Учебное пособие 1351

For citation: Kravtsov S.M. Application as a way of forming a linguocultural dialogue in Nancy Huston's bilingual novel "Cantique des plaines" / "Plainsong" / S.M. Kravtsov, T.L. Chernossitova // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2021. - № 4 (35). – P. 73-79.

Introduction.

Since the middle of the last century, world fiction has begun to acquire a multinational and multicultural character, as a result of which a special trend known as multilingualism has been formed in it. The basis of this trend was the idea of creating a «world without borders», supported by various political processes that not only entailed, but also repeatedly intensified migration processes. The appearance of translingual writers who have changed their country of residence and for this reason use several languages in their creative activities, yet, in spite of this, they have retained their own ethno-linguistic and cultural status, actualized the creation of literary and artistic texts in which several linguistic and cultural worlds are harmoniously intertwined. All this forms, according to E. Benveniste, «another universe» in which discourse becomes the most important tool of interlinguoand sociocultural communication [1].

Research methodology.

As a rule, translingual fiction is rich with various kinds of realities, precedent cultural symbols, allusions, reminiscences and applications that form the specifics of the author's style and vary depending on the author's intention and the intended pragmatic impact on the intended readers. In this context, it’s impossible not to turn to the concept of intertextuality, which, based on the research of M.M. Bakhtin, was developed by R. Barthes, J. Derrida, Y. Kristeva in the late 60s of the twentieth century [2, 3, 4]. It is through the prism of the intertextuality of a literary text that new literary traditions manifest themselves, which form the linguo-socio- cultural and historical context of modern novels, prompting the reader more or less to decode information «encrypted» with the help of various semantic stylistically colored intra-textual inclusions based on allegories, reminiscences, allusions, citations and applications. All this forms an intertext, the main task of which is to create cultural, emotional and psychological associations and allow you to feel and realize the author's intention as best as possible.

According to R. Barthes, any text is an intertext, since it more or less includes various types of citations, allusions, reminiscences and applications that have quite recognizable forms. In his opinion, fragments of cultural codes, formulas, rhythmic structures, fragments of social idioms, etc. - they are all absorbed in the text and mixed in it, and intertextuality can often be detected without conscious or automatic quotations given without quotation marks [2]. This postulate can be extended by the assumption that intertextuality is one of the main characteristic features of modern translingual and, consequently, multicultural literary works.

Today's linguistic anthropocentric paradigm involves the study of stylistically colored texts, both artistic and journalistic, with the inclusion of various kinds of precedent phenomena that provide communicative and pragmatic mechanisms of recognition and adequate perception at the emotional and evaluative level. And if more recently the inclusion of various kinds of intertexts was understood as «a discursively conditioned fact that took place in the linguocognitive activity of members of a certain cultural-linguistic community» [5, p. 5-12], then in translingual literature this phenomenon is rather of a multilingual sociocultural nature.

Unfortunately, modern dictionaries do not interpret such a stylistic device as text application, which, according to A.G. Bitov, is a verbatim reproduction of the donor text in the recipient text without specifying the author [6]. And if quoting, accompanied by a reference to the author, can be found in any functional styles of speech, then the technique of text application is characteristic of literary texts characterized by a large number of intertextual connections. The use of this kind of application allows the author to involve the reader in a kind of intellectual game, which involves a general presuppositive fund of knowledge. At the same time, as Yu.V.

Antsupova rightly states, the application «brings the addressee and the addressee of the text closer together with the help of evocative impulses caused by the use of this technique. The ap-

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plication technique creates a certain friendly tone, because the author assumes that his knowledge coincides with the reader's knowledge. Only this coincidence can provide a reconstruction of the meanings inherent in the generation of the text. The appeal to the aesthetic perception of the text without interrupting the main narrative to indicate authorship is the main task of this intertext figure» [7].

Research results.

The work of the translingual writer Nancy Huston, an English-speaking Canadian living and writing in France, is of particular interest to researchers of modern translingual and multicultural literature, which is explained not only by the peculiarities of her idiostyle. The fact is that the author creates most of his works first in the language of the country of residence, that is, French, which is a foreign language for her, after which she self-translates the finished work into her native language - English. Both versions of the novel «Cantique des plaines» / «Plainsong» are published simultaneously, which undoubtedly expands the target audience of Nancy Huston. However, in a television interview given to Canadian journalist Stéphan Bureau in 1994 [12], Nancy Huston admits that unlike her other novels, she first wrote «Plainsong» in

English, addressing it to an English-speaking audience, and then self-translated for a French reader and published a novel called «Cantique des plaines». Both versions of the novel were published in 1993.

Considering the French version of the novel, it is impossible not to note the specific stylistics of the translingual text, due to the abundance of text applications in the form of fragments of songs. In one of the numerous interviews, N. Huston admits that in order to tune in to the creative process, she necessarily listens to music. The given fragments from song hits in English with subsequent translation into French allow the author to form a kind of linguistic and cultural dialogue, creating not only a semantic, but also a musical background of the work. These song applications serve as a structural element of the novel, are incorporated into it, illustrate the author's thought, create a special multilingual cultural background, despite the fact that sometimes the meaning of some quotes given in the novel does not coincide at all with the original meaning of the song. Nevertheless, in most cases, the song applications included in the novel «Cantique des plaines» / «Plainsong» are part of the world musical culture, thanks to which they are easily recognized by the reader regardless of his linguistic and cultural affiliation.

In the novel «Cantine des plaines» / «Plainsong» there are numerous text applications of fragments of songs, with which the author seeks to convey to the reader the necessary emotional background. So, the famous song «Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more» written by Percy Mayfield, performed by Ray Charles and became one of the hits of the twentieth century, in the original version describes a quarrel between the husband and wife, during which a grumpy wife expels her clumsy husband with the wish never to return. However, the heroine of the novel Paula, on whose behalf the narration is conducted, has a fragment of this song that sounds in a completely different meaning and is used to create a certain emotional background.

In the novel «Cantique des plaines» / «Plainsong» we are talking about the fact that in the period from the end of the XIX century to the middle of the XX century, four generations of one of the immigrant families lived on the plains of the Canadian state of Alberta. The novel begins with the death of one of the members of the genus – Paddon. His granddaughter Paula, saying goodbye to her grandfather, recalls with unsurpassed lyricism his life and everything that this ordinary man experienced, recreating the tragic fate of the settlers by his example. At the very beginning of the novel, telling the story of her beloved grandfather Paddon, whom she calls either Grandfather, or simply by name, the author, in the person of the heroine of the novel Paula, includes a quote from the song «Hit the road Jack» in the text, using the double meaning of the expression «hit the road» – «get lost!» and «hit the road»:

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (35), 2021 ISSN 2587-8093

S a i n t P e t e r d o n ’ t y o u c a l l m e ’ c a u s e I c a n ’ t g o , I o w e m y s o u l t o t h e c o m p a n y s t o r e — S a i n t P i e r r e n e m ’ a p p e l e z p a s c a r j ’ p e u x p a s v e n i r , J e d o i s m o n â m e a u m a g a s i n d e l a m i n e .” [2*, p. 182].

While some song applications are part of the action, others are used by the author as an ironic comment on it. So, as compensation for the tragic events − the loss of their land and hunting grounds, the disappearance of bison − the indigenous people of the Canadian province of Calgary received a dangerous gift in the form of alcohol. In this case, the song application is represented by the famous Bing Crosby song «Home on the range»:

Have a drink. Have another drink. All right, see? H i t t h e g u t t e r . O h g i v e m e a h o m e w h e r e t h e b u f f a l o r o a m [1*, p. 79].

Bois encore un coup. Encore un petit coup. Vous voyez bien comme tout va bien! E t m a i n t e n a n t l a g u i t a r e ! O h g i v e m e a h o m e W h e r e t h e b u f f a l o r o a m [2*, p. 58].

It is quite obvious that the lexical units «gutter» and «guitare» are paronyms in the complete absence of semantic identity. Nevertheless, both lexemes fit very well into the text, and

«Hit the gutter» parodically repeats «Hit the road», which once again actualizes the theme of the development of the lands taken from the Indians.

The following musical allusion is represented by the children's song «Down the Bay» («On the shore of the Bay»):

p r e m i è r e h e u r e , q u a n d l e s o l e i l s e l è v e V o i s l e s p e t i t s w a g o n s t o u t b i e n a l i g n é s V o i s l e p e t i t c h e m i n o t t i r e r s u r l a p o i g n é e E t h o p o n s ’ e n v a t c h o u - t c h o u - t c h o u - g a i J u s q u ’ a u b o r d d e l a b a i e O ù y a d ’ b o n s m e l o n s M a i s à l a m a i s o n J e n ’ v e u x p a s r e n t r e r C a r m a m a n m ’ d i r a i t T ’ a s d ’ j à v u u n e v a c h e A v e c u n e m o u s t a c h e A u b o r d d e l a b a i e ? [2*, p. 23].

As you can see, the author almost literally translated into French the English children's song «Down by the Bay», the text of which, in fact, is devoid of a semantic component. Only music and associations associated with childhood convey the emotional intention of the author. However, these children's playground rhyme and melodies, which are easily recognizable to the Anglo-Saxon reader, since they have been known to him since early childhood, do not belong to the French linguistic and cultural foundation. It can be assumed that the author introduces an almost literal translation of this song into the text of the work so that the French reader can understand its cultural and personal meaning, but, unfortunately, the translation does not allow him to feel the musical component of the original and fully appreciate this song application.

Another example of a song application is the following text fragment:

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Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-Didactic Researches” Issue 4 (35), 2021 ISSN 2587-8093

I b e e n w o r k i n ’ o n t h e r a i l r o a d A l l t h e l i v e l o n g d a y I b e e n w o r k i n ’ o n t h e r a i l r o a d J u s t t o p a s s t h e t i m e a w a y … [1*, p. 47].

I b e e n w o r k i n ’ o n t h e r a i l r o a d , A l l t h e l i v e l o n g d a y I b e e n w o r k i n ’ o n t h e r a i l r o a d J u s t t o p a s s t h e t i m e a w a y … J e t r a v a i l l e a u c h e m i n d e f e r , t o u t e l a s a l e j o u r n é e , J e t r a v a i l l e a u c h e m i n d e f e r , J u s t e p o u r v o i r l e t e m p s p a s s e r ... [2*, p. 55].

In this passage, the author cites a stanza from the American folk song «I've been workin' on the railroad» («I worked on the railroad»), trying to keep the rhyme («day» − «away» / «journée» − «passer») without distorting the original meaning of the song itself.

In the following fragment, the text application is expressed by the song «This Land Is Your Land» («Эта Земля − твоя Земля») - an unofficial anthem of the time of the occupation of the territory by the first settlers, which at one time caused a sharply negative reaction of the Paddon:

… I remember too how much you despised that song T h i s L a n d I s Y o u r L a n d , […] we'd been singing them in harmony night after night around the campfire then all the way back to Calgary on the bus - A s I w a s w a l k i n g t h a t r i b b o n o f h i g h - w a y I s a w a b o v e m e t h a t e n d l e s s s k y - w a y I s a w b e l o w m e t h a t

[…] on les avait chantées à plusieurs voix, chaque soir autour du feu de camp et ensuite dans le car qui nous ramenait à Calgary - P a r - d e s s u s c e r u b a n d e r o u t e J e v o i s à l ' i n f i n i l a c é l e s t e v o û t e A m e s p i e d s l a v a l l é e d o r é e P o u r t o i , p o u r m o i , D i e u f i t c e t t e c o n t r é e . . . [2*, p. 12].

In the French version, the author offers an almost literal translation of this song. However, it should be noted that the English lexeme «land» in the French version has been replaced by a lexeme with a more specific meaning - «contrée» («locality, country, region, district»). It can be assumed that such a choice is due to the author's desire to specify the territory, that is, to designate Calgary in this way.

Conclusion.

So, the results of the study allow us to conclude that intertextuality, formed with the help of such a stylistic technique as the textual application of song fragments, contributing to the creation of an intertextual metabola and a deeper disclosure of the characters' character through the initiation of an intercultural dialogue with the reader, is one of the distinctive features of Nancy Huston's style. At the same time, application plays a very important role in the formation of linguistic and cultural dialogue in Nancy Huston's bilingual novel «Cantique des plaines» / «Plainsong». In addition, the study of applications in bilingual works in the context of the multilingual culture of enema has an obvious perspective, which consists in the possibility of studying this problem on the material of the works of other translingual writers.

References

[1]Benveniste E. Problèmes de linguistique générale. – Paris: Gallimard, coll. «Bibliothèque des sciences humaines», 1966. – 357 p.

[2]Bart R. Izbrannyye raboty: Semiotika. Poetika. – M.: Progress. 1989. – 417 p.

[3]Derrida J. Les Yeux de la langue. L’abîme et le volcan. − Paris : Galilée, 2012. – 104

р.

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[4]Ilin I.P. Stilistika intertekstualnosti: teoreticheskiye aspekti / I.P. Ilin // Problemi sovremennoi stilistiki : sb. nauch-analit. obzorov. – M., 1989.

[5]Kristeva Yu. Bakhtin. slovo. dialog i roman // Vestn. Moskovskogo un-ta. Ser. 9. – 1995.

№1.

[6]Lipatov A.T. Lingvoritoricheskaya interpretatsiya logiko-semanticheskoi trikhotomii

« text-dikurs-intertext » / A.T. Lipatov // Lingvoritoricheskaya paradigma : teoreticheskie i prikladniye aspekti : sb. nauch. tr. – Sochi, 2004. – Vip. 5 – S. 70-81.

[7]Alefirenko N.F. K probleme diskursivno-tekstovogo universuma kultury / N.F. Alefirenko // Lingvoritoricheskaya paradigma: teoreticheskiye i prikladnyye aspekty: sb. nauch. tr. – Sochi, 2002. – Vyp. 1. – P. 5-12.

[8]Bitov A. G. Pushkin House. − M.: Publishing house "Vagrius", 2007. – 528 p. – P. 78.

[9]Antsupova Yu.V. Tekstovaya applikatsiya kak spornaya figura interteksta // Universum: filologiya i iskusstvovedeniye: elektron. nauchn. Zhurn, 2016. № 7 (29). – URL: https://7universum.com/ru/philology/archive/item/3423 (data obrashcheniya: 08.08.2021).

[10]Entrevue de Stéphan Bureau avec Nancy Houston, réalisée en 1994, Contact, – Québec, Coscient Inc. [avec la participation de Radio–Québec et la collaboration de TV5 Québec/Canada].

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SCIENTIFIC OVERVIEW

DOI 10.36622/MLMDR.2021.55.93.009

SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ON PARTICIPATION IN THE WEBINAR FOR THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS «CAMBRIDGE BACK TO SCHOOL CONFERENCE», ORGANIZED BY CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT ENGLISH RUSSIA,

24-26 AUGUST, 2021 (PART 2)1

I.Yu. Lavrinenko

For citation: Lavrinenko I.Yu. Scientific information on participation in the webinar for the English language teachers «Cambridge back to school conference», organized by Cambridge Assessment English Russia, 24-26 August, 2021 (part 2) / I.Yu. Lavrinenko // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2021. - № 4 (35). – P. 80-84.

Webinar «C a m b r i d g e B a c k t o S c h o o l C o n f e r e n c e » was held 24-26 of August 2021. It was organized by non-profit organization C a m b r i d g e A s s e s s m e n t

grams and educational material for the English language learners of different levels, modern teaching resources for University and school as well as organizing international exams which give the right to issue certificates to confirm level of competency in the English language. The certificates are admitted in more than 130 countries.

Master-classes of the second and third days of the webinar were visited not only by the teachers from Russian cities, such as Moscow, Krasnodar, Voronezh, but also from other nearabroad regions of Russia: Chechen Republic, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, Erevan.

The second day of the webinar presented the workshops about teaching the aspect of reading at A2 – B2 levels. On the first session the speaker Sarah Ellis, Senior Assessment Service Manager of Cambridge Assessment English (Italy). The first spoke about teaching reading for the beginners. Sarah Ellis asked the participants about their general learner`s attitude to reading. It was found out that it is directly connected with learner`s understanding and realizing their own progress as well as gaining positive results from reading as from one of the basic types of language learning activities. Thus, the teacher`s mission focuses on helping the learners get and feel their success.

Mrs. Ellis highlighted the main challenges which occur in the process of learning reading, She pointed out that acquiring and developing reading skills is time consuming and it often takes up the most part of the lesson. To choose relevant topic for reading that would arise the students` interest is also quite a challenge for a teacher. It is also quite difficult to motivate the students to read in the foreign language. Also preparing additional tasks for the aspect of reading for the students of different levels within one class needs extra teachers` time and intellectual resources. According to Sarah Ellis, when working with the text written in a foreign language the learners find in difficult to understand the new vocabulary, idiomatic expressions,

“false friends of interpreter”. Psychological discomfort of the learners is also caused by time limits given for the work with the text as well as for doing the task.

______________________

© Lavrinenko I.Yu., 2021

1 The first part of scientific information is published in the issue 3 (34) of the Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”

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To develop the culture of reading Mrs. Ellis advised to practice “slow reading” in class.

This is an important skill when a student carefully and attentively reads in (absorbs) every word of the text (in contrast to “fast reading” – quick reading to grasp the general idea of the text).

“Slow reading” makes it possible to feel the language from inside, to understand not only its contents, but also the means to express its idea, that gives necessary depth to understanding foreign language, a necessary skill for everyone who deals with text forms.

One more example to develop the culture of reading is to talk with the learners about the literature genres that they find interesting, the topics they prefer, the place and time they usually choose for reading. This discussions are aimed at arising positive attitude to reading, at making it a useful habit, an activity that gives intellectual satisfaction.

Sarah Ellis presented some practical tasks to develop reading skills: she asked the participants to determine the type of reading (skimming, scanning, search reading or reading for detail) depending on the type of information that a learner needs to find according to the task. This method shows the variety of approaches to perception of text information and their specifics, that is necessary to take into consideration when teaching reading in English. For professional help to the teacher who deals with Cambridge exams preparation the resource Developing Reading Skills for Cambridge English qualifications: guide for teachers was recommended. It presents large methodical material and guidance for preparing to the classes. All the materials of this resource are free of charge.

Also, Sara Ellis outlined the issue of the order in which the tasks for practicing reading aspect should be performed. It is a common practice when Multiple choice tasks follow text reading. Addressing the question before reading the text, thought, helps to get preliminary understanding its structure, topic, determine its meaningful aspects worth paying attention to while reading. Offering the tasks before reading the text outlines key information to which one needs to pay special attention. This order of the reading tasks helps the learners make logical connections between questions and answers, learn how to determine the key words and their synonyms and find the information that can mislead them from correct answer.

To learn how to correctly use the words with similar meaning the speaker recommended the resource English Vocabulary Profile Online.

In the end of the master-class Sara Ellis offered a range of tasks to arise the learners` interest to reading, to make them treat it as a uniting, developing activity which contributed to their creative development. Reading gives learners the opportunity to take part in its discussions, following creative activities, making projects and other types of tasks (jigsaw reading, social nets reading, as well using the test that was chosen by the learners in class discussions). To do this the resource Random Idea English, offered by Cambridge Assessment English, is quite useful. It is an electronic media where teacher and learners can make multiple choice and open cloze tasks to the previously given text, that is also a good opportunity to reveal your artistic skills and seems to be exciting for learners of different levels.

The speaker shared practical pieces of advice on how to prepare and stimulate the learners to reading. Knowing its context, understanding not only the meaning, but also the function of text, the ability to determine main idea of text and what it is aimed at is really helpful. To make personal dictionary for writing down new vocabulary, synonymous words and expressions, paraphrasing the text fragments is also quite useful. Prediction of the contents of the text by the learners is especially effective technique, too. It is also important to understand text function, in particular, the role implied to the reader of the text. Illustrations, schemes and diagrams accompanying text also arise the learners` interest to reading.

To search interesting texts on relevant topics Sara Ellis recommended the resource Read and Improve beta (previously mentioned by the speakers of the first day of the seminar – by Gourge Heritage and Viktoria Peña), which uses the technology of artificial intellect to search for the texts for the learners of different levels and generating annotations.

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All the participants expressed their gratitude to Sarah Ellis for her useful practical recommendations and electronic resources, creative tasks, sharing their warm comments in the chat box.

The second workshop of the webinar concerned preparation for the exam on the aspects of Reading and Use of English. The workshop speaker - Chad Bearden, Assistant Director of Cambridge Assessment Exam Center – spoke about two types of strategies which he uses to prepare learners of levels B1 and B2 for exams: Time Management and revealing semantic misleaders which can distract learners from giving correct answers.

In Chad`s opinion, time limits during exam is a great distracter that can be one of the reasons of getting low results. Consequently, the learners` ability to do exam tasks as quickly as it is possible is of paramount importance.

The second strategy concerns learners` ability to see semantic “traps” of tests. It is expected that learners will pay more attention to the literal sense of the test questions, ignoring the context and the main idea of the text, which lies deeper. In this case knowing key words, contained in the test questions, and the corresponding parts of the text is not quite enough. It is necessary to analyze the structure of the text and come to correct decision by making logical conclusion.

A good way to avoid “traps” in reading test is to teach students how to paraphrase the information of the text and only then proceed with making a choice of the answer.

Chad Bearden shared his strategies which are necessary not as much for learning reading, as for successful passing exams on Reading. He pointed out that reading as an educational aspect which you do in-class or out-of-class and reading as a part of an exam performed with the aim of getting higher results are two different types of activities, each requiring special strategies for performance.

Chad demonstrated his elaborate strategy to work with the text while doing Multiple Choice tasks. Owing to it learners get more chances to make correct choice and avoid distracting influence of keywords. Before looking at the offered options, learners are advised to make up their answer by themselves, paraphrasing the information of the text. Then this paraphrased information is compared with the options of exam paper and the option which is the closest in meaning to the paraphrased one is to be chosen. This strategy helps to appreciably economize time for task completion.

It is necessary to note that Chad Bearden gladly shared his teaching experience, giving detailed and subsequent explanation of his strategies of task performance. He presented his ideas and reasons concerning cause-and-effect connections in the text, use of discourse markers, collocations, their semantic features, grammar, set-phrases, the use of phrasal verbs, etc. Demonstration of the performance of the tasks in real time was the perfect opportunity to verify their effectiveness. One can surely say that the strategies demonstrated by Chad were many times practiced in class and prove to be of high effectiveness and value.

Also, Chad Bearden pointed out that exam preparation should become the common classroom activity. It is important that the tasks performed in class have the similar structure to the exam tasks. This way learners get used with the format of the forthcoming exam tasks, the time, given for their completion, work out strategies necessary to do the task successfully. Chad Bearden mentioned that learners should think of reading as of a usual everyday activity, essential part of their education in general. In the process of preparation for any aspect of exam the process of learning is usually far more difficult and intensive than the process of sitting the exam. This idea is perfectly expressed in the proverb: “Lessons hard to learn are sweet to know”.

On the third, the final day of the webinar, two master classes were presented. The speaker of the first one – Claire Barnes, Cambridge Assessment English Presenter – talked about the aspect of writing for A2-B1 level learners. She offered practical solutions on development writing skills, the issues of writing tasks assessment as well as the aspect of application of exam assessment criteria for writing tasks.

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Claire Barnes offered the webinar participants to determine the challenges generally occurred in doing writing tasks, as well as the ways to perfect writing as a classroom activity. Among the challenges mentioned were as follows: search and wording the ideas for writing compositions, lack of practice in writing, the need for relevant writing topics and correct grammar instructions. To overcome the listed difficulties it is important to give the learners enough time in class for preliminary discussion of the future writing task: its structure, vocabulary and expressions, syntactic structures, etc.

To form and develop writing skills it is useful to do the task when the learners assess the works of their classmates. To perform the tasks in the form of a game will also revive learners` interest. Pictures description, unusual interpretation of roles of the people shown is really effective and will surely stir up learners` enthusiasm.

Interesting ideas for writing tasks are offered in the resource Padlet. It offers the users to make up their own ideas for future compositions. Padlet is available as an application on mobile devices that can be quickly accessed at any convenient time. The messages of the learners can be antonymous that is really useful when learners, especially teenagers, feel uneasy presenting their ideas before their classmates, especially working in a new group.

To explain the students with the criteria of assessment of writing tasks is of paramount importance. The site Cambridge Assessment English presents analytical criteria of exam writing tasks in terms of contents, organization and vocabulary used in the student`s work (for A2 level learners). In the works of a higher level (level B1) the degree of communication goals achievement in writing papers is assessed.

As a practical task it was offered to assess several writing works (letters and compositions) according to three categories mentioned above (contents, organization, vocabulary). Interactive mode of this session gave the opportunity to verify practical effectiveness of different types of task. A large number of the answers and comments of the webinar participants proves high interest of the teachers to writing exam preparation, their intention to update the existing approaches to writing, to overcome difficulties while teaching it and thus make it doable for their learners.

The final session of the webinar was presented by Pablo Toledo - Assessment Service Manager of Cambridge Assessment English (Southern Cone and Andes, Argentina). The webinar concerned preparation for writing exam for the learners of A2 and C1 levels.

In the beginning Pablo Toledo highlighted that no matter the fact that the basic principles of writing tasks assessments are equal for all levels of learners, the way every principle is used depends on the language level. In the speaker`s opinion, really qualitative writing paper follows the criterion that the reader should easily understand its message, given in written form. The speaker paid special attention to the fact that the teachers need to turn their affords not only to assessment of writing but also to development of writing skills. Among the main challenges in teaching writing Pablo Toledo named the ability objectively assess all the aspects of writing paper, necessity to explain the learners the aspects of writing, the issues that need to be perfected, the principle of continuity, the use of similar standards in assessment of writing. When sitting Cambridge exams on B1 and B2 levels one needs to show the skills of academic writing.

The main requirement in writing task assessment at any level is concordance of work with the task, i.e. verifying whether all the aspect of the task are considered. Pablo Toledo compared the list of requirements to the writing tasks of the levels B1, B2 and C1, demonstrated the writing skills development from simple mentioning of facts, correct use of language structures and organization on the required level till the skills to achieve the communicative goal in writing paper, following the text register, its logic and consistency. Mr. Toledo explained the importance not to exceed the word limit of writing papers. He pointed out that it is necessary for the learners to follow the topic they are to cover in their task without any content deviation, because mentioning the extra aspects downgrades the writing paper.

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