u c t u r a l aspects are relevant t o t h e d e f i n i t i o n of l e x i c a l and grammatical
units (words, word forms, word groups, phrases, sentences) Semantic analysis affords
the l i m i t a t i o n of meaning i n terminological systems. S t a t i s t i c a l l i n g u i s t i c s does not
only bring t o l i g h t the frequency of elements and p a t t e r n s , but a l s o proves t h e i r rel i a b i l i t y and influence on the introduction and r e p e t i t i o n of l i n g u i s t i c phenomena. The
comparison of foreign language and mother tongue i s one of the most important premises
of the evaluation of teaching materials. Functional methods, l a s t but not l e a s t , t r y
t o a s c e r t a i n the communicative appropriateness o f l i n g u i s t i c expressions.
.
Complex l i n g u i s t i c analysis as a necessary premise t o the designing of LSP teaching
is i l l u s t r a t e d i n f i g . 1.
The p e c u l i a r i t i e s of LSP t e x t s are f i r s t and foremost of a q u a n t i t a t i v e nature. I t i s
the s i g n i f i c a n t l y frequent occurrence of c e r t a i n speech elements, forms, o r s t r u c t u r e s
t h a t characterizes s c i e n t i f i c w r i t i n g and spoken discourse. As a consequence s t a t i s t i c a l
methods play an important r o l e i n s e l e c t i n g an inventory f o r teaching purnozes.
Investigations i n t o the sublanguages of science a n d technology have proved t h a t the
d i s t i n c t i v e features of LSP a r e not equally evident a t a l l l i n g u i s t i c l e v e l s . I t is the
word and the phrase levels t h a t y i e l d t h e b e s t r e s u l t s , i . e . lists o f t y p i c a l l e x i c a l
and s y n t a c t i c a l items which may serve as a highly e f f e c t i v e teaching/learning minimum.
3.1.
From our analysis of English s c i e n t i f i c t e x t s we know t h a t the 1178 most frequentwords i n medical l i t e r a t u r e c o n s t i t u t e about 85 per cent of any medical t e x t ;
i n physics 1059 words cover 86 per cent on an average; f o r mathematics 92 per cent t e x t
coverage corresponds to 1114 words. French frequency lists show the following figures:
medicine - 1199/748; physics - 1190/81%; mathematics - 867185%. In Russian and other
languages the t e x t coverage of the 119Qm-1200most frequent words ranges from 80 t o 90
per cent o r even more. The effectiveness o f such a b a s i c vocabulary is shown by the f a c t
t h a t i n t e r n a t i o n a l terminology and words derived from comon roots are comprehensible
t o most readers of s c i e n t i f i c papers. Moreover, i l l u s t r a t i o n s , diagrams, t a b l e s , f i gures, formulae, and other non-linguistic means of expression and demonstration f a c i l i t a t e the understanding of LSP. Even i f information theory is r i g h t i n affirming t h a t
the frequency of speech elements is i n inverse proportion t o the semantic value of the
elements, t h e r e is no denying the f a c t t h a t a l l l e x i c a l units i n the uppermost frequency zone must be l e a r n t , because they a r e , so t o speak, "constitutive" with respect to any
t e x t , i . e . e s s e n t i a l t o predication.
Word frequency counts marked the very beginning of l i n g u i s t i c investigations i n t o the
sublanguages of science and technology i n the GDR and p a r t i c u l a r l y a t the university
of Leipzig. Later on they were completed by catalogues of b a s i c terminologies o r terminology standards published i n the USSR f o r Russian sublangua~es. Less has been done f o r
English, French and other languages.
Much has been w r i t t e n about our Russian-English-French frequency d i c t i o n a r i e s . Let me
only add t h a t our book-shops a r e now s e l l i n g : the 4th edition o f medicine (1978), the
3rd edition of physics (1976), and the 1st editions of chemistry (1973), mathematics
(1976) , architecture (1976), and cattle-breeding (1978). Frequency lists of many o t h e r
f i e l d s of s c i e n t i f i c work are available i n theses, machine o r computer p r i n t only. They
a r e used by deviserj of textbooks and other a i d s , as w e l l as by teachers, terminolog i s t s e t c . Some of these word lists have been published by colleges t h a t need them f o r
t h e i r own t r a i n i n g courses, e.g. pedagogics and automobile engineering (Russian and Engl i s h ) . I n 1980 a b a s i c vocabulary o f s o c i a l sciences comprising philosophy, theory of
communism, p o l i t i c a l economy, and historiographv (1872 Russian and 1544 English words)
w i l l come o u t a s a hybrid of a frequency and an alphabetical dictionary. I n the 80's
our counts w i l l be extended to new f i e l d s f a r beyond the t r a d i t i o n a l university sphere.
I n addition t o word frequency an important l e x i c a l aspect i s the productivity
3.2.
of word formation. Here, s t a t i s t i c a l methods bring t o l i g h t frequent patterns and cons t r u c t i v e elements. A s a r e s u l t of our analysis of t e x t s (frequency o'f occurrence) and
terminological dictionaries (frequency of patterns) we have arrived a t a quantitative
c l a s s i f i c a t i o n of suffixes f o r derivatives, and combinations i n technical t e r m consis t i n g of more than one word. I t is again only a small nmber of suffixes t h a t a r e used
t o derive new words from e x i s t i n g r o o t s , s o t h a t a well-founded s e l e c t i o n and r e s t r i c tion f o r teaching/learning purposes becomes possible.
Most productive, f o r example, i n English chemical terminology are such s u f f i x e s as
-ion (reaction), -ation (oxidation), - i t y ( v i s c o s i t y ) , -ment (arrangement), -ure (procedure), -ence (difference), - e r (layer); as t h e i r French c o r r e l a t e s we f i n d -ion (sol u t i o n ) , -ure (chlorure) , -eur (vapeur) , - t 6 (quantitg) , -ide (acide) e t c . The importance of r e s t r i c t i o n s of t h i s kind becomes p l a u s i b l e , when we read i n a standard g r m a r
published by the Academy of Sciences i n h s c o w t h a t Russian has about 150 s u f f i x e s f o r
substantives only. The sublanguages of science and technology, however, as was shown
by our analysis of productivity and occurrence, p r e f e r n o t more than 12 of these.
For some sublanguages the most frequent and productive affixes have been rendered accessible i n our frequency d i c t i o n a r i e s , as t o others they are stored i n degree papers
3.3.
But derivation is not the only way t o s a t i s f y the constantly growing needs of
t e r n creation. I t prevails i n a b s t r a c t sciences, i . e . i n mathematics. Technical and
other applied sciences must often give a name t o complexconcepts o r things with more
than one c h a r a c t e r i s t i c . Under these conditions a s i n g l e word, be i t even a compound,
i s not s u f f i c i e n t . Therefore, i n some .languages, e.g. Russian, English, and French, terms
tend t o approximate t o word groups o r nominal phrases. Very popular a r e amalgamations of
substantives and adjectives (peremennyj tok; i d l e motion; surcharge mobile) and of
substantives i n combination -with o r without prepositions completed by adjectives o r
not (naprjaXennost' p o l j a , b o l t bez narezki , w o d v a a r a l l e l ' n u j u rabotu; pan mixer, papel
guide r o l l , point of maxi;mal bending, relay w i t h reciprocal action; purge de Sconcent r a t i o n , compteur d'eau a piston). These a r e compa.yatively s h o r t and simple terms. Examples of greater length and complication may be taken from my book "Konnnunikationsmittel
Fachsprache" (pp. 324-332). Sometimes these terms are s i m i l a r t o paraphrases and are
thus representative of an early stage i n terminological development (compare the Russian
concatenation 'nmogofaznyj k o l l e k t o r y j d v i g a t e l ' parallel'nogo vozbu'idenij a S dvojnym
komplektom z?etok1- AAS(AS)g(AS)pSg). In general these unpractical and o f t e n curious
s t r i n g s a r e gradually reduced t o an appropriate length (e.g. sinchronnyj generator peremennogo toka - sinchronnyj generator, priemnik na tranzistorach - t r a n z i s t o m y j priemnik,
antenna dipol'nogo t i p a - d i p o l ' n a j a antenna e t c . ) . Now this again i s the point of app l i e d l i n g u i s t i c s . LSP teaching could not possibly take i n t o consideration the thousands
of r e a l t e r m as l e x i c a l units t h a t f i l l voluminous d i c t i o n a r i e s . One promising way,
however, is t o c a l l a t t e n t i o n t o c e r t a i n d i s t r i b u t i v e and s t r u c t u r a l patterns of word
combination. What has already been mentioned with reference t o a f f i x a t i o n i s even t r u e r
of the s y n t a c t i c and semantic r e l a t i o n s between words: languages a r e tremendously r i c h
i n t h e i r resources, b u t they use them sparingly, maybe economically. Our linguo-S t a t i s t i c a l samples have provided the f o l l m i n g f a c t s . In terminological dictionaries of
several Russian sublanguages we found more than 230 s t r u c t u r e s d i f f e r i n g i n length and
i n the dependency of t h e i r constituents on one another (architecture 231, railway engineering 277, e l e c t r i c a l and e l e c t r o n i c engineering 319). But only 10 of them accounted
f o r more than 80 per cent of a l l r e a l terms of t h i s type (86.6; 81.3; 88.0). The r e s t
were f a r l e s s frequent o r not very c r e a t i v e , i . e . a great many of these patterns were
realized only once o r twice.
frequency counts o f teSnlj;nologj$al patterns haye proyed t o be a t h i r d important
a i d f o r LSP teaching on the lexicological l e v e l , affording f u r t h e r s e l e c t i o n and res t r i c t i o n on the one hand, but additional s p t a c t i c a n d semantic information compared
with frequency dictionaries of i s o l a t e d l e x i c a l units on the other. R e r e s u l t s obtained
up t o now are representative of Russian s c i e n t i f i c w r i t i n g and indicative of English
s c i e n t i f i c prose. Other languages are s t i l l unexplored. As a general tendency a teminolog i c a l optimum of 2;3 o r maxi4 constituents has been observed. A l l ? a t t e r n excee-
ding t h i s extension should be regarded as terminological paraphrases, not as genuine
terms.
3.4.
Two of the by-products of our LSP l e x i c o - s t a t i s t i c s were frequency counts of
word forms and morphological categories. They yielded good r e s u l t s f o r Russian. because
of its r i c h i n f l e x i o n a l system. b u t were les; instructyve f o r English and ~ r e n c h .On
the whole, new insight.. we& confined t o some forms of the verb. A l l other data confirmed a l o t o f statements made by functional s t y l i s t i c s : the high frequency of substant i v e s and adjectives i n the s i n g u l a r , the predominance of the 3rd person and impersonal
forms over the 1 s t and 2nd person, a predilection f o r the passive voice, the importance
of p a r t i c i p l e s and gerunds, and s i m i l a r d i s t i n c t i v e features i n s c i e n t i f i c s t y l e which
have no d i r e c t influence on language teaching, because of the uselessness o f d i s i n t e grating morphological systems i n order t o s e l e c t s i n g l e categories and forms f o r the
purpose of teaching/learning. Nevertheless, s t y l i s t i c statements have been made m.ore
r e l i a b l e by exact r e l a t i v e frequencies which can contribute t o automatic language data
processing and r e l a t e d schemes.
3.5.
I n discussing patterns of complex t e r m we have already crossed the border l i n e
between lexicology and syntax. A t the s y n t a c t i c l e v e l the p e c u l i a r i t i e s of LSP can be
observed b e s t i n phrase s t r u c t u r e s . Nominal phrases i n s c i e n t i f i c t e x t s are marked by
g r e a t e r complexity and v a r i a b i l i t y of constituents expressing the necessity of high
precision by d i f f e r e n t kinds of a t t r i b u t e s . I n verbal phrases analogous trends are due t o
the manifold means of adverbialisation unknown i n b e l l e t r i s t i c l i t e r a t u r e .
Language teaching w i l l c e r t a i n l y not be s a t i s f i e d by such a rough and ready character i z a t i o n . 'Ihus, frsquency l i s t s have been supplied f o r 28'Russian nominal and 11 verbal
phrase s t r u c t u r e s i n a comparative study of medical t e x t s on the one hand and novels
o r s h o r t s t o r i e s on the other, s o t h a t students can use them as a s o r t of s y n t a c t i c minimum which i s s u f f i c i e n t ,to understand a l l t y p i c a l sentences o f medical prose. Most of
these are v a l i d f o r other sublanguages, too. As f o r English and French nothing d e f i n i t e
can be s a i d as y e t , since the phrase l e v e l has not y e t been adequately researched.
3.6.
F i r s t r e s u l t s have been obtained i n sentence analysis. The most frequent types
o f sentence a r e well-known. I t is a f a c t t h a t nearly a l l sentences of s c i e n t i f i c w r i t i n g are declarative sentences, w h i l s t i n t e r r o g a t i v e , imperative and exclamatory sentences a r e extremely rare o r confined t o c e r t a i n genres o r s o r t s of t e x t s (didactic papers, prescriptions e t c . ) . But there are a l s o differences i n s t r u c t u r e : a t the top of
the frequency l i s t we f i n d simple extended sentences, complex sentences with one subordinate clause, and compound sentences with two coordinate clauses. In some sublanp a g e s they account f o r 70 per cent of a l l s t r u c t u r e s ; none of the other variants go beyond 4 p e r cent.
Further investigation i n subordinate clauses would show wide functional differences between sublanguages. The s t a t i s t i c a l d i s t r i b u t i o n of adverbial clauses of time, place,
cause, purpose, condition, concession, r e s u l t , manner e t c . is f a r from universal. I n
mathematics, f o r instance, clauses o f condition come t o an absolute majority; i n historiography time and place take p r i o r i t y .
A comparatively new sphere of i n t e r e s t i n LSP on the sentence l e v e l i s word
3.7.
order i n categories of functional sentence perspective. Its importance is based on the
unequal d i s t r i b u t i o n of information in sentences and pieces of t e x t . In some languages,
e.g. German and Russian, which a r e s a i d t o have a r a t h e r f r e e word order it i s an important but h i t h e r t o often neglected c r i t e r i o n of adequate l i n g u i s t i c proficiency. Representatives of the older functional school were i n e r r o r when they declared t h a t nearl y a l l sentences i n s c i e n t i f i c w r i t i n g follow the normal and "logical" order: s u b j e c t
- predicate - object, while other patterns a r e an exception and mainly used i n l i t e r a ry genres, which aim a t extraordinary s t y l i s t i c o r emotional e f f e c t s .
The study of s i x basic models of word order and theme-Tkeme constellation i n Russian
mathematical, physical, chemical, philosophical and historiographical papers has brought
t o l i g h t a very s p e c i f i c frequency d i s t r i b n t i o n which i s , above a l l , determined by the
d i f f e r i n g communicative needs of c e r t a i n s c i e n t i f i c genres (manmls, textbooks, journ a l s , prescriptions e t c . ) , not by d i f f e r i n g subjects (mathematics, physics, chemistry,
philosophy, historiography) Accordingly, i n some sublanguages "deviations" from the
so-called normal order amount to one fourth o r even one t h i r d of a l l sampled sentences.
.
A t present, this r a t h e r rough approach to functional sentence.perspective i s being refined.
More, a t t e n t i o n w i l l be paid t o an improved c l a s s i f i c a t i o n of genres and t o r e l a t i o n s
between theme and rheme above the sentence l e v e l (throughout the whole of the t e x t ) .
3.8.
I t is now time t o turn from discussion of what has been done and what should
be done a t the l e x i c a l and s y n t a c t i c levels t o define the d i s t i n c t i v e features of LSP.
We a r e well aware of the f a c t t h a t our survey w a s f a r from complete. The same i s true
of the books and papers published i n the p a s t . But these e f f o r t s may a t l e a s t be regarded a s a beginning and as a framework t h a t is t o be f i l l e d up i n course of time.
Let me now add a few words 'about how the outcome of l i n g u i s t i c analysis is applied to
the production of textbooks and other teachingllearning aids.
4.
The introduction of frequent l i n g u i s t i c elements and patterns during an early
period of language teaching s i g n i f i c a n t l y promotes motivation. Although "motivation 1s
generally no problem with LPU s t u d i e s : the a d u l t l e a r n e r has chosen the course himself
and h i s successful progress i s e s s e n t i a l t o h i s career, . . , the teacher should n o t ,
however, take t h i s motivation f o r granted . ." (shortened quotation from Professor
M. Gorosch). Students w i l l recognize the immediate p r a c t i c a l use of these high frequency
units which c o n s t i t u t e the larger p a r t of any t e x t o r speech a c t , They w i l l be more
successful within a s h o r t e r time. A t a l a t e r period concentration w i l l be focussed on
the acquisition of the s p e c i a l terminologies which change from s i t u a t i o n to s i t u a t i o n
i n a professional context. Besides this, linguistic s k i l l s w i l l develop more e a s i l y on
l i n g u i s t i c content with a high r a t e of reoccurrence.
.
.
4.1.
Let us now examine a ' c o n c r e t e case showing how the r e s u l t s yielded by LSP anal y s i s a r e converted i n t o teaching materials. I t may be t h a t a method leading from frequency d i c t i o n a r i e s and l e x i c a l minima t o vocabularies, preceding exercises and reading passages i n textbooks w i l l be the most i n s t r u c t i v e one, since the systematic introduction, acquisition, and r e p e t i t i o n of t h e relevant vocabulary i s one of the prerequisites of progress i n language teaching. Moreover, there w i l l be an opportunity
t o demonstrate the necessity of c o r r e l a t i o n , coordination, and continuity i n the whole
process of language teaching and learning from primary schools t o colleges and univers i t i e s as well as i n teaching materials.
When, as a f i r s t s t e p , the topics t o be t r e a t e d i n the course a r e fixed according t o
the requirements of the professional context aimed a t , and when, as a second s t e p ,
t e x t s representative of these topics a r e found, the relevant vocabulary i s assigned t o
every lesson and a t once arranged with respect t o the whole teaching material, so t h a t
the f i r s t occurrence of every word, its r e p e t i t i o n s and i t s actual meanings i n a l l
contextual d i s t r i b u t i o n s a r e known throughout a l l stages of production; every word
occurring and reoccurring i n the t e x t s i s c l a s s i f i e d :
Class A: known from primary o r secondary school o r from preceding lessons and registered
f o r n f o r c e m e n t only.
Class B : derivable by the r u l e s of word formation and combination.
Class C: comprehensible owing t o i d e n t i t y o r s i m i l a r i t y i n foreign language and mother
tongue (international terms, loan words)
.
C l a s s D: completely new.
In the teaching materials these classes of d i f f e r e n t didactic weight are introduced
separately, so t h a t every student can see a t f i r s t glance what he should already know,
what is i n t e l l i g i b l e without great endeavour, and what i s r e a l l y new and worth memorizing. Accordingly, the extensiveness and i n t e n s i t y of exercises r i s e from A t o D. ?he
completely new words are taken p a r t i c u l a r care of not only i n textbooks, but also i n
audio-visual a i d s . They are repeated s i n g l e and i n CO-occurence 10 times a t l e a s t , including combined lexico-grammatical exercises.
Special exercises have been contrived t o make the models and means of word formation known
and t o encourage the decoding of d e r i v a t i v e s , compounds, and complex terms. International
t e r n , i n addition, enlarge t e x t comprehension .to a high 'degree. Finally, words known
from school must be connected with new contextual meanings i n many cases t o avoid a part i c u l a r kind of " f a l s e friends".
Such a c l a s s i f i c a t i o n is a r e l i a b l e measure of growth i n vocabulary, i . e . it enables
teachers and students t o assess the number of words t h a t a r e e s s e n t i a l f o r t r e a t i n g a
new topic i n professional context and which must, therefore, be l e a r n t . With regard to
the system of education i n the GDR it has been proved t h a t a student having passed
through secondary school (12 classes) will f i n d i n s c i e n t i f i c t e x t s o f 300 words length
about 1 2 a c t u a l l y new words a t the beginning and - on condition of a systematic vocabulary acquisition - 6 unknown l e x i c a l units a t the end of h i s b a s i c LSP course, i . e .
a f t e r a year (and a k l f ) . These new words a r e not frequent i n general language, b u t
indispensible t o the understanding of professional contexts and s p e c i f i c topics. They
usually belong t o the class of technical t e r m which a r e sometimes also i n t e r n a t i o n a l
terms o r derivatives. Semantic keywords of t h i s kind must, of course, be l e a r n t too,
not on account of t h e i r frequency of occurrence, but because they are elements of the
terminological system t h a t r e f l e c t s the conceptual system of the respective d i s c i p l i n e ,
o r because of t h e i r topical relevance. The importance of r a r e words i s assessed by investigations i n t o the s t r u c t u r e of terminological systems, whereby t h e i r place (central o r
peripherial) i s revealed.
By the way, progress i n reading foreign t e x t s is f i r s t
and by s t u d e n t s , when unknown words disappear more and
p a r t of its function. J u s t this i s the aim of what has
s e l e c t i o n and handling of the LSP vocabulary which, a t
vation
.
.
~
~-~~
--
~
~- -
~
~
of a l l recognized by teachers
more and the dictionary loses
been described before: e f f i c i e n t
the same time, reinforces moti-
~
- --
~
~
The organization of grammar i n teaching materials cannot be d e a l t w i t h i n t h i s
4.2
paper. I t is as s u b s t a n t i a l as the lexico-didactic problem, and frequency counts of
morphological categories, word forms, phrase and sentence patterns as well as the permutations i n word order mentioned above (3.5.-3.7.) play an important r o l e i n t h i s
context. But, of course, the systematic and the s t r u c t u r a l aspects are much more important here. I hope there w i l l be an opportunity t o discuss these elsewhere.
4.3
I n t h i s l a s t s e c t i o n , I would l i k e t o o u t l i n e the integrated complex of teaching
materials f o r LSP (Russian and English) t h a t is currently used i n the GDR. For the sake
of completeness we w i l l survey a l l p a r t s of the system from school down t o q u i t e spec i f i c i n s t i t u t i o n s . I t must be, however, s a i d t h a t - a s i n 2. - our main i n t e r e s t w i l l
be concentrated on textbooks and audio-visual aids of the 1% university l e v e l because
i n t h i s domain production has reached an advanced stage, w h i l s t school materials a r e
taken as they come, and those f o r highest levels must be based on I I b . The whole complex
is i l l u s t r a t e d i n f i g . 2.
4.3.1 The centre represents the so-called dynamic minimum which i s , a t once, p a r t of
a l l peripheral materials and something more. We c a l l it a minimum, because i t comprises,
indeed, only a small number of l i n g u i s t i c elements and patterns which a r e l a t e r on
completed i n agreement with more and more s p e c i f i c need. The minimum is c a l l e d dynamic,
because its main fundtion is t o encourage speech a c t i v i t i e s and thereby develop s k i l l s
t h a t are the rudiments o f future professional communication. Such a minimum contains
the most frequent elements and the most important Dattems of the "general language"
and some words necessary t o t r e a t simple topics. The dynamic m i n i m is a kind of b a s i c
reaching material Ithough not i n the sense of Basic English) f o r a l l learners a t the
i n i t i a l stage.
Around this centre can be arranged a t h e o r e t i c a l l y i n f i n i t e n q b e r of peripheral teaching
materials. Let us assume three peripheral zones corresponding t o t h e t h r e e stages of
education: the f i r s t s t i l l f a l l s under school; the second is p a r t of academic studies ;
the t h i r d "vanishes" i n t o individual a d u l t q u a l i f i c a t i o n .
4.3.2 Tlle teaching materials o f the f i r s t zone may be roughly subdivided t o correspond
t o the seven categories and groups of subjects mentioned above (2.) , although the professional l e v e l must s t i l l be adapted t o elementary demands, s p e c i f i c a t i o n limited and
topics added t o meet the i n t e r e s t of young people. Texts and exercises w i l l not necessa r i l y take the form of books ; loose-leaf s y s tern are more appropriate, more economical,
and e a s i e r t o keep up t o date.
4 . 3 . 3 Tne sccond zone is the proper zone of LSP. I t is the s t a g e of d i v e r s i t y i n education and, consequently, also the s u i t a b l e stage f o r d i v e r s i f i c a t i o n i n teaching materials.
The seven all-round socio-comunicational groups are n w broken down. i n t o a mass of conc r e t e "guilds", a l l of them with a d e f i n i t e professional context expressed i n LSP. Topics
of everyday l i f e keep i n the background; they are replaced by ' t a l k i n g shop'. The f i r s t
place, however, is taken by the reading of an enormous amount of a l l kinds of s c i e n t i f i c
and technological t e x t s .
Texts should not and indeed cannot be highly spec?fic from the very beginning of the
t e r t i a r y l e v e l course. Otherwise d i f f i c u l t i e s would a r i s e not from language, b u t from
the subject i t s e l f . Thus, the teaching materials of the I I b university l e v e l r e s t upon
t h e same fundamental p r i n c i p l e s t h a t determine the form of introductory lessons i n the
mother tongue. This is the s h o r t e s t way t o lay the basis of f u r t h e r individual q u a l i f i cations i n LSP. The l i n g u i s t i c and d i d a c t i c advantage of what i s a t the same time a
professional disadvantage is t h a t a l l students o f one and the same subject a t a l l univ e r s i t i e s and colleges where t h i s subject is taught are supplied with one and the same
teaching materials by a publishing house. By 1980 these materials w i l l be available i n
Russian and English f o r physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, a g r i c u l t u r e , c a t t l e breeding (stock fanning), a r c h i t e c t u r e , e l e c t r i c a l engimering, mechanical engineering
and navigation.
4.3.4 Individual q u a l i f i c a t i o n s and the absence of teaching materials are the charact e r i s t i c s of the t h i r d zone o r stage which begins i n the second academic year and involves the exploitation of books, journals and other materials t h a t a r e used by native
speakers. Full professional proficiency, however, cannot be achieved through academic
s t u d i e s . This is t r u e as much f o r the s u b j e c t as f o r mastery o f =P. Therefore, our
influence and responsibility end i n general long before the analysis and teaching of
LSP bear f r u i t . Moreover, constant progress and change i n science and technology imply
a goal of continuous improvement. I n my view, the permanent discrepancy between prof i c i e n c i e s and needs caused by s o c i a l , s c i e n t i f i c and technological development i s a
motivating force f o r learners as well as f o r teachers.
Concluding this r a t h e r f r a g w n t a r y report I'want t o say t h a t s h o r t l y before
5.
w r i t i n g this paper I read professor Gorosch's manifesto published i n CEBAL No. 4. A .
f a r as I can s e e , we are on comon ground. m e r e may be differences i n the general
context, i n our systems o f education, and in our mother tongues, t o be b r i e f : i n the
s t a r t i n g points. But what we have in common a r e our goals, our methods, and our enthusiasm.
Literature :
Hoffmann, L. (Hrsg.) : Fachsprachen und Sprachs t a t i s t i k , Berlin 1975.
Hoffmann,L.: Konununikationsmittel Fachsprache, Berlin 1976.
Hoffmann, L. (Hrsg.) : Sprache i n Wissenschaft und T e h i k , Leipzig 1978.
1
Texte d. schrl.
U.
mundl. Kommunikation
Ermi t t l u n g d. H2ufigkei t
..
Veroleich med. Mutters~rache
UberprUfg. d. Angemessenkei t
Wortbildung (prod. Modelle)
Wortbedeutung (Stellg. i m term. System)
Wortform (Funktion)
Wortverbi ndung (Musterl
n
I
Psychologie
I I
Lerntheori e
Methodi k
Lex.
U.
gramm. Material f.d. Ausbildg. (Minimum)
1
~&
Lehrmi ttelkomplex
I/
II