Russian Course Research Articles

The Relevance of Family Language Policy in Germany and Italy in the Development of Child Bilingualism: The Role of Natural Translation

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of natural translation in heritage speakers’ bilingual communication in relation to the family language policies (FLP) adopted to maintain heritage language in Italian and German multilingual families. In order to investigate this, in spring 2023, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to both parents and children. The sample consists of 60 Russian-speaking bilingual HS living in Italy and Germany, where they have access to regular primary education and attend, in some cases, private Russian courses or schools. The informants do not receive specific translation training from or into the Russian language (they only practice translation at school from or into Italian/German), and they translate, in most cases, as an occasional activity, closer to the function of mediation or brokering. The role of translation in relation to FLP seems particularly relevant when comparing the two samples, considering different family compositions: mostly bi-ethnic in Italy and mono-ethnic in Germany. The survey showed that in daily life, both parents and children use translation, often as a specific kind of bilingual communication. In the Italian part of the sample, the strategy called OPOL prevails, and translation is a frequent activity in the domestic sphere. In the German one, instead, the separation of language use contexts is widespread, and all family members speak both Russian and German, making translation activity less relevant.

Study of the Phenomenon of Polyfunctionality in the Course of Russian as a Foreign Language (Based on Comparatives bigger/more, better, shorter/anyway).

Study of the Phenomenon of Polyfunctionality in the Course of Russian as a Foreign Language (Based on Comparatives bigger/more, better, shorter/anyway).

Обучение иностранных студентов пересказу на основе кинотекста (в аспекте русского языка как иностранного)

The aim of the study is to substantiate the need and possibility of using the method of retelling film texts in one’s own words as one of the means of mastering oral monologue speech in the practical course of Russian as a foreign language at an advanced stage of training. The paper provides rationale for using the method of retelling based on authentic feature films, describes the content of teaching retelling by considering all its components, presents a set of practical tasks aimed at developing the skills and abilities of processing the original text by reduction, simplification and expansion. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the following: it is the first time that the content of teaching foreign students how to retell based on film texts in the Russian language course has been clarified, the specifics of interpreting linguistic and non-linguistic components of the film text in secondary oral text production has been revealed, which made it possible to develop a set of exercises aimed at forming the speech skills and abilities necessary for the construction of a narrative-descriptive monologue. As a result of the study, it was found that teaching retelling based on films is directly linked to the work on reconstructing a text perceived by ear taking into account the presented paralinguistic information and the formation of the corresponding skills of organizing the content and choosing linguistic means of narration/description, namely, the skills of conveying the statements said by other people and using text compression means.

The Function of Humanities Education in Russian Language at University

Humanities education emphasizes humanistic education, aims at perfecting personality, and focuses on achieving and promoting the harmonious development of individual body and mind. Humanities education in universities is mainly embodied in general education courses, but specialized courses education also plays a non-negligible and irreplaceable role in cultivating humanities education for college students. In this paper, we explore the functions of specialized Russian courses in disseminating humanistic knowledge, enlightening humanistic thoughts, cultivating humanistic spirit and shaping a sound personality from the perspective of university Russian education, and discuss the qualities that teachers should possess and the role they should play in it.

Лингводидактический потенциал аутентичных изо-мемных текстов в обучении русскому языку как иностранному (на примере реализации лингвострановедческого концепта САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГ)

The research aims to identify the linguodidactic potential of authentic texts that create the image of St. Petersburg (visual memes in souvenir products) within the framework of the linguistic and cultural studies course in Russian as a foreign language teaching. The paper discusses the ways of representing the information about St. Petersburg in various texts, compares the representation of the SAINT PETERSBURG concept in these texts. The conducted pedagogical research is of an applied nature: according to the results of the analysis, it has been found that the analyzed training manuals do not involve creative and interactive tasks and it has been also noted that certain micro-topics of the concept need to be supplemented. The authors have developed a block of tasks to solve this problem. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the paper explores visual meme texts about St. Petersburg reflecting the current socio-cultural information absent in the training manuals and also offers the methodological potential for including such texts in the practice of teaching linguoculturology in the Russian as a foreign language course (a set of tasks using visual memes is given). As a result of the research, it has been found that the training manuals on Russian as a foreign language containing texts about St. Petersburg need to be supplemented with up-to-date information to create a complete cultural picture for foreign students, for this purpose, authentic visual meme texts are suitable. As the examination of texts written by foreign students has shown, the students possess surface knowledge about the city. The authors have developed a block of tasks based on modern visual memes as an additional material about St. Petersburg in the course of linguistic and cultural studies about Russia. The tasks proposed by the authors are of a communicative and interactive nature.

Lingua Franca and Information Technology in Foreign Language Acquisition: Competitive Advantages of Multilingual Instruction

The paper describes digital strategies helping to boost the competitiveness of Russian as a foreign language. The authors argue that it is impossible to deny the universal popularity of the English language. Knowledge of English is important to learners of Russian as a foreign language since it functions as a social language facilitating their transition to multilingualism. Thus, to improve the competitiveness of Russian courses, it is beneficial to supplement them with instructions in English and modern online tools with English interfaces. The paper offers two scenarios of in-class activities for beginner and intermediate-to-advanced learners of Russian, featuring key strategies utilized for students from Kazakhstan and the People’s Republic of China. The authors argue that the described activities are also useful for students from other countries. The scenarios are included in the common framework of the “Working for a Russian Digital Company” business game and enhance the competitive advantages of Russian studies programs expanding the limits of teaching language and culture in the field of online technologies and Java programming basics.

Identifying and interpreting euphemisms and dysphemisms in RFL classes (the case of political discourse)

This article is devoted to the issue of the need to include in the course of Russian as a foreign language the work on the analysis of Russian-speaking political discourse, the issues of identifying and interpreting euphemisms and dysphemisms in the political discourse, in particular. Euphemisms and dysphemisms are widely used by Russian speakers in a variety of communication situations and speech genres, including political discourse, which makes the research devoted to the systematic description of their functioning in modern Russian-language communication and their place in the Russian language picture of the world urgent. The relevance of the present study is due to the need to integrate the results of cognitive and pragmatic research into the purposeful activities of the teacher of Russian as a foreign language to form the linguistic personality of a foreign student, capable of educational and professional activities in the conditions of multicultural dialogue. The paper deals with the formation of foreign students’ skills and abilities of discursive analysis of the Russian text, identification and interpretation of speech tactics and strategies, the strategy of dominance and resistance, implemented in speech through the use of euphemisms and dysphemisms, in particular. At high levels of proficiency in Russian as a foreign language B2-C1 these skills are a necessary element of the professional competence of humanities professionals. The choice of political texts as the material for the analysis is connected with the fact that for professionals in the humanities, in the field of international relations, in particular, political discourse is a significant sphere of official communication and professional interaction. The aim of the present study is to analyze the theoretical foundations for describing euphemisms and dysphemisms for linguistic and pedagogical purposes, and to develop an approach to creating learning materials aimed at building the skills and abilities of foreign students to recognize hidden meanings and tools of indirect communication in Russian political discourse. The use of the proposed approach helps to develop in foreign students the ability to analyze political discourse and to identify the author’s key and secondary intentions, as well as to improve the skill of operating political terminology and the selection of lexical and verbal means in accordance with the communicative situation and the communicative goals and intentions pursued. The authors relied on the works of domestic and foreign linguists and methodologists in their research. The sociocultural, competence and systemic approaches were used in the research, and the method of complex text analysis and descriptive method were applied.

Глаголы группы учить, учиться, изучать в аспекте системного подхода на уроках РКИ

Studying of the Verbs Учить, Учится, Изучать in Terms of the System Approach. The verbs учить, учится, изучать are a complex system of meanings and lexical and grammatical relations that makes difficulties in acquiring of these verbs. The article offers some ways of working with this verb group based on system rela-tions, namely making lexical cards, clusters and sinkweins. These kinds of works give opportunity to use language system relations of the verbs and also to apply the system approach in teaching at different levels of studying this verb group in the course of Russian as a foreign language.

The Experience of Russian Terminology Comprehensive Training for Music Specialties Students from the Republic of Korea (on the case of the Higher School of Music of the Sakha Republic)

The article summarizes the experience of combining two manuals in work with students from the Republic of Korea who studied at the Higher School of Music of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). One manual is Russian as a foreign language for musical specialties by A.V. Bukharova and T.G. Bukharova, and the second is adapted texts derived from the Textbook on Harmony by A. Myasoedov. The paper deals with the difficulties that students from Korea encountered in applying the knowledge gained in the general course of Russian as a foreign language and in communicative practice in the Harmony class, which is part of the area of major.BR The article draws attention to the functioning of national terminology in teaching Harmony both in Russia and Korea; on the use of particular forms of adjectives that are not studied in the general course of Russian as a foreign language but actively operated in the field of music specialty. In addition, the author points to the active use of verbal nouns as music terms and the importance of teaching students the constructions of the scientific style of the Russian language.

Russian Logistics in the Ukrainian War: Can Operational Failures be Attributed to logistics?

The lacking Russian progress in war in Ukraine is often attributed to failing logistics, yet the logistics and its eventually failure is not explained. The purpose with this paper is to present some logistics principles that can be used to describe the Russian way of logistics planning, and to infer whether failing logistics slowed down the military operations or if failing operational conduct led to revised operational plans that could not be sustained logistically. The initial Russian Course of Action (COA) to take Kyiv was probably well supported logistically. When the COA failed, contingency plans most likely did not take into consideration the logistical challenges of supporting another type of operation, partly because of the logistics vacuum resulting from the preceding exercises. In the southeast the logistical concept seems to build on the echelon principle, which fits poorly with the lack of operational success. Adding to this is successful Ukrainian tactics of targeting Russian logistics resources which significantly reduces the Russian fighting power. This assessment is based on openly accessible information about the Russian campaign. Reporting from an ongoing war poses challenges of verifying data. Both warring parties and other stakeholders pursue their own interest through strategic communication. Yet, by combining different sources we believe that our findings are quite robust. For future research, archival studies both in Ukraine and Russia, combined with interviews with logistics personnel at both sides would add new dimensions to the research. We realise though that such data sources will not be accessible for quite some time.

Methods of Analyzing Copywriting Texts in the Classroom: Russian-speaking and English-speaking Experience

The subject of the study is the texts of copywriting, considered in the methodological aspect. The object of the research is to find the method of identifying manipulative techniques in copywriting texts and studying it in Russian and English classes in higher educational institutions. The authors consider in detail such aspects of the topic as the implicature of copywriting texts, hidden manipulative influences. Particular attention is paid to the need to study copywriting texts not only as potential creators of texts, but also as their consumers, which is necessary for representatives of any profession. Copywriting texts need to be studied not only in the aspect of production, but also in the aspect of perception. The main conclusions of the study are the need to integrate the analysis of copywriting texts into the course of Russian as a native language and English as a foreign language. A special contribution of the authors to the research of the topic is a comparative analysis of copywriting texts in Russian and English in a comparative aspect. The novelty of the research lies in the appeal to the materials of copywriting texts not in the aspect of their effective writing, but in the aspect of effective consumption. The analysis showed that even the texts posted on the websites of state institutions and state-funded programs are written in compliance with the laws of copywriting and with elements of manipulation of the reader, which must be learned to recognize.

The Culture of Student Debate: When not to Argue

Today public speaking as a form of communication calls for the development of actives ways of speaker’s interaction with the audience, with the audience taking on an increasingly active and meaningful participation. In the cultural environment of modern higher education, in universities, student debates are becoming one of the most relevant and popular activities. Basing on the assumption that debate is an effective tool for developing both communicative and speech skills of future professionals in any field of activity focused on social interaction, this study aims to investigate the specifics of the organizing and conducting debates to develop mastery, professionalism, and leader potential of students in the framework of the course of Russian as a second foreign language (RSL). With this approach in mind, we set the following objectives: 1) to clarify the main approaches to the meaning of oral communication and the role of debate in it for the formation of basic competencies of students today; 2) to study the structure of typical units of public speaking; 3) to identify problems students face in the process of verbal communication; 4) to substantiate the advantages of using debates for the development of the necessary general cultural, professional and communicative qualities and skills of a future professional. In its methodology, this study was based on the works in the field of the theory of communication, the language of business communication, the culture of speech, pedagogy, and methods of teaching the Russian language to non-native speakers. The research methods included surveys and interviews, as well as content analysis and case study methods. The study has proved that solving the pedagogical problems of fostering responsibility, independence, and proactive social attitude requires the development of general cultural, research and communication skills, and debates have proved to be an effective form of practicing these skills in the educational process. The communicative culture and the overall training of students for their future professional career means leadership development, and for this cause debates are an effective teaching tool.

A taxonomy of learning outcomes developed for Moscow Electronic School (a case study of individual topics in the Russian language)

The paper examines the issue of designing planned learning outcomes in the process of teaching Russian to school students. This problem became especially relevant after the adoption of the Federal State Educational Standards for primary, basic, and secondary general education. These standards define requirements for personal, meta-subject, and subject-related learning outcomes. Teachers had to respond to the need of specifying planned learning outcomes for an academic year, a topic, an academic period, a lesson taking into consideration the requirements of the system-activity approach as well as different levels of achieving these outcomes by different students. The paper analyses foreign and domestic experience in developing taxonomies for educational purposes and presents the taxonomy of planned learning outcomes developed for Moscow Electronic School. The research is based on theoretical and empirical methods. As a result, planned learning outcomes for the topics included in the course in Russian studied in the fifth form were defined. The obtained results were uploaded to the platform of Moscow Electronic School. Three types of learning outcomes were identified: reproductive, productive, and reflexive. Additionally, the paper describes the possibilities of using the «Planned learning outcomes» service of Moscow Electronic School by teachers. Planned learning outcomes are a methodological tool in teachers’ work. They help to specify lesson objectives, select lesson content, choose the forms of organising students’ activity aimed at producing subject and meta-subject outcomes.

Organizational and methodological aspects of learning the language of urban spaces in the course "Russian as a foreign language"

This work is devoted to the organizational and methodological (linguodidactic) aspects of learning the language of urban spaces in the course of Russian as a foreign language. The main problem of this phenomenon is that urban spatial nominations belong to the area of so-called linguistic universals and therefore are practically not considered by linguists. Nevertheless, this pragmatically marked linguistic component allows us to identify the specifics of the national picture of the world and characterize the national and cultural identity of the city as a unique semiotic system. As the main research method, an empirical (review-analytical) review of the literature on this issue is used. It was concluded that the linguodidactic aspect of research on the thematic group of urban spatial nominations should be based on the scientific and linguistic foundations of the comparative typology of the native and learned languages in its current state, include the study of the interaction of the language substrate (in its exact definition) with the language system and different types of speech activity in the target language.

Codes of Modern Written Communication: Acoustic-Auditory vs. Manual-Visual

The article introduces the semiotic, cognitive, and technical aspects of the most important trends in the modern written communication, which arise as a result of the competition between acoustic-auditory and manual-visual codes. The author believes that Russian education has to adapt to the contemporary trends in virtual communication, which requires a preliminary research. The problem is that the integral-systemic presentation of communicative content is developing as a result of the growing share of visual data in various types of communication. The school course of Russian is based on elementary strategies and cannot keep up with these changes. Video-clip unites give the visual-written perception much better holistic possibilities than those of the phono-auditory-written channel. The competition of these two forms of writing is unlikely to displace the weaker opposition member. Chances are that it will redistribute their functions based on the advantages of each form.

Authentic sounding text in the course of Russian as a foreign language: Cartoon “Little devil number 13’’

Authentic sounding text in the course of Russian as a foreign language: Cartoon “Little devil number 13’’

Studying a professionally oriented text at the pre-text stage in the course of Russian as a foreign language

Studying a professionally oriented text at the pre-text stage in the course of Russian as a foreign language

Underground poetry of the 70s in the course of Russian as a foreign language

Underground poetry of the 70s in the course of Russian as a foreign language

Implementation of the Multimedia Principle in the Digital Support of the Course of Russian as a Foreign Language

Implementation of the Multimedia Principle in the Digital Support of the Course of Russian as a Foreign Language

Creating an Online Russian as a Foreign Language Course during the COVID-19 Epidemic

In March 2020, due to the coronavirus epidemic all Italian universities switched to online classes and managed to ensure the right to education. Making the switch to online learning, teachers faced new difficulties that they had to sort out immediately. The purpose of the research is to provide scientific and methodological substantiation of the development of the online course of Russian as a foreign language at the University of Bologna. Due to the coronavirus lockdown, such a course was considered as the only possible way to provide the educational process. The author of the article made an attempt to empirically determine the potential of information technology used to organize a productive learning environment for language learners (including Russian-language learners). The article analyses the way the online educational process was organized to teach Russian to political science students of the University of Bologna (Forl Campus). The researcher studied the structure and functions of the IOL and Virtuale learning environment on the Moodle platform, as well as the means of interaction between students and teachers. The methods for analysing distance learning research papers and empirical methods for assessing the communicative-speech activity of Italian students attending the online Russian language course were used. Apart from that, based on the results of the survey conducted to find out the learners attitude to online education, a psychological and pedagogical analysis of the students educational activities was carried out. The researcher clarified the definition of e-learning, and considered the cognitive theory of multimedia learning in terms of effective transmission of information during the educational process and direct communication with students. As for the theoretical significance of the article, the author made an attempt to substantiate the need to create and use distance courses for students learning foreign languages (in particular Russian). As for the practical significance of this work, the researcher developed practice-oriented modular computer environment to teach Russian as a foreign language and considered computer-assisted language learning. Methodologies to increase linguistic, communicative and regional geographic competencies of Italian students were developed. In addition, new multimedia educational resources were introduced into the process of teaching political science students. The author summed up the results of the study, analysed the weak and strong points of the online course and proposed the ways to improve it.