Review: The Art Of Teaching Russian,
2021
Defense Language Institute
Review: The Art Of Teaching Russian, Olga Mukhortova
Russian Language Journal
The Art of Teaching Russian, a recent volume on Russian language research, teaching practices, and first-hand experiences in constructing a Russian college course, could become the tabletop book for every Russian scholar teaching in North America. University professors, high school teachers, Russian department chairs, deans, and, especially, graduate students will find it not only professionally engaging but also beneficial in several other ways since the book provides brilliant observations on the last two decades of the Russian field.
Full Issue,
2021
Brigham Young University
Review: Quantitative Approaches To The Russian Language,
2021
University of Texas at San Antonio
Review: Quantitative Approaches To The Russian Language, Olesya Kisselev
Russian Language Journal
The volume edited by Mikhail Kopotev, Olga Lyashevskaya, and Arto Mustajoki is a testament to the reinvigorated interest in quantitative approaches to the study of the Russian language that has marked the past decade and a half. The trend, largely prompted and sustained by the widespread availability of large and well-annotated corpora, that is, digital collections of linguistic data (Kopotev and Mustajoki, 2008), is on full display in the edited volume. The methods and instruments featured in the collection are overwhelmingly corpus-based; however, many of the studies described in the papers showcase how various approaches to the analysis of language …
Introduction,
2021
University of Texas at Austin
Introduction, Thomas Jesús Garza, Robert Reynolds
Russian Language Journal
On behalf of the editorial team of Russian Language Journal (RLJ), we are pleased to present this volume of RLJ dedicated to “Digital Humanities and Russian Language Teaching.” As digital humanities (DH) programs and materials enter their third decade in the academy, it is fitting to present here a snapshot of the many and varied applications of digital technologies in the teaching and research of Russian language and culture. The articles in this volume represent the breadth of DH endeavors in our field and serve as exemplars of the aspirations and potential that the future of digital technologies in …
Russian’S Most Frequent Words And Implications For Vocabulary Instruction,
2021
Brigham Young University
Russian’S Most Frequent Words And Implications For Vocabulary Instruction, William J. Comer
Russian Language Journal
In the field of teaching English as a second language (ESL), vocabulary studies have grown in prominence since the development of the General Service List (West 1953). This list sought to define the most common and useful words in English to provide a focus for teachers in instruction and for learners in developing their language proficiency. Since then, the development of electronic language corpora and concordance software has greatly expanded the ESL field’s capacity for studying vocabulary frequency and usage (Dang 2020). For example, researchers have tried to determine vocabulary size (i.e., how many of the most frequent words) a …
Digital Humanities, Access, And The Teaching Of Russian Language And Culture,
2021
Brigham Young University
Digital Humanities, Access, And The Teaching Of Russian Language And Culture, Irene Krasner, Thomas Jesús Garza
Russian Language Journal
In their introduction to the January 2020 issue of the PMLA dedicated to varieties of Digital Humanities (DH), Booth and Posner (2020) describe the “interdisciplinary collaboration,” “technical experimentation,” and the promotion of “public engagement and humanistic knowledge and understanding” that DH offers scholars and practitioners (10). They go on to reflect on the past two decades of research and practice in the expansion of DH through information studies, libraries, and departments of English. In a related manner, it is our intention to provide both an overview of the history of DH in academia generally, and also its applications to the …
Introduction To The Special Issue: Emergency Remote Teaching, Online Instruction, And The Community: Lessons From The Covid-19 Crisis In Language Education,
2021
Brigham Young University
Introduction To The Special Issue: Emergency Remote Teaching, Online Instruction, And The Community: Lessons From The Covid-19 Crisis In Language Education, Liudmila Klimanova, Jason Merrill, Shannon Donnally Spasova
Russian Language Journal
The COVID-19 crisis took all of us by surprise. Universities and schools, in unprecedented fashion, quickly began to move instruction online. In some universities, the switch to online instruction coincided with spring breaks, allowing instructors a brief period for hurried preparation, whereas other colleagues had only a few hours’ warning. In any case, few educators had previous experience with online instruction, so most were suddenly asked to teach in a completely new way. Despite these new challenges and the isolation necessitated by COVID-19, the language teaching community, in addition to adapting or creating courses for online delivery, was quick to …
To Opi Or Not To Opi: Proficiency-Oriented Instruction And Assessment In U.S. University-Level Russian Programs,
2021
Brigham Young University
To Opi Or Not To Opi: Proficiency-Oriented Instruction And Assessment In U.S. University-Level Russian Programs, Oleksandra Wallo, Molly Godwin-Jones
Russian Language Journal
Back in 1991, Thompson claimed that the impact of the proficiency movement on how Russian was taught in the United States had resulted in something more akin to Soviet glasnost rather than perestroika. She meant that while the introduction of ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and an emphasis on functional ability in a foreign language spurred much discussion in the Russian teaching profession in the 1980s, these developments did not lead to “the actual restructuring of curricula and assessment along functional lines” (375). Thompson mentioned several obstacles to the adoption of the proficiency-based approach for Russian teaching at that time, including …
Student Engagement In A Remote Language Learning Environment: The Case Of Ukrainian,
2021
Brigham Young University
Student Engagement In A Remote Language Learning Environment: The Case Of Ukrainian, Olena Sivachenko, Alla Nedashkivska
Russian Language Journal
This paper explores student perceptions of engagement in remote first-year, second-year, and third-year Ukrainian as a foreign language courses at a postsecondary institution. It examines student engagement at five levels: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, agentic, and social. This exploration of engagement, using the case of Ukrainian, supports the view of engagement as a multidimensional concept in which the various levels are interconnected and influence one another. The article provides pedagogical advice that is relevant not only to the context of remote instruction.
Service-Provider Virtual Exchange As A Viable Alternative To Face-To-Face Speaking Practice: Data From Second- And Third-Year Russian Learners,
2021
Brigham Young University
Service-Provider Virtual Exchange As A Viable Alternative To Face-To-Face Speaking Practice: Data From Second- And Third-Year Russian Learners, Liudmila Klimanova, Valentina Vinokurova
Russian Language Journal
In the context of emergency remote language teaching during the pandemic, the biggest challenge for instructors has been to continue providing learners with opportunities to practice speaking and comprehension skills. Service provider virtual exchange (SPVE) platforms, such as Conversifi, Boomalang, TalkAbroad, iTalki, and LinguaMeeting have the potential to enrich the online learning experience by offering paid videoconferencing sessions with native-speaking language coaches at the students’ convenience. Research shows that regular videoconferencing with native-speaking peers may improve speaking ability (Saito and Akiyama 2017) and foster the development of intercultural competence (Tecedor and Vasseur 2020). This paper will discuss a pilot implementation …
Developing Russian Oral Skills In The Online Environment,
2021
Brigham Young University
Developing Russian Oral Skills In The Online Environment, Elena Doludenko
Russian Language Journal
The global pandemic due to COVID-19 forced classes to go into online or remote modes in a very short period of time. Instructors teaching languages, including Russian, had to adjust assignments and tasks to continue developing oral skills in the new environment. This paper describes various activities and techniques used in synchronous and asynchronous online Russian classes since March 2020. These activities ensured that L2 students continued practicing Russian in new modalities. In particular, this article discusses the benefits of individual and paired recordings, paired work in Breakout Rooms in Zoom, individual work on pronunciation, and video projects. These activities …
Hybrids 2.0: Forward To A New Normal In Post-Pandemic Language Teaching,
2021
Brigham Young University
Hybrids 2.0: Forward To A New Normal In Post-Pandemic Language Teaching, William J. Comer, Lynne Debenedette
Russian Language Journal
This article reflects on possible ways of incorporating the practices and tools of pandemic-induced remote teaching into the post-pandemic face-to-face teaching of Russian. We posit that a large number of the tools and practices that face-to-face teachers adopted during the pandemic will continue to be useful and effective for accomplishing fundamental pedagogical imperatives such as curating learners’ access to input and providing opportunities for learners to interact with that input. Nevertheless, we also assert the benefits of synchronous face-to-face language instruction for building community and interaction. We explore ways of intentionally blending practices into new hybrid models of language instruction, …
Raise Your Hand: Online Language And Culture Instruction, Inclusivity, And Critical Pedagogy,
2021
Brigham Young University
Raise Your Hand: Online Language And Culture Instruction, Inclusivity, And Critical Pedagogy, Thomas Jesús Garza
Russian Language Journal
The strained pedagogies in the wake of the transition to virtual online delivery of instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, while taxing some instructors’ and students’ patience, have also resulted in reimagined curricula and new opportunities for student engagement and participation in our language and culture courses. This essay presents a rationale for the creation of ecologies of equity and inclusion within online delivery of course content on platforms such as Zoom, including suggestions for creating Breakout Room tasks and activities that encourage critical engagement and dialogue among learners and facilitate the creation of “safe spaces” for open …
Русский Ковидный: Новые Языковые Явления Глобальной Пандемии,
2021
Brigham Young University
Русский Ковидный: Новые Языковые Явления Глобальной Пандемии, Елена Шмелева
Russian Language Journal
Я зык отражает все значимые события, происходящие в обществе, поэтому не удивительно, что так изменившая в 2020 году жизнь множества людей пандемия COVID-19 не могла не найти отражение в языке. Сложился новый глобальный дискурс коронавирусной эпохи – не случайно в разных странах и разных языках, где выбирают слова года, победителями в 2020 году стали такие слова, как коронавирус, маски, локдаун, социальное дистанцирование и др. В статье мы кратко охарактеризуем основные особенности «русского ковидного», обращая особое внимание на новые языковые явления – изменения в лексике (появление новых слов и выражений, рост частотности редких слов, переход терминов в разряд общеупотребительной лексики), новые …
Here, There, And Elsewhere: Reimagining Russian Language And Culture Course Syllabi For Social Justice,
2021
Brigham Young University
Here, There, And Elsewhere: Reimagining Russian Language And Culture Course Syllabi For Social Justice, Thomas Jesús Garza
Russian Language Journal
The past two decades have witnessed enrollments in American colleges and universities for U.S. residents aged 18 to 24 increase from 35 percent in 2000 to 41 percent in 2018. Within this demographic, those identifying in census data as Hispanic/Latinx increased during the same period from 22 to 36 percent, as Black 31 to 37 percent, as Asian 56 to 59 percent, as Indigenous/Native American 16 to 24 percent, and as bi-or multiracial 38 to 44 percent (Hussar et al. 2020, 125). As the student population of higher education in the United States begins to reflect the national demographic portrait …
Diversity And Inclusion In The Study Abroad Context: Recruiting Data And On-Program Support Initiatives For The Cls Russian Institutes,
2021
Brigham Young University
Diversity And Inclusion In The Study Abroad Context: Recruiting Data And On-Program Support Initiatives For The Cls Russian Institutes, Jeanette Owen, Nellie Manis
Russian Language Journal
The authors submit this paper in the interest of sharing the perspectives and experiences of practitioners in the field of study abroad and to contribute to the discussion of best practices related to the recruitment, preparation, and support of underrepresented students with examples related to the study of Russian. The authors recognize that further work on study abroad programming for underrepresented students is necessary, and this contribution is intended to foster further discussion across the field.
The Russian Coordinating Conjunctions И And А: Their Meaning, Function, And Pedagogy,
2021
Brigham Young University
The Russian Coordinating Conjunctions И And А: Their Meaning, Function, And Pedagogy, Mark J. Elson
Russian Language Journal
This paper is concerned with the systemic status of the coordinating conjunctions и and а in Contemporary Standard Russian. Most previous treatments of и and а have, without comment, viewed them as minimal syntactic units (i.e., words) defined, for systemic purposes, functionally—as equating or likening in the case of и but contrasting or opposing in that of а. However, these treatments, whether intentionally or unwittingly, have left unattended the possibility that и and а, although syntactic units, are more properly defined grammatically (i.e., are systemically characterized by an invariant grammatical meaning of which their functions are derivative).1 At …
From Error Annotation To Quantitative Analysis: Patterns In Russian Language Learning,
2021
Brigham Young University
From Error Annotation To Quantitative Analysis: Patterns In Russian Language Learning, Irina Kor Chahine, Ekaterina Uetova
Russian Language Journal
Although learner corpus research has been progressively growing into an independent branch of corpus linguistics, the learner corpus cannot yet fully benefit from corpus analysis methods. This is due to several technical obstacles involving data collection, error annotation, and finally, data processing. When it comes to data collection, compared to corpus linguistics, learner corpus is biased because some of the learner corpora are still collected manually: Optical character recognition (OCR) is not yet sophisticated enough to transform a student’s handwritten copy to a digitized text. This fact significantly slows the collection of learner corpora. Furthermore, typed students’ texts present another …
Excerpt From Ключевые Идеи Русской Языковой Картины Мира: The Breadth Of The Russian Soul,
2021
Brigham Young University
Excerpt From Ключевые Идеи Русской Языковой Картины Мира: The Breadth Of The Russian Soul, Alexei D. Shmelev, Nicole-Marie Konopelko, Translator, Stephen M. Dickey, Preface
Russian Language Journal
In 2005 a collection of articles appeared under the title Ключевые идеи русской языковой картины мира (‘Key Ideas of the Russian Linguistic Worldview’), authored by Anna A. Zalizniak, Irina B. Levontina and Aleksei D. Shmelev and published by the Языки славянской культуры (‘Languages of Slavic Culture’) publishing house in Moscow. The studies in Key Ideas of the Russian Linguistic Worldview were inspired by the work of Anna Wierzbicka, most notably her Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese (Oxford University Press, 1997). The idea behind the volume is that language communities operate with a ‘linguistic picture …
Review: Llc (Language, Literature, Culture) Commons: Open Resources For Online Teaching Slavic,
2021
Brigham Young University
Review: Llc (Language, Literature, Culture) Commons: Open Resources For Online Teaching Slavic, Jennifer Bown
Russian Language Journal
The web resource LLC (Language, Literature, Culture) Commons: Open Resources for Online Teaching Slavic, created by Shannon Donnally Spasova and Liudmila Klimanova, allows instructors to share quality online materials that can endure over time. LLC Commons organizes a set of online Russian language modules developed primarily by the authors. All of the materials on the website are licensed under a Creative Commons license, allowing instructors to revise, reuse, and redistribute the lessons as long as the authors of the lesson are given credit.
