The concept «Germany» in German language textbooks for the elementary level: linguocultural markers

The article is devoted to the analysis of linguocultural markers of the concept «Germany» in German language textbooks for the elementary level (A 1). Central to this study is the question of using what language means authors of textbooks offer learners and structure information about Germany in the framework of educational discourse. The aim of the study is to determine which representatives form the concept «Germany» in German language textbooks for the elementary level, into which semantic groups they can be categorically divided and what is their quantitative ratio and combinatorics in different textbooks of this type. This aim defined such tasks as the selection of the lexical representatives of the concept «Germany» in all parts of the textbooks, the distribution of the selected representatives according to the categories developed during the study, the comparative analysis of the methods of verbalization (lexical filling) of the categories in relation to each textbook, and in comparison with each other and the subsequent infographic presentation of the results. The main research methods are discursive-conceptual and comparative analysis. The empirical materials as sources of factual materials were the German language textbooks «Berliner Platz 1 NEU», «Netzwerk A1.1», «Netzwerk A1.2», and the theoretical basis of the study were the fundamental works on cognitive linguistics by S.A. Askoldov (Alekseev) , V.Z. Demyankov, E.S. Kubryakova, V.I. Karasik, Yu.S. Stepanov and other scientists who researched the definitions of concept and conceptosphere, whose definitions and particular methods also served as the basis for the conceptual and linguistic analysis of this study. The results of conceptual and comparative analysis presented in this article were obtained on the basis of the research conducted in collaboration with scientists from the University Würzburg and specialists from the university’s language center, and are significant and unique. The relevance and novelty of this study is that as a result of the active migration and the influx of foreigners from different countries and cultures into modern Germany, the concept «Germany» in German language textbooks must be linguistically correctly represented so that it will be relevant and useful for foreigners from any culture, and also will positively reflect Germany as a place for life, work, investment, study and tourism. Therefore, it is very important to understand with what language means the concept «Germany» is represented in the modern German language textbooks for foreigners, which are used in most language centers in Germany, as well as in Russia, how relevant are the resulting conceptospheres to life, business and tourism in modern Germany.