Overcoming Linguocultural Barriers in the Field of Gender Phraseology: Translation Experiment in the Chinese Audience

Against the background of the ongoing development of Russian-Chinese relations, the modeling of a successful communication paradigm becomes a topical matter. Nowadays, the main goal of the teaching of foreign languages is a formation of communicative competence, as well as sociocultural competence, which is defined as the ability to use the knowledge of the national and cultural features of the country in the process of communication. Undoubtedly, Russian phraseology, especially in the field of gender relations, presents difficulty while teaching Russian to Chinese students. The reason is that the models of conceptual spaces "man" and "woman" in Russian and Chinese linguistic world images show significant differences. The purpose of this study is to determine the specifics of Russian gendermarked phraseological units by the Chinese audience in terms of designing the linguo-didactic principles of teaching Russian phraseology to Chinese students. The research of the gender specificity of phraseological units required a translation experiment involving the participation of Chinese students. As follows from the analysis of the data captured, the linguocultural barriers were identified in the understanding and the usage of Russian set expressions associated with the unique representation of gender concepts in Russian and Chinese languages: a multivalued understanding of the feminine and masculine categories, an inaccuracy in determination of positive and negative connotations of phraseological units, altered perception of nationally charged concepts. The obtained results can be used for further research on Russian and Chinese phraseology, gender stereotypes, linguocultural barriers in the methodology of teaching foreign language. The conducted research may find its practical implementation in the creation of a linguodidactic program on speech phraseology of Chinese students.