Challenges and Approaches for Foreign Students in Studying a Writer's Biography

Козлов А.Е.

doi:10.7256/2454-0676.2024.4.72079

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Pedagogy and education

Reference:

Kozlov, A.E. (2024). Challenges and Approaches for Foreign Students in Studying a Writer's Biography. Pedagogy and education, 4, 113–125. https://doi.org/10.7256/2454-0676.2024.4.72079

Challenges and Approaches for Foreign Students in Studying a Writer's Biography

Kozlov Aleksei Evgen'evich

ORCID: 0000-0003-0016-9546

PhD in Philology

Associate Professor; Institute of Philology and Media Communications; Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University

28 Vilyuyskaya str., Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk region, 630126, Russia

alexey-kozlof@rambler.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0676.2024.4.72079

EDN:

SPJQBU

Received:

26-10-2024

Published:

03-01-2025

Abstract: Based on the material of classical and modern works on the methodology of teaching literature and learning Russian as a foreign language, the specifics of teaching the biography of a writer in secondary and high schools are analyzed. At the beginning of the article, the primary methods and approaches to defining biographical material are described, and the problems arising during its study are identified. The key difference between courses representing the literary process concentrically and the study of literature designed for a semester (or two-semester) study is shown. In the latter case, each topic is mastered once, which makes it impossible to draw parallels and update previously studied contexts. Many students coming to Russia for internships are at the mercy of persistent stereotypes associated with the Modern and Post-Modern eras. The teacher's goal is to develop critical thinking skills during one semester or academic year. The practical part of the study describes the experience of studying the biography of a writer by international students from European and Chinese universities, with special emphasis on studying the literary heritage of the twentieth century. The options for using digital methods in classes on writer's biographies are presented, and the forms of work are described: literary portraits, comparative descriptions, source analysis, discourse, and content analysis. The novelty of the work lies in the study of methodological problems and approaches to their solution, as well as the selection of ways to update biographical material. Based on methodological experience and survey data, the author proceeds from the possibility of studying Russian culture and literature through the prism of biographies. Studying the biography of a writer involves a constant expansion of the context; it is necessary to talk about the writer or poet's contemporaries and describe the literary environment and life to create the impression of a continuous process. The task of the methodologist is to show the variety of assessments and the specifics of lifetime and posthumous assessments that affect the design of a biographical myth. As a result of mastering topics related to a writer's biography, foreign readers can become involved in the lives of outstanding personalities who are united not by geography or political views but by language as the primary tool of culture.

Keywords:

biography of a writer, intercultural dialogue, intercultural communication, cultural studies, cultural competences, content-analysis, biographical myth, portraite, comparative description, stereotype

References

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First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the research is the peculiarities of studying the biography of the writer by foreign students. The research methodology is based on a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches using methods of analysis, survey, observation, generalization, synthesis. The relevance of the research is due to the importance for modern society of identifying various cultural phenomena: fiction is one of the ways to learn culture, but the methodology of working with a literary text and a biography of a writer for native speakers and foreign-language students differs. The scientific novelty is due to the fact that the methodology of teaching literature lacks a variety of methods and approaches in studying the biography of the writer, based on empirical material, the author states the existing problems in the organization of this work and suggests ways to solve them. The article presents the author's methodology for studying the biography of the writer, tested both in Russian (future teachers of Russian language and literature, as well as students and masters of the philological department) and in a foreign-language audience (foreign students of Xinjiang University). The presentation style is scientific, structure, and content. The article is written in Russian literary language. The structure of the manuscript includes the following sections: introduction (contains the statement of the problem, the author argues the relevance of the chosen topic and provides a theoretical basis for the study); the main part (based on the results of the analysis of data from surveys of school graduates, questionnaires of undergraduate interns and the results of "entrance testing", the problems of work on the study of the writer's biography existing in modern methodology are indicated; the author demonstrates specific methodological solutions, special attention is paid to the technique of comparative descriptions or comparative literary portraits, productive in working with a foreign-speaking audience, the author presents specific illustrative examples of the application of the indicated approach in practical classes; the article demonstrates the author's methodology, tested in various audiences); conclusions (the author notes that at the present stage the main sources used when preparing for a lesson on the biography of a writer, the teacher is close to the sources of a professional biographer; for a productive and effective study of the biography of a writer, an integrated approach is needed, involving combining traditional text analysis with digital methods of analyzing the literary process and cultural life of the era; complex work with a literary text and a biography of a writer allows you to develop critical thinking skills, and for students from it will help to get rid of ingrained stereotypes about Russian culture); bibliography (includes 26 sources of domestic and foreign authors). The content generally corresponds to the title. Conclusions, the interest of the readership. The study is a comprehensive work on the study and systematization of the existing methodological experience of studying the biography of the writer. The author has worked on the development of methodological solutions and demonstrates the proven author's methodology, which can be used in the practice of teaching literature to both native speakers and foreign students. The proposed methodological solutions can become the basis for various types of textbooks. Recommendations to the author: 1. Perhaps there was some technical glitch when uploading the article, you need to correct the part following "to state a number of problems when studying the biography of the writer:". 2. In the body of the article, it is necessary to correct references to sources from the list of references in accordance with the requirements of the editorial board. 3. It is necessary to check the text of the manuscript for references to the primary sources of the cited quotations, as well as the correctness of the citation. 4. Bibliographic descriptions of some sources need to be adjusted in accordance with GOST and editorial requirements. It is appropriate to increase the proportion of works in the bibliography over the past 3 years. In general, the manuscript meets the basic requirements for scientific articles. The material is of interest to the readership and after completion can be published in the journal "Pedagogy and Education".

Second Peer Review

The subject of the research in the peer-reviewed work are the methods and approaches used in the study of the biography of the writer by foreign students. Taking into account the specifics of the subject, object, purpose and objectives of the work, the research uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, a survey method (a survey of school graduates, a survey of undergraduate trainees), an interpretive analysis of selected material, a method of system analysis, a descriptive method, etc., which allowed researchers to identify a number of problems when studying the biography of the writer, for example, "the study of a writer's biography follows a monotonous pattern or scheme", "there are no systemic connections in the study of figures of the literary process", "the study of writers' figures is devoid of consistency, students do not correlate the texts in question with social, historical and ideological contexts, do not perceive writers as a social environment", etc. The relevance of the research is due to the importance of studying the biography of writers as a means of developing interest in reading programmatic and non-programmatic works and lies in the need to analyze existing and develop new methods and approaches in working with biographical material. The author(s) correctly note that "the study of the biography of a writer plays a key role in humanitarian education, recalling universal meanings and allowing to overcome the dichotomy of "writer" and "text", and appeal to Yang Rui's research, according to which "a unified approach to understanding the phenomenon of biography has not yet been developed, and in the methodology teaching literature still lacks a variety of methods and approaches when studying this material." In this regard, the stated research topic is very relevant and important at the present time. Fundamental and relevant works of Russian and foreign researchers such as Y. M. Lotman, O. Y. Bogdanova, S. A. Leonov, V. F. Chertov, V. N. Drobot, V. G. Marantsman, I. E. Kaplan, E. G. Mestergazi, T. Brazhe, Yang Rui, Zhou Shujuan, Gao served as the theoretical basis of scientific work. Fenglan et al. The bibliography of the article consists of 30 sources, meets the content requirements and is reflected on the pages of the article. The analysis of the theoretical material and its practical justification allowed the author(s) to come to the conclusion that "the combination of traditional text analysis with digital methods of analyzing the literary process and cultural life of the epoch is productive in modern methodology. Along with the monographic study of the writer's personality, it is methodologically justified to study individual stages or episodes, the story of which can be presented in a lively and direct form of a literary portrait. Studying the biography of a writer involves a constant expansion of the context, it is necessary to talk about contemporaries of writers and poets, describe the literary environment and literary life in order to create the impression of a continuous process, not an airless environment." The scientific novelty of the work lies in the development of the author's methodology for studying the biography of the writer. As explained in the work, "initially, the methodology was designed for future teachers of the Russian language and literature, later modified for mastering by students and masters of the philological department (2019-2023). The implementation of the final phase of the project was associated with the testing of the developed methods and approaches in the audience of foreign students of Xinjiang University (2023-2024)." Thus, it is noted that, starting to study, students turn to big data and visualization tools – such capabilities are embedded in Google Ngram Viewer and Ruscorpora. Upon completion of the work, at the first stage, students turn to a bio-bibliographic dictionary, which is organized according to the principle of identifying keywords in a large array of information texts. The movement from big data corpora begins to texts and contexts. Special attention is paid to the specifics of working with students from China. The theoretical and practical significance of the research is unconditional and lies in its contribution to solving modern problems related to the methods and approaches used by foreign students in studying the biography of the writer. The results of the work can be used in classes in the disciplines of the methodological cycle with university students and during their pedagogical practice, and can also be used in the lessons of the humanitarian and aesthetic cycles to form and develop interest in the personality of the writer. The material presented in the paper has a clear, logically structured structure. The style of presentation of the material tends to the scientific type. The article has a complete form; it is quite independent, original, will be interesting and useful to a wide range of people and can be recommended for publication in the scientific journal "Pedagogy and Education".

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