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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
«В Каком Контексте?»: A Context-Based Approach To Teaching Verbs Of Motion, Irina Six
«В Каком Контексте?»: A Context-Based Approach To Teaching Verbs Of Motion, Irina Six
Russian Language Journal
Anyone who has studied or taught Russian using the textbook В пути, authored by Olga Kagan, Frank Miller, and Ganna Kudyma, is probably familiar with the following thought-provoking prompt: В каком контексте? ‘Think of a situation when you could say’: Ты звонила домой сегодня? – Ты позвонила домой сегодня? ‘Did you call [imperfective] home today? – Did you call [perfective] home today?’ or Они не приходили. – Они не пришли. ‘They did not come [imperfective]. – They did not come [perfective]’(Kagan, Miller and Kudyma 2006, 79). This is one of the rare examples of assignments where Russian as a Second …
Review: An Introductory Course For Heritage Learners Of Russian, Anna Geisherik
Review: An Introductory Course For Heritage Learners Of Russian, Anna Geisherik
Russian Language Journal
Rodnaya rech’ is a welcome newcomer to a rather empty field of modern Russian heritage language textbooks, previously represented on the US market only by the 2002 Russian for Russians textbook by Olga Kagan, Tatiana Akishina and Richard Robin. As a long-time instructor of heritage speaker courses, I have been using a combination of some parts of Olga Kagan’s book and dozens of pages of my own materials, which came together in an overcrowded course pack in need of a major makeover. Therefore, I am very excited to see a new textbook finally hit the market.
Russian Heritage Language Speakers In The U.S.: A Profile, Olga Kagan
Russian Heritage Language Speakers In The U.S.: A Profile, Olga Kagan
Russian Language Journal
Brecht and Ingold (2002) advocate systematic efforts to develop heritage language (HL) pedagogy to remedy U.S. language deficits: “…because of [heritage language learners’(HLLs’)] existing language and cultural knowledge, they may require substantially less instructional time than other learners to develop these skills. This is especially true for speakers of the less commonly taught languages” (p. 1).
Russian is one of those less commonly taught languages in the U.S. that is critically important for national security and the global economy. Since the early 1970s, when a large wave of Russian-speaking immigrants began to settle in the U.S., American universities have had …
Heritage Language Learners Of Russian And L2 Learners In The Flagship Program: A Comparison, Olga Kagan, Anna Kudyma
Heritage Language Learners Of Russian And L2 Learners In The Flagship Program: A Comparison, Olga Kagan, Anna Kudyma
Russian Language Journal
In 2005, a consortium of schools consisting of Bryn Mawr College, University of Maryland, University of California Los Angeles, and Middlebury Summer School was formed in order to launch a Russian Flagship Program. Both participants and NSEP 1 felt that these universities would bring different strengths to the program: Maryland and Bryn Mawr, for example, would attract students returning from a year-long study abroad experience in Russia as administered by American Councils, and UCLA would attract heritage language learners from large Russian communities in both Northern and Southern California. As expected, the first cohort of UCLA Flagship students consisted of …
Teaching Compassion In The Russian Language And Literature Curriculum: An Essential Learning Outcome, Benjamin Rifkin
Teaching Compassion In The Russian Language And Literature Curriculum: An Essential Learning Outcome, Benjamin Rifkin
Russian Language Journal
One of Dr. Olga E. Kagan’s most important contributions to the language education field was a reconceptualization of the perspective of the language performance of heritage speakers of Russian. In the past, heritage speakers’ language was considered deficient in all the ways in which it diverged from Contemporary Standard Russian. Their lack of formal instruction in Russian or the interruption of their formal instruction due to their immigration from a Russophone country to North America was considered the source of numerous errors and anglicisms, which the Russian language curriculum was designed to eliminate. Teachers of Russian as a foreign language …
Designing And Integrating A Community-Based Learning Dimension Into A Traditional Proficiency-Based High School Curriculum, Elizabeth Lee Roby
Designing And Integrating A Community-Based Learning Dimension Into A Traditional Proficiency-Based High School Curriculum, Elizabeth Lee Roby
Russian Language Journal
When considering the goals of language instruction, few would debate the importance of promoting a lifelong interest in learning language and culture in authentic contexts through engagement in multilingual communities. The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (2015) state that, to meet the Communities goal, students should be able to “communicate and interact with cultural competence in order to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world” (9). Nonetheless, instructors often struggle to integrate authentic community engagement into the traditional classroom-based curriculum. The first years of language learning frequently include simulations and role-playing scenarios that duplicate situations in which …
Piloting A Dynamic Assessment Model: Russian Nominal Morphology As A Building Block For L2 Listening Development, Rimma Ableeva, Olga Thomason
Piloting A Dynamic Assessment Model: Russian Nominal Morphology As A Building Block For L2 Listening Development, Rimma Ableeva, Olga Thomason
Russian Language Journal
Second language (L2) Russian research identifies listening comprehension as the least developed language ability among university students and points to the importance of listening instruction in Russian programs (e.g., Rifkin 2005; Comer 2012a; Isurin 2013). For example, Rifkin (2005, 11) states that students typically exhibit an “intermediate-low level of L2 listening proficiency” after completion of a 4-year Russian program. According to Isurin (2013, 39), the survey conducted among L2 Russian learners and instructors acknowledged “listening comprehension as the most problematic area in students’ language proficiency in general.” Comer (2012a) attributes poor listening ability to insufficient teaching materials and activities as …
Businessmen And Ballerinas Take Different Forms: A Strategic Resource For Acquiring Russian Vocabulary And Morphology, Laura A. Janda
Businessmen And Ballerinas Take Different Forms: A Strategic Resource For Acquiring Russian Vocabulary And Morphology, Laura A. Janda
Russian Language Journal
Included in the tasks facing a language learner is the acquisition of a lexicon and a grammar. However, when the target language has inflectional morphology, these two parts of the language-learning task intersect in the paradigms of grammatical word forms because each open-class lexeme has a number of forms that allow it to express various combinations of grammatical categories. Among major world languages, Russian is relatively highly inflected, meaning that the challenges of acquiring vocabulary are compounded by the need to master the inflectional morphology. Even a modest basic vocabulary of a few thousand inflected lexemes has over a hundred …
Review: Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment; Posobiie Dlia Inostrannykh Uchashchikhsia; The Russian Language Journal 68: 3-32, Larysa Stepanova
Review: Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment; Posobiie Dlia Inostrannykh Uchashchikhsia; The Russian Language Journal 68: 3-32, Larysa Stepanova
Russian Language Journal
No abstract provided.
Review: Faces Of Contemporary Russia: Advanced Russian Language And Culture, Snezhana Zheltoukhova
Review: Faces Of Contemporary Russia: Advanced Russian Language And Culture, Snezhana Zheltoukhova
Russian Language Journal
Cultural literacy is of the utmost importance for advanced language students. Olga M. Mesropova’s Faces of Contemporary Russia is thus a welcome addition to the selection of upper-level textbooks for Russian learners. Unlike existing advanced materials, it offers an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary Russian culture, media studies, history, politics, anthropology, and sociology, making it well-suited for a content based language course with discussions and independent research as its primary focus. The book successfully presents input at the academic essay level with intricate syntax and target output of paragraph-length oral and written discourse on abstract general topics relevant to both Russia …
The Development Of Syntactic Complexity In The Writing Of Russian Language Learners: A Longitudinal Corpus Study, Olesya V. Kisselev, Anna A. Alsufieva
The Development Of Syntactic Complexity In The Writing Of Russian Language Learners: A Longitudinal Corpus Study, Olesya V. Kisselev, Anna A. Alsufieva
Russian Language Journal
To make inferences about how second language (L2) learners develop over time, most Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research has traditionally relied on cross-sectional one-time sampling design, in which data collected from different groups of learners at different levels of language proficiency are compared against a preestablished set of measures. Rarer are longitudinal studies, in which researchers track a small number of participants over a relatively long period of time. Recent developments in technology and the rise of the language corpora have made it possible to combine the benefits of these two approaches; longitudinal LEARNER LANGUAGE CORPORA, large databases collected continuously …
Review: Mezhdu Nami, Jim Sweigert
Review: Mezhdu Nami, Jim Sweigert
Russian Language Journal
Между нами marks a new and quite remarkable approach to the teaching and learning of Russian. In place of the typical print textbook series is an online text that also incorporates some aspects of more traditional Russian language textbooks. Indeed, this is perhaps the first time that a Russian language textbook for the North American market has provided students with an entry point that is nearly entirely in an online format. As the authors state, “Между нами is a free, web-based textbook that provides a comprehensive introduction to Russian language and culture. It is organized around the experiences of four …
Review: Studies In Accentology And Slavic Linguistics In Honor Of Ronald F. Feldstein; Exploring The Us Language Flagship Program: Professional Competence In A Second Language By Graduations, Ljiljana Durašković, Grant H. Lundberg
Review: Studies In Accentology And Slavic Linguistics In Honor Of Ronald F. Feldstein; Exploring The Us Language Flagship Program: Professional Competence In A Second Language By Graduations, Ljiljana Durašković, Grant H. Lundberg
Russian Language Journal
As the title states, this volume was compiled in honor of the work and influence of Ronald F. Feldstein on the fields of accentology and Slavic linguistics. Though Professor Feldstein did some work in most of the areas covered in the volume, the book is unified by the ideas of the Prague Linguistic Circle and Jakobsonian structuralism, of which Feldstein was an important representative for many Slavic linguists working today.
The Effect Of Teaching Vocabulary In Semantic Groups: A Study In The Russian Language Classroom, Kate White
The Effect Of Teaching Vocabulary In Semantic Groups: A Study In The Russian Language Classroom, Kate White
Russian Language Journal
A long-standing assumption in the field of second language acquisition research is that learning new vocabulary items in semantic groupings has a positive effect on acquisition and retention (Finkbeiner and Nicol 2003). This assumption is common among researchers and instructors of second languages, as it seems to fit intuitively with the most popular current communicative approaches to teaching. However, researchers have begun to question this assumption, as it has not been supported by empirical evidence (Altarriba and Mathis 1997; Finkbeiner and Nicol 2003; Papathanasiou 2009). Previous research is not conclusive on the topic due to differences in methodology and design. …
Thoughts On High Level Proficiency In Arabic, Russian And English With A Platitudinous Postlude, James Bernhardt
Thoughts On High Level Proficiency In Arabic, Russian And English With A Platitudinous Postlude, James Bernhardt
Russian Language Journal
In the present paper, I look at the top of the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Skill Level Descriptions and critique several of their assumptions. As I do this, I speak for myself and not for the Government in general or the U.S. Department of State in particular. I also do not pretend that my conclusions are not uncontroversial. I also discuss the 2012 ACTFL proficiency standards, but note that we do not train to those standards at the Foreign Service Institute.
Review: Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch Of The East In Russian Fairy Tales, Lisa M. Di Bartolomeo
Review: Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch Of The East In Russian Fairy Tales, Lisa M. Di Bartolomeo
Russian Language Journal
Villains are in, as we see in our Disneyfied multiplexes and musical theater productions, and what better villain to highlight than one who is functionally ambiguous? Given that Baba Yaga has been featured in a Hellboy comic (Mignola, Hellboy, Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others, Dark Horse, 2004) as well as a Scooby Doo episode (“The House of the Nightmare Witch,” Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, episode 202, airdate July 31, 2012, written by Adam Beechen, directed by Victor Cook), it should come as no surprise that she has finally demanded her own gloriously illustrated book.
The Language Flagship Model And The Humanities, Sam Eisen
The Language Flagship Model And The Humanities, Sam Eisen
Russian Language Journal
The Language Flagship program provides a model that strengthens and deepens cultural engagement within the humanities and creates bridges to collaboration across disciplines. Flagship addresses needs for national security and global competitiveness and integrates professional and life experience into the humanities and other fields for the students who engage in this course of study. The cross-disciplinary nature of the Flagship program and the level of personal, cultural and professional engagement required to complete the program are successfully changing the undergraduate study experience in ways that address significant issues in the ongoing discussion of a crisis in the humanities. The Language …
Accuracy In Predicting Cross-Lingual Differential Item Functioning (Dif): A Study Of Russian To Kyrgyz Language Test Item Adaptation In The Kyrgyz Republic, Todd Drummond
Russian Language Journal
Russian-speaking teachers, assessment specialists, and other educators in Eurasia are frequently tasked with effectively translating and adapting sophisticated educational materials from Russian into non- Slavic languages. While standards, textbooks, and other teaching materials have been adapted from Russian to other Eurasian languages for over a century, a contemporary challenge is the adaptation of highly complex, standardized tests and assessments produced in the Russian language (Drummond and Gabrscek 2012). Because the results of educational assessments are often employed in high stakes decision making, the room for error in the adaptation of cross-lingual tests is small: Capturing exact meaning in all language …
Politeness And Sociocultural Values In American And Russian Cultures Emerging From The Speech Act Of Complaint; Pragmatic Competence Of L2 Learners Of Russian, Beata Gallaher
Russian Language Journal
In the last two decades, there has been an increasing number of empirical studies on complaints that explore the effects of sociocultural values and linguistic politeness on the language performance of nativeand non-native speakers of English (Kasper 1981; Piotrowska 1987; Olshtain and Weinbach 1987, 1993; Trosborg 1995; Arent 1996; Murphy and Neu 1996; Kraft and Geluykens 2002, 2007; Tanck 2002; Umar 2006; Prykarpatska 2008). However, the empirical data on complaints by Russian native and non-native speakers remains scarce (Olshtain and Weinbach 1993; Gershenson 2003; Kozlova 2004; Perelmutter 2010). The research on complaints is particularly important for studying the impact of …
Review: The Russian's World: Life And Language, Diane Nemec Ignashev
Review: The Russian's World: Life And Language, Diane Nemec Ignashev
Russian Language Journal
Now in its fourth edition (first published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1974), Gerhart’s and Boyle’s encyclopedic catalogue of “common knowledge” among “Russians” is a classic; readers of this review likely have at least one well-worn edition of The Russian’s World on their bookshelf. Where else under one cover can one find the rules for “gorodki” (240–1), a guide to (Soviet) Russian clothing sizes—“take the bust or chest measurement and divide it in two” (111), or the how-tos on visiting a Russian Orthodox church (270–80)? Abundantly illustrated with no-frills line drawings and black-and-white photographs (of uneven quality), with two color …
Review: Pervyi Krug: Russian Full Circle, Snezhana Zheltoukhova
Review: Pervyi Krug: Russian Full Circle, Snezhana Zheltoukhova
Russian Language Journal
Первый круг: Russian Full Circle is the first edition of a beginning Russian textbook that represents a contemporary communicative approach with an emphasis on grammatical and pragmatic competences. Additionally, it offers an open-source ancillary web site. The goals and objectives of the course are clear, challenging and feasible. The materials can be used in a traditional year-long language course or in an intensive summer language program.
A Cognitive Grammar Approach To Teaching The Russian Case System, Carlee Arnett, Diana Lysinger
A Cognitive Grammar Approach To Teaching The Russian Case System, Carlee Arnett, Diana Lysinger
Russian Language Journal
This study examines modern Russian cases within a Cognitive Grammar framework. Grammatical case, as one of the fundamental language categories, has always interested linguistic researchers. In languages that possess case systems, virtually no utterance is possible without taking into account grammatical case. This grammatical category is very complex and its acquisition is an enormously arduous task for learners whose native language does not possess a case system or a case system that is not as pronounced as it is in the target language. According to Janda (2002), “the meanings of grammatical cases are probably the biggest obstacle faced by students …
“Languages Of The Peoples Of Kazakhstan And Their Interaction” By Bakhytzhan Khassanov, And “Languages Of The Peoples Of Kazakhstan” By Eleonora Suleimenova, Nursulu Shaimerdenova, Dana Akanova, Aidyn Aldaberdikyzy
Russian Language Journal
A rich vein of articles and books has recently addressed some critical issues in the field of sociolinguistics in Kazakhstan, both in terms of theoretical perspectives and of their implications in the context of education and policy. A wide range of theoretical and practical questions of Kazakhstani sociolinguistics are addressed, including:
• Defining de jure and de facto status of languages;
• Content and stages of status and corpus language planning;
• Ethnic and linguistic identification of individuals, ethnic groups and the population altogether;
• Ethnic and linguistic consciousness and self-consciousness;
• Possibility and prevention of language conflicts;
• Defining …
Individualized Project-Based Reading And Its Effect On Students’ Reading Habits And Beliefs, Filip Zachoval
Individualized Project-Based Reading And Its Effect On Students’ Reading Habits And Beliefs, Filip Zachoval
Russian Language Journal
In recent years, a number of empirical and conceptual studies about Project-Based Learning (PBL) have presented consistent arguments rationalizing this approach to language learning and teaching. However, there are no known studies available on PBL in the Russian language classroom. This article presents the results of a qualitative research study that investigates incorporating an individualized reading project into a third-semester Russian classroom. Within the movement of studentcentered pedagogies, the overall purpose of this study was: (a) to implement a reading project into a third-semester university Russian language class and (b) to provide an analysis of some of the educational gains …
Using A Corpus-Based Approach To Russian As A Foreign Language Materials Development, Edie Furniss
Using A Corpus-Based Approach To Russian As A Foreign Language Materials Development, Edie Furniss
Russian Language Journal
The increase in availability and sophistication of corpora in recent years has facilitated the application of usage-based approaches to language pedagogy. Although the use of corpus data is certainly not without its difficulties, it offers great pedagogical promise. Corpora, consisting of natural language culled from a multitude of sources and genres, provide valuable information about language in use. While a corpus can provide us with contextualized linguistic data and statistics on the behavior of lexicon (with respect to frequency and collocation), a connection needs to be forged between the data and their practical use. Two main areas ripe for the …
Key Indicators Of Language Impact On Identity Formation In Belarus, Tony Brown
Key Indicators Of Language Impact On Identity Formation In Belarus, Tony Brown
Russian Language Journal
In 1986, a group of 28 intellectuals from Belarus wrote the following brief letter to then-General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev: “Language is the soul of a nation, the supreme manifestation of its cultural identity, the foundation of its true spiritual life. A nation lives and flourishes in history while its language lives. With the decline of the language, culture withers and atrophies, the nation ceases to exist as a historical organism” (Letters to Gorbachev, 1987).
Review Essay: Popularizing Russian Language, Michael S. Gorham
Review Essay: Popularizing Russian Language, Michael S. Gorham
Russian Language Journal
In an era rife with complaints over the degradation of language in the face of a host of commonly cited bugaboos (inferior schools, lazy pupils, declining morals, insidious new media technologies), one can only be heartened by the fact that language and language usage continue to be a source of popular discussion and debate. Even in American culture, where reverence for the national tongue has historically paled compared to the likes of France and Russia, one can find regular language-related rubrics in both print and broadcast media (e.g. “Word on the Street” and “Week in Words” [Wall St. Journal], “On …
Traditions And Transitions: Russian Language Teaching In The United States. In Celebration Of The Career Of Dr. Victorina Lefebvre, Jason Merrill, Lora Mjolsness
Traditions And Transitions: Russian Language Teaching In The United States. In Celebration Of The Career Of Dr. Victorina Lefebvre, Jason Merrill, Lora Mjolsness
Russian Language Journal
In May 2012, the University of California, Irvine’s Humanities Language Learning Program hosted a symposium entitled Traditions and Transitions: Russian Language Teaching in the United States. The primary impetus for the meeting was to celebrate the distinguished career of our colleague, Dr. Victorina Lefebvre, who taught Russian language courses at University of California, Irvine since 1984. Her retirement in June 2012 meant the symposium was an opportunity to recognize and thank her for her unflagging decades of hard work for UC Irvine’s students. Victorina Lefebvre, who trained in the USSR in mathematics and physics education (M.A.) and in psychology (Ph.D.), …
Our Russian Classrooms And Students: Who Is Choosing Russian, Why, And What Cultural Content Should We Offer Them?, Jason Merrill
Our Russian Classrooms And Students: Who Is Choosing Russian, Why, And What Cultural Content Should We Offer Them?, Jason Merrill
Russian Language Journal
Language instructors are well aware of the many challenges facing our profession. Financial pressures and fluctuating enrollments have caused many institutions to look critically at their language programs and curricula. Adding to these concerns is the lingering sentiment in some areas that foreign languages are not something that “you (really) need to know,” as Lawrence Summers stated in 2012 (Summers). Colleagues have produced impassioned defenses of the many benefits of language study (e.g. Geisler 2012), but ultimately we, as a profession, need to combine such efforts with the most effective and relevant language instruction we can provide. Geisler is not …
Heritage Language Learners Of Russian And L2 Learners In The Flagship Program: A Comparison, Olga Kagan, Anna Kudyma
Heritage Language Learners Of Russian And L2 Learners In The Flagship Program: A Comparison, Olga Kagan, Anna Kudyma
Russian Language Journal
The paper will compare heritage language learners (HLL) with traditional learners of Russian as a foreign language (L2 learners). We will focus on the Intermediate-High and higher levels of proficiency in order to determine whether these two groups of students can profitably share the classroom and use a common curriculum. The findings of a new study as well as UCLA Flagship experience over several years confirm that these two groups are compatible at higher levels of oral proficiency as measured by oral proficiency tests.