A thematic dictionary as a source of cultural competence (using the example of a Chinese-Polish dictionary)

Abstract

This article discusses a thematic dictionary of a specific language pair (Chinese-Polish in this case) as a teaching aid useful in learning a language and its culture. In the search for a place for the thematic dictionary in language teaching, the author refers to the notion of cultural competence and notions associated with introducing it into the teaching process as cultural competence covers both vocabulary and knowledge (linguaculture), and the interpretative rules and elements of the study of the reality of people and institutions within the area of socioculture. The contents of those areas of culture of a community are discussed in the theoretical studies devoted to teaching Polish as a non-native language and in the curricula of teaching Polish as a foreign language. Those activities become focussed, e.g. in the required standards which refer to individual levels of language proficiency.
A thematic dictionary may serve as a source for introducing elements of culture considering the stock of vocabulary which illustrates the differences in languages and cultures. In the discussion of the Chinese-Polish thematic dictionary, the author focusses on the description of macrostructures, the inclusion of selected thematic fields, and indicates its utility in increasing one’s proficiency in the lexis which illustrates the extra-linguistic reality.