East is East, West is West: the Experience of Linguistic Culturological Description and Teaching of Multi-Structural Languages

In the context of rapid technological progress and new technologies introduction,global trends in the development of modern language education require the recognition of multiculturalism as one of the essential components of human life in the modern world. Therefore, the issues of co-learning languages and cultures in modern educational institutions systems in terms of multilingualism and increasing demands for scientific and methodological integration in the field of teaching languages are of particular relevance. The main goals of the research were to compile and systematize theoretical comprehension of language as a unique cultural phenomenon and to describe the language structure of seven major world languages (English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, French, German), along with nine national languages of the Russian Federation, through the prism of significant cultural phenomena and mentality particular features of the native speakers.Another goal was to develop common didactic principles for the description of different structure languages and to introduce this approach into practical language teaching. The leading method for studying the problem is the descriptive (descriptive-analytical) method, which enables representing the language as a structural and social whole, as well as a comparative method as a system of techniques and methods of analysis used to identify the general and the particular in the compared languages. The principle of co-learning of language and culture is consistently implemented in the book “TERRA LINGUÆ: In the Realm of Language, Languages in the World by Chugaeva and Kondakov (2018), which is an example of a theoretical model of languages presentation through the prism of the interaction of language and culture. The authors of this model distinguish linguistic and linguocultural principles as fundamental in the process of co-learning of language and culture. The stated problems are of theoretical and practical importance for the continuation of studies of multi-structural languages and cultures, and approximation, thus, to a more complete description of the modern language picture of the world; for the development of meaningful content of language disciplines.