The Art of Teaching Russian

495 Pages·2020·4.924 MB·English

by  Evgeny Dengub, Irina Dubinina, Jason Merrill

THE ART OF
TEACHING
RUSSIAN
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THE ART OF
TEACHING
RUSSIAN
EVGENY DENGUB, IRINA DUBININA,
and JASON MERRILL, Editors

Georgetown University Press / Washington, DC
© 2020 Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro-
duced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy-
ing and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
The publisher is not responsible for third- party websites or their content. URL links were
active at time of publication.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Dengub, Evgeny, editor. | Dubinina, Irina, editor. | Merrill, Jason, editor.
Title: The art of teaching Russian / Evgeny Dengub, Irina Dubinina, Jason Merrill, editors.
Description: Washington, DC : Georgetown University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054590 (print) | LCCN 2019054591 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781647120016 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781647120023 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781647120030 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Russian language—Study and teaching—United States. | Russian
philology—Study and teaching—United States. | Russia—Civilization—Study and
teaching—United States.
Classification: LCC PG2068.U5 A78 2020 (print) | LCC PG2068.U5 (ebook) |
DDC 491.780071—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054590
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054591
Ó
This book is printed on acid- free paper meeting the requirements of the American National
Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
21 20 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First printing
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Jeremy John Parker
To our mentors and students,
from whom we have learned so much
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Part I. The State of the Profession
1 Language Education in the United States: Yesterday, Today,
and Tomorrow 3
Aline Germain- Rutherford
2 Looking Back, Moving Forward: Teaching and Learning Russian
in the United States in the Post- Soviet Era 23
Cynthia L. Martin
3 Russian Programs in the 21st- Century University: Preparing for
the Future 49
Angelika Kraemer, Jason Merrill, and David Prestel
4 Russian Language Readiness in Graduate Teaching Assistants:
Implications for Teaching and Learning 72
Cori Anderson, Julia Mikhailova, and Anna Tumarkin
Part II. The Teaching of Russian and the World- Readiness
Standards for Learning Languages
5 Making the Standards the Standard: The World- Readiness Standards
and the Teaching of Russian Language and Culture 95
Thomas J. Garza
6 The Goals of Collegiate Learners of Russian and the US Standards
for Learning Languages 120
Dianna Murphy, Narek Sahakyan, and Sally Sieloff Magnan
Part III. Approaches to Teaching Russian
7 The Shifting Paradigm in Russian Language Pedagogy:
From Communicative Language Teaching to Transformative
Language Learning and Teaching 147
Betty Lou Leaver and Christine Campbell
8 Reconceptualizing Grammar Instruction: Making It Meaningful
and Communicative 163
William J. Comer
9 Content, Language, and Task in Advanced Russian 187
Lynne deBenedette
vii
viii Contents
10 Oral History in the Russian Language Curriculum: A Transformative
Learning Experience 211
Benjamin Jens, Colleen Lucey, and Benjamin Rifkin
11 Language and Cultural Learning through Song:
Three Complementary Contexts 231
Karen Evans- Romaine, Stuart H. Goldberg, Susan Kresin,
and Vicki Galloway
Part IV. Curriculum and Materials Development
12 Developing a Textbook: A Framework and Reflections 257
Olga E. Kagan and Anna S. Kudyma
13 Addressing the Representation of Diversity in Russian
Language Textbooks 280
Rachel Stauffer
14 Corpus Linguistics and Russian Language Pedagogy 307
Olesya Kisselev and Edie Furniss
Part V. Teaching Culture
15 Developing Intercultural Competence in a Russian Language Class 333
Ekaterina Nemtchinova
16 The Literary Canon and Precedent Texts in Teaching Russian
Language and Culture at the Intermediate Level 359
Tatiana Smorodinska
17 Extracurricular Activities in Russian Language and Culture Programs:
Challenges and Perspectives 377
Alla Epsteyn and Maia Solovieva
Part VI. Teaching and Learning Russian with Technology
18 Mixing It Up with Blended Learning 405
Shannon Spasova and Kristen Welsh
19 Research- Based Internet Writing Projects in the Russian Curriculum 431
Cori Anderson and Irina Walsh
Editors 455
List of Contributors 457
Index 465
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES
4.1 Proficiency Levels of Incoming Graduate Students 82
4.2 Grammar Exam Scores of Incoming Graduate Students 82
5.1 The Five Cs of Foreign Language Study 97
5.2 Sample Performance Indicators with Grade-Level Designation 99
5.3 Matrix of Level of Instruction and Proficiency Level 107
5.4 Learning Scenario for Grade 7 from Russian-Specific Standards 110
6.1 Importance of Goals to Students of Russian, across the Content Standards 129
6.2 Importance of Goals to Students of Russian, by the Five Cs 130
6.3 Importance of Standards to Students of Russian, by the 11 Content Standards 131
8.1 Comprehension Activity with a Form-M apping Element 171
8.2 Activity to Draw Attention to Form 172
8.3 Activity to Draw Attention to the Meaningfulness of Grammatical Form 173
8.4 Structure–Input 174
8.5 Information Gap Activity 175
8.6 Information Exchange Activity 176
8.7 Open- Ended Opinion Gap Activity 177
8.8 Written Output Activity 178
12.1 Criteria for Text Selection 265
14.1 Example of Concordance Lines Sorted by First Left 311
14.2 Example of Concordance Lines Sorted by First Right, First Left
and Second Right 311
17.1 Perceived Trends Concerning Majors and Minors in Russian 383
17.2 On- Campus ECA Offerings 384
17.3 Off- Campus ECA Offerings 385
17.4 Off- Campus ECA Offerings by Institution Type 386
17.5 Is ECA Participation Required? 387
17.6 Degree of ECA Attendance Required by Faculty 388
17.7 Impact of ECAs on Student Learning 389
17.8 Faculty Satisfaction with Department ECA Offerings 390
17.9 Key ECA Challenges across Faculty 391
17.10 Key ECA Challenges across Institutions 391
17.11 Commonly Cited Suggestions for ECAs’ Improvements 392
TABLES
1.1 Critical Language Undergraduate and Graduate Course Enrollments
for Entire United States 9
ix