Ph.D., Associate Professor V.S. Sherin
Ph.D., Associate Professor E.A. Sherina
National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk

Keywords: gymnastics, conditioning gymnastic exercises, bilingual environment, lexical-semantic translation equivalent

Introduction. One of the important components of the ongoing process to improve the educational standards in the higher educational system of the Russian Federation is the activity to upgrade and modernise the educational resources of the university curriculum. Initiatives to establish and develop bilingual communication environment in this context are believed to largely contribute to the efforts to step up competitiveness of the leading Russian universities. National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (NRTPU) is among the national leaders of this process since it is recognized to be “...strongly integrated into the global educational universe due to the multilateral educational and research programs being implemented in cooperation with the leading universities and research centres the world over” [4]. The modern educational policies of NRTPU giving the top priority to the projects to foster bilingual environment in the university are believed to make its graduates more competitive on the global markets of sport professionals and help them join the multicultural sport community.

One more reason for the initiatives to improve the English language knowledge and support the multicultural communication both in the university students’ community and in the academic staff is the growing number of foreign students coming to the University. The broader use of English language in the University curricula including the physical education courses will help the students overcome the language barrier, facilitate their communication with the classmates and upgrade the general knowledge of English language of the Russian students.

The initiative to introduce bilingual educational material into the university curricula and help the students master the university disciplines in English is designed to remove language barrier in at least the physical culture and sport sector. This initiative will give the means to improve the educational process and knowledge of English at the University and popularize the fundamentals of Russian theories and practices of physical culture and sport in general and gymnastics in particular.

Resources of gymnastics are being widely applied by different systems and forms of mass physical culture in Russia and other countries. One of the key resources of gymnastics is the ample variety of conditioning gymnastic exercises (CGE) that are increasingly viewed as a primary school to help master basic motor actions and form indispensable motor skill perfection experience [3]. In addition, the CGE is used as a basis of the physical culture curriculum by the University. Educational contact in the process of motor action performance and communication is established through explanatory dialogues, commands, demonstrations, subject exercise performance, with the efficient communication in the process being secured by a standard system of special terms.

Since the university physical culture and sport system embraces a wide variety of different motor actions and skills, special gymnastic terminology has been developed to assign standard conventional terms to one or another movement or exercise. The specific terminology will provide a short and accurate definition to every notion applied in gymnastics [1, 2]. It should be mentioned in this context that the quality of education process is largely dependent on how clear is the instruction message and feedback in every instruction action from its verbal formulation to the practical implementation. Every term and definition in this process shall be crystal clear to be easily and directly interpreted and apprehended by the trainee, the apprehension being facilitated by the relevant lexical-semantic equivalent of the term in the native language of the student.

Therefore, it is obvious that the studies geared to offer accurate English equivalents for the special CGE terms and thereby develop and put in practice bilingual curriculum and, ideally, run the practical courses in English language, are given the top priority by the national academic community. The preparatory course of the university physical education curriculum is designed to include field CGE practices and CGE in motion and on spot. In the practical CGE course, the teacher will use special terms for standard commands like “line”, “rank”, “file”, “interval”, “fall in raw”, “get in line”, “attention” etc.

The purpose of the study was to improve the university physical educaton and sport curriculum and practical education process based on a set of educational materials in English designed to foster bilingual communication environment at the university and help develop multicultural professional communication competence in the university students.

Materials and methods. The study was intended to: first, find and offer an accurate equivalent for the motor action definition and practical implementation; second, determine whether or not the similar exercises are common in other countries; and, third, find an identical lexical-semantic English equivalent having the same meaning in terms of content and interpretation of the subject motor action. Special attention was given to the translation quality and accuracy to exclude primitive literal translations and select the correct definition based on the available special English literature on gymnastics, with possible reference to the meta-language-based apprehension by the native English speakers.

Results and discussion. In the study process, we have found a few terminological inaccuracies in the existing academic dictionaries in the sense that the standard academic terms were found different from the modern English equivalents. Native English sport experts engaged as professionals in the university physical culture and sport activity helped us correct illogic and inaccuracies in the academic terms that quite often were found to refer to different application areas. We found that the dictionaries often favored military equivalents of many sport-related terms that looked awkward and out of place in the today’s sport communication practice. They offered, for instance “March forward” for sport application despite the fact that this command is used only in military service; accurate translation should read “Forward” instead. Likewise, the academic term “at ease” was rejected as a colloquial and replaced by “have a break”, etc.

In the study process we have found accurate basic terms for the field CGE and the in-motion and on-spot CGE, explored the correspondence of the meanings and definitions and specified the relevant lexical-semantic English equivalents. Table 1 hereunder gives the correct definitions for the Russian and English terms and commands applicable in the university course of Conditioning Gymnastic Exercises.

Table 1. Basic terminology for the field Conditioning Gymnastic Exercises

The key terms listed above in Table 1 may be used to verbalize more complex derivative commands to manage the training process: group and move the trainees around the gym, perform joint actions etc., for example: “Get in line!”; “Turn left to file-leader, forward close”, “Forward in file from the end of the gym through the middle”. To find the most accurate equivalent, we always strived to have verified the terms by the native English sport experts and, to avoid misunderstandings, demonstrated the actions performed by the students in response to the commands.

In the warm-up preparatory stage, top priority is normally given to the CGE in motion that will be also verbalized by standard generally accepted terms as provided by Table 2 hereunder.

Table 2. Basic terminology for the Conditioning Gymnastic Exercises in motion

The on-spot CGE comprise the most popular and effective gymnastic practices that cover a wide variety of motor actions and skills. Special terminology is used to verbalize the on-spot CGE process, with special definitions for the initial stances, body movements and elements of the sequence. Table 3 hereunder gives the established terms for the on-spot CGE actions and sequences [2].

Table 3. Basic terminology for the on-spot CGE

Table 4 hereunder offers key verified terms for the basic starting positions and body movements in application to the on-spot CGE.

Table 4. Basic terminology for starting positions in the on-spot CGE

Based on the above definitions of the lexical-semantic English equivalents, we listed the following basic on-site CGE terms and expressions:

Conclusion

The present study, being largely based on references to the modern English sources, verification interviews with the native English sport experts and comparative analysis of the available academic translations of the gymnastic terminology, gave us the grounds to offer a glossary of verified basic bilingual terminology for the Conditioning Gymnastic Exercises (CGE) classified by the CGE categories, with a special bilingual glossary for the preparatory stage CGE. The study is of great promise for further translations and verifications of key terms applicable in the modern sport gymnastics to help remove the language barriers and facilitate the multicultural communication of sport professionals competing in different international sport events.

References

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2. Zhuravin, M.L. Gimnastika (Gymnastics) / M.L. Zhuravin, O.V. Zagryadskaya, N.V. Kazakevich. – Moscow: Akademiya, 2002. – 448 P.
3. Seleznev, A.I. Obshcherazvivayushchie uprazhneniya v shkole: ucheb. posobie (Conditioning exercises in school : study guide) / A.I. Seleznev, V.A. Seleznev. – Stavropol': SGPI, 2009. – 108 P.
4. Shil'ko, V.G. Natsional'nomu issledovatel'skomu Tomskomu gosudarstvennomu universitetu – 135 let, Kafedre fizicheskogo vospitaniya i sporta TGU – 75 let, Ozdorovitel'no-uchebnomu tsentru TGU – 50 let (135th anniversary of National Research Tomsk State University, 75th anniversary of Department of Physical Education and Sport of TSU, 50th anniversary of health-training center of TSU) / V.G. Shil'ko // Teoriya i praktika fiz. kul'tury. – 2013. – № 7. – P. 3–9.
5. Mitchell, D. Teaching fundamental gymnastics skills / Debby Mitchel, Barabara Davis, Raim Lopez. – USA: Human Kinetics, 2002. – 312 P.

Corresponding author: kapil@yandex.ru