A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT THE RESEARCH "EDUCATIONAL TEXT AS HYPERTEXT: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIVE ASPECT"«

Ivanova O.Yu.

Moscow State Pedagogical University
Moscow, Russia
e-mail: terentia@mail.ru

As the years pass, in retrospect, I increasingly think that my personal meeting with E.F. Tarasov in 2000 was one of the most important events in my life in the new millennium, in my new role (no longer as a translator, but as a researcher and teacher). It largely determined the scope of my scholarly interests, the methodology of my approaches, and the range of my academic and personal contacts, including friendships. Not everything in our relationship developed immediately or easily, but with each passing year of communication, I came to realize its significance, the significance, and the extraordinary nature of the man and scholar named Evgeny Fedorovich Tarasov.

In addition to our joint teaching at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (later Humanities) at RosNOU, which E.F. essentially founded and whose first dean he was, beginning in 2004, we regularly collaborated on research and applied projects funded by grants from the Russian Foundation for the Humanities, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Ministry of Education and Science, and other agencies. Often, the mention of E.F. Tarasov's name among the grant recipients played a decisive role in the experts' choice in favor of RosNOU. Beginning in 2007, all organizational, technical, administrative, and implementation work fell to me and the staff of our Research Department, but E.F. remained the primary decision-maker on scientific matters, determining research strategy, project goals and objectives, and organizing contacts with colleagues from the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Despite his busy teaching and research schedule, Evgeny Fedorovich never said "no" to requests to participate in anything. It was very easy to work with him because I knew in advance that he would not enter into an argument, but would listen attentively, say his monosyllabic «yes», and then do everything on time and in the best possible way.

From a scientific perspective, our most significant joint project was "Educational Text as Hypertext: The Information and Communicative Aspect," in which I.E. Klyukanov participated as a visiting researcher. However, the central figure, initiator, and ideologist of everything that was done in this area was undoubtedly E.F. Tarasov. It was also his idea to invite Igor Engelevich to our team. This idea laid the foundation for our collaboration with I.E. Klyukanov, which continues to this day.

The hypertext project, which began in 2010, continued until 2015. In addition to E.F. Tarasov and I.E. Klyukanov, the project team also included other renowned scientists, including some of his regular co-authors or students: A.A. Nistratov, L.N. Mitireva, A.M. Belov, S.N. Gavrov, N.A. Kovaleva, and others.

The object of the research in the project was defined as a communicative space, within which the possibility of forming hypertext was studied, including educational hypertext, capable of managing the process of constructing knowledge in the consciousness of the recipient and, more broadly, regulating his internal and external behavior.

The overall goal of the study was to create a model of an educational text that implements M.M. Bakhtin's hypothesis on understanding a relevant text as a process of alternating progressive and recursive mental movements of the subject of cognition from a precedent text to a relevant text (an educational text), based on a theory of educational text developed through scientific research. The study aimed to make the process of the recipient's consciousness moving from a precedent text to a relevant text manageable (controllable) during reception by using a nomenclature of precedent texts.

The list of tasks that were solved by the project team included:

a) clarification of the characteristics of hypertext modes in the modern communication space;

b) exchange of information on the problems of research into hypertext and hypertext modes in domestic and foreign science through participation in conferences, publication of articles and holding scientific and methodological seminars;

c) clarification of the generalized scheme of the configuration of educational hypertext;

d) conducting a psychosemantic experiment based on the formulated hypothesis about the production and perception of educational hypertext;

d) preparation of a technical base for the subsequent creation of teaching aids built in hypertext format;

e) further stimulation of research activities of the faculty, students and postgraduate students; preparation of dissertation research;

g) intensification of the research activities of the invited specialist during his stay in Russia.

As for the main features of the project, they can be defined as follows:

1) Based on the hypothesis about the production and perception of educational hypertext developed at the project's inception, according to which the hypertext author aims to create a device (hypertext) that externalizes the author's thoughts and encourages the recipient to construct an analog of these thoughts, a psychosemantic experiment was conducted proving that hypertexts of various configurations can be created in the future, allowing for flexible control over the process of knowledge construction in the recipient's mind. The author's creation of the text and the construction of the content of the text perceived by the recipient ultimately aim to regulate the recipient's external and internal behavior.

2) The methodology of the psychosemantic experiment conducted within the framework of the project was based on the formation of an idea about the production and perception of a speech message, based on the model of speech production and perception, constructed in the theory of speech activity by the efforts of A.A. Leontiev and T.V. Akhutina [1, 4]. The difference between this model and others is that the creators of this model take the individual activity of the future author of the speech in solving a problem (task) in the structure of some subject activity as the beginning of the communicant's activity, which ultimately leads to the production of a speech utterance (message). In the structure of this activity, the motive of the future speech utterance is formed, i.e., that for the sake of which the utterance is developed is formed.

The project clarified the characteristics of hypertext modes in the modern communication space and summarized the configuration of educational hypertext. Based on the formulated hypothesis about the production and perception of educational hypertext, a psychosemantic experiment was organized and conducted.

Naturally, the main developer and organizer of this experiment was E.F. Tarasov. The novelty of the solutions used, which determined the world-class level of the research he organized and conducted with his team, lay in the fact that for the first time, the following were used to analyze the content of educational hypertext:

1. a quantitative method for measuring the content constructed during the perception of educational hypertext;
2. the dimension in which the constructed content of the educational hypertext is measured, determined by the recipient himself and, consequently, commensurate with the categories of consciousness of the real bearer of a specific ethnic language and culture.

The conclusions drawn from the results of the experiment indicated that the use of categories of the recipient's consciousness to form dimensionality frees the method of analyzing the constructed content of the text being studied from the common error of attributing to the text the content that the researcher himself manages to form.

An analysis of the names of the questionnaire scales administered to recipient groups during the experiment yielded a clear conclusion: these scales assess the residual impression left in the recipient's consciousness, based not only on knowledge known as the denotative meanings of linguistic signs, but also on knowledge known in linguistics as connotative meanings. In this sense, this project was at the forefront of philological science, as the work organized and conducted by its team of researchers represented one of the few attempts to accurately capture the content of a text, separated from the bodies of linguistic signs.

The project participants published several interesting articles, including a programmatic article written by a group of authors [3], and based on its results, a candidate’s dissertation was defended for the academic degree of candidate of cultural studies [5].

Upon completion of the project, the scientists on the team envisioned their theoretical research to find broad application in communication theory and practice, social work, education, and science. The results were expected to be in demand in a wide range of fields, including science, education, and social work:

• In the theory and practice of communication How the metasphere of modern civilization will be helped to form concepts of hypertext modes and characteristics of the communicative universe that correspond to the level of modern knowledge, and will help to develop regulatory principles for the construction, directions, and spheres of communication.
• In the social sphere, where members of society have freedom to choose their actions within the law, where the behavior of members of society is controlled by the media, individual articles and entire propaganda campaigns can be built on the principle of hypertext.
• In education The use of the results of the conducted research could help to develop specific principles and types of preparation of individual educational texts, manuals, programs and training courses built in the form of hypertexts, to form the content and structure of models of educational manuals built in the hypertext format.
• In science, where the dissemination and development of scientific knowledge largely depends on the form of its externalization, it would be possible to use hypertexts of certain configurations as a matrix for presenting the results of scientific research.

Unfortunately, much of what we had planned never came to fruition, although some attempts in this direction were made during our subsequent joint projects aimed at creating new models for teaching Russian as a foreign language [2]. Evgeny Fedorovich provided advice when our team was preparing the project "Linguistic Landscape as a Public Policy Instrument" (2020). He greatly supported the new direction of the Union of Translators' work related to the development of translation activities using the languages of the peoples of Russia. It's worth remembering that E.F. Tarasov's primary education was as a translator. What a mastery of German he was! How wonderfully he spoke German! It was through him that I first saw German Gothic script on paper in the real-life context of modern written communication. As both a psycholinguist and a former translator, he greatly helped me in my reflections on how translation occurs and why it is possible.

I can't help but mention one of E.F. Tarasov's abilities, in my view, that was fundamentally important: his ability to instantly grasp the essence of a question, article, or dissertation. He was one of those people who "gets to the root of the matter." I took advantage of this quite often, asking him to "take a look" at a text and immediately offer his opinion.

He never struck me as a man of many words, but what he said (in lectures, at conferences, in discussions) was always clear, well-reasoned, and to the point. At the same time, during our faculty get-togethers, he knew how to deliver a beautiful and well-timed toast, was a good jokester himself, and responded with great pleasure to good humor.

My last conversation with Evgeny Fedorovich, a week before his departure, was about his new project. He asked for help in conducting a survey in Russia's regions with representatives from the regional branches of the Union of Right Forces. Unfortunately, I believe that without Evgeny Fedorovich, the steps we've taken will no longer be of interest to anyone.

«"Take care!" he always said when we parted. Only he said that. And no one will ever say those words to me again.

Literature

1. Akhutina T.V. «Speech Ontogenesis from the Point of View of Normal Neuropsychology» // In the collection Ontogenesis of Speech Activity: Norm and Pathology. Ed. by L.I. Belyakova. Moscow, Prometey, 2005. pp. 5–11.
2. Ivanova O.Yu. The space of Russian culture of the Silver Age as a «current text» (towards the issue of hypertext technologies in the educational environment // In the collection «Russian language in the modern world: traditions and innovations in teaching Russian as a foreign language and in translation» Proceedings of the II international scientific conference dedicated to the 300th anniversary of M.V. Lomonosov. Moscow: Publisher: Higher School of Translation (Faculty) of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, 2011. pp. 311-317.
3. Ivanova O.Yu., Mitireva L.N., Nistratov A.A., Tarasov E.F.Perception of hypertext" // "Bulletin of the Russian New University. Series: Man in the Modern World" (2015), No. 3. Pp. 62-67.
4. Leontiev A.A. Fundamentals of the Theory of Speech Activity. Moscow: Nauka, 1974. 368 p.
5. Chilingir E.Yu. Russian PR as Hypertext: Historical and Sociocultural Aspects: Candidate of Cultural Studies Dissertation: 24.00.01 / Elena Yuryevna Chilingir; [Place of protection: State Academy of Slavic Culture]. Moscow, 2011. – 163 p.: ill.

References 

1. Axutina TV. «"Speech ontogeny from the point of view of neuropsychology of norms" // In the collection Ontogenesis of speech activity: Norm and pathology. Ed. L. I. Belyakova. Moscow, Prometey, 2005. — P. 5-11.
2. Ivanova O.Yu. The Space of Russian Culture of the Silver Age as a «Relevant Text» (Towards the Issue of Hypertext Technologies in the Educational Environment) // In the collection «Russian Language in the Modern World: Traditions and Innovations in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language and in Translation» Proceedings of the II International Scientific Conference for the 300th Anniversary of M. V. Lomonosov. Moscow: Publisher: Higher School of Translation (Faculty) of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, 2011. Pp. 311-317.
3. Ivanova O.Yu., Mitireva LN, Nistratov A.A., Tarasov E.F.Perception of Hypertext" // "Bulletin of the Russian New University. Series: Man in the Modern World" (2015), No. 3. P. 62-67.
4. Leont`ev AA. Fundamentals of the theory of speech activity. Moscow: Nauka, 1974. – 368 p.
5. Chilingir E.Yu. Russian PR as a hypertext: historical and sociocultural aspects: diss … candidate of cultural studies: 24.00.01 / Chilingir Elena Yur`evna; [Place of protection: State academy of Slavic culture]. - Moscow, 2011. - 163 pp. : il.