Lessons according to Shansky: the potential of N. M. Shansky’s legacy to overcome the challenges posed to the modern Russian language teacher

Abstract

The paper considers N. M. Shansky’s scientific and popular scientific writings as a resource available to a modern teacher of the Russian language. Teachers can use these materials to spark students’ interest in studying Russian, to enhance their research skills and their ability to identify patterns and discrepancies between the phenomena under consideration, including the development of project research assignments. The study analysed scientific, educational, scientific reference, and popular scientific sources. It also employed observation, search, and descriptive methods as well as comparative analysis and scientific modelling. The paper presents those tasks whose content is based on the ideas and information reflected in N. M. Shansky’s works. I propose using such tasks in studying lexicology and phraseology, word formation and spelling, in mastering the functional varieties of the Russian language, and in characterising the stylistic features of texts of different types. The paper describes a variety of techniques for working with etymological, explanatory (defining), phraseological dictionaries, and literary sources. It also includes tasks for comparing entries in dictionaries of the same type as well as scientific reference and popular scientific texts. The paper provides materials for language warmups, entertaining tasks, topics for research papers. Additionally, I show the feasibility of using groupwork and referring to Internet resources. The paper concludes by arguing for the enduring value of the ideas suggested in the scientist’s works. Moreover, I highlight the potential of these materials for developing modern students’ crucial competencies as well as achieving personal, subject, and meta-subject learning outcomes formulated in the federal state educational standards.