SPORT LEXIS IN TEACHING UKRAINIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Sport is an important part of public life. It shapes the image of Ukraine. Not only the results are important, but also the representation in various sports and its massive popularity among the population. All of this affects the development of sports in the country and the interest in it among foreigners, which creates conditions for attracting foreign sports journalists, athletes, and other sports professionals to Ukrainian sports. Due to the war, the role of sport has become more significant in the socio-cultural dimension. There is a need to create conditions for teaching foreign sports professionals the Ukrainian language. It is also necessary to make it possible to make such studying directly based on sports texts to ensure quick adaptation of foreigners in their professional activities. The publication is devoted to the study of texts on sports topics (in particular, sports lexicon) as learning material in the process of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language (hereinafter - UFL). Sports topics have been the subject of study for Ukrainian scholars as teaching material in language classes, but there is still a lack of research to reveal its full potential. This problem has not been sufficiently studied, although the topic of sports is used in textbooks on UFL. Most textbooks for learning Ukrainian as a foreign language contain sports texts to a greater or lesser extent. The importance of working out the potential of sports lexis to be a material for teaching UFL is argued. Some aspects of the usage of sports lexis in teaching Ukrainian to a foreign language audience are revealed: the language situation in Ukrainian sports and sports educational institutions, the required level of proficiency in Ukrainian as a foreign language, phraseological units in sports texts, and socio-cultural information. The article also presents a sample lesson from the UFL course on sports which was approbated in classes with foreign students. Key words: sport, Ukrainian as a foreign language, sports terminology, sport lexis.