AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING THE BULGARIAN ALPHABET TO INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT MEDICAL UNIVERSITY – PLOVDIV

Abstract

The article presents an integrative approach to teaching the Bulgarian alphabet to international students, enrolled in the English-language Masters programs in Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Pharmacy at Medical University – Plovdiv. With the aid of modern information technologies and various teaching techniques, we strive to help our students so that they can discover the differences between the Latin and Cyrillic characters, get familiar with the qualities and opportunities provided by the Bulgarian alphabet, initialize the process of proper articulation of Bulgarian sounds and inscription of Cyrillic graphemes, and begin to understand Bulgarian texts and converse in Bulgarian.
Having in mind the objective difficulties that must be overcome by students of Bulgarian as a Foreign Language when learning the alphabet, it is taught in a separate 12-class unit. With the help of a special Power Point presentation, the alphabet is presented in light of the understanding of language as an organic whole, composed of linguistic, speech, and communication skills and knowledge, all based on the correct and rapid acquisition of letters and sounds. Our approach to teaching the Bulgarian alphabet relies on the interrelatedness of proper listening comprehension and the respective articulation skills. We do not overlook the fact that for our students the foreign language is not the means to acquire knowledge: acquiring language skills is the goal. Thus all exercises take into account the specific circumstances of our international students, who are non-native speakers of English that rely on their knowledge of English to learn Bulgarian.
A main aspect of the exercises we offer is the wide array of activities that activate students’ hearing and visual memory. Vocabulary acquisition is based on drawing parallels between real life and the chosen major. In this way students and their instructor can cooperate at the level of symbol (word) and symbolized (object), which prepares students for a period following the simulation phase, characterized by the practical application of the linguistic knowledge acquired throughout the whole course of studies.