Text functions of the aspect-tense verbs forms as the basic principle for teaching the aspect of Russian verbs

The article deals with one of the most important problems of the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language: learning the system of Russian verbs' aspects by students. It justifies the efficiency of the approach to the interpretation of the Russian verb aspects while understanding the principles of describing and presenting to the foreign audience the patterns of using the aspect-tense forms of Russian verbs in speech, suggested in the functional-communicative grammar by G.A. Zolotova, one of the leading schools in modern Russian Studies. The verb aspect in functional-communicative grammar is understood as a textual category. In accordance with the text organization capabilities of aspect-tense forms, we identify the following functions: aoristic, perfective for perfective verbs, and imperfective (procedural, characterizing) for imperfective verbs; suggest methods for teaching aspect-tense forms of Russian verbs to a foreign audience. The work aims to show the students why, in accordance with what requirements of the text, the perfective and imperfective verb forms with certain meanings are used. Understanding the patterns of using verbal forms in various functions in texts allows a foreigner to better analyze texts of any genre, as well as create his own verbal works, making full use of the “building” capacity of the perfective and imperfective verb forms. Ultimately, he will be able to better understand the very essence of the aspect category in Russian, which in turn will help mitigate or eliminate any difficulties that students encounter when learning this subject. © 2019 Transilvanian Association for the Literarure and Culture of Romanian People (ASTRA). All rights reserved.