Literature on the Intercultural Teaching of Russian as a Foreign Language (2007–2022): Some Critical Notes (original) (raw)
Related papers
2024
This book is devoted to the topic of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL) from an intercultural perspective with special attention to the university context and Italian-speaking students. It is underpinned by three main aims. The first is to provide the reader with a theoretical-operational framework on intercultural RFL teaching, giving him/her the methodological tools to study this area and/or to apply it to his/her own teaching. The second is to promote a critical awareness among readers of the dominant ideologies and discourses underlying both academic research on the subject and the teaching materials themselves, so as to enable them to take note of the problems of RFL intercultural teaching (compared to the issues of foreign language education of other languages) and attempt to overcome them, with a view to enhancing teacher learning/development. The third—more general—aim seeks to help the reader look at the RFL area as if through a lens that shows different angles and shades, thus leading to greater understanding of the complexity of teaching and learning processes as a whole. The study discloses the ideological nature of RFL intercultural teaching by investigating its national and cultural essentialist discourses and advocates a pluricentric and complex image of the Russian-speaking cultural space which is rather new for the field, where static, mythologized, and uncritical ideas and representations of identity and culture (e.g., “Russian soul”) still prevail to this day.
When intercultural education is problematic: the case of Russian as a foreign language
9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’23) Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, 2023
This paper proposes a reflection on the issues posed by the intercultural teaching of Russian as a foreign language (RFL) in the university context. In particular, after defining the concepts of "interculturalism"/"intercultural education" and outlining an updated picture of research on intercultural education in RFL, two of the greatest problems of RFL intercultural education are presented: on the one hand, the ambiguity of the theoretical treatment of intercultural education (and, thus, of its practical applications) by RFL scholars, and, on the other hand, the often essentialized, if not stereotypical, portrayal of Russian culture in RFL textbooks, which in some cases distort reality. Finally, a possible solution is proposed to resolve these issues and make RFL teaching more intercultural.
A New Intercultural Model for Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language at European Level
Proceedings of The World Conference on Research in Teaching and Education, 2(1), 10–23., 2023
This paper presents a new experimental intercultural theoretical and operative model for RFL (Russian as a Foreign Language) teaching at European level: the RETEACH model. As a descriptive-normative didactic model, RETEACH builds on the intercultural approach, seeking to foster the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among students. RETEACH promotes respect, understanding, and solidarity among individuals and encourages critical awareness of various issues, such as multiple identities, fuzzy cultural borders, power-related intercultural dynamics, and avoidance of stereotyped representations. The model is grounded in three specific concepts and areas within the foreign language and RFL fields: 1) the use of authentic texts, 2) the role of literature, and 3) textbook theory. The model was tested through two case studies, which investigated the place of culture in RFL classes in Lithuania and Italy (Case Study 1) and in RFL textbooks employed in Italy (Case Study 2). Three different research methods were employed: action research, classroom observation, and comparative content analysis. The findings indicate that the proposed model can boost the development of ICC in RFL learners, thus addressing some general issues with RFL teaching in the European context. There are several theoretical and practical implications of the RETEACH model: 1) combining RFL theory and practice, 2) improving the intercultural approach due to the use of authentic materials, 3) enabling the use of Russian literature to develop ICC, and 4) promoting a complex and critical image of Russia.
V International Forum on Teacher Education, 2019
Intercultural communication as an academic subject was introduced into linguistic Bachelor and Master education in Russia about twenty years ago. Unlike various aspects of linguistics, English studies, British and American literature which have been part and parcel of the curriculum in foreign language departments for many decades, this subject is new both to teachers and students. Its appearance in the curriculum is due to Russia's entering the global educational environment. This subject as central theoretical component of training specialists in foreign languages requires practical manuals with reference to new educational standards. Intercultural communication as a field of study is so wide that it requires the efforts of specialists in linguistics, psychology, cultural anthropology, etc. It is but natural that teaching intercultural communication in universities is limited mostly to contrastive insights into communication between representatives of two linguo-culturesthose of Russia and the country/countries of a foreign language (mostly English). This paper discusses various ways and means of developing intercultural competence, practiced in Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education. The paper also presents the results of regular anonymous questionnaires among our students dealing with teaching intercultural communication. The authors conclude that theory of intercultural communication is firmly rooted as the subject that forms young people's cultural awareness. Our experience shows that students are genuinely interested in the subject, mostly because of its possible application to their future profession.
A construct of intercultural competence for young learners (by N. Kravchenko)
2021
The paper tackles the issue of forming a basis of intercultural competence for young learners. Considering the fact that we live in the globalized world and in the era of communication technologies this issue is becoming more and more acute. It is getting incredibly easy to explore other nations and cultures either by travelling or by using social media. This fact has greatly influenced foreign language teaching. The goals of this paper are to develop the theoretical construct of intercultural competence for young learners, to analyze the current English textbooks-both Russian and authentic ones-on the matter of knowledge, skills ,and abilities that are represented and formed in them, and to compare the theoretical and practical results of the research: What is lacking? What can be added? As a research method, a theoretical analysis of the academic literature is used. Analyzing the educational documents, the theory of socio-cultural competence developed by Doctor Victoria Safonova and M. Byram's theory of intercultural communication, I found out that it needs to be specified for young learners. As a result, the construct of intercultural competence for young learners is developed. The construct includes a set of knowledge, skills, acquired practices, abilities and attitudes. Furthermore, this construct might be useful for creating a set of tasks for developing young learners' intercultural competence. Second, the current English textbooks, both Russian and English ones,were analyzed according to the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes represented in them. Then the author of the paper compared the practical construct from the English textbooks with the theoretical one by searching for the areas where intercultural competence might be developed more fully. As one of the possibilities to teach intercultural communication to young learners the author suggests organizing culturalexchange between Russian and English-speaking students trough project work. Such work will allow students to deepen their intercultural knowledge and practice their cultural observation by comparing different cultures.
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2020
The historically determined multiculturalism of modern universities, the socioeconomic and socio-political changes taking place in Moldova and Russia since the beginning of the 21st century dictate the formation of intercultural competence among students, representatives of different countries and peoples. The purpose of the article is to present the results of a study carried out at the Faculty of Philology of Ion Creanga Pedagogical State University in 2017-2019, and demonstrate specially created psychological and pedagogical conditions that contribute to the formation of a higher and higher quality level of students' ICC, which involves a description of the content-technological support of the developed model and diagnostic tools for measuring the level characteristics of the studied construct. The empirical basis of the study was the results obtained in the course of a three-stage work with students of 1-2 courses studying in the speciality "Russian language and literature, English language" of Creanga PSU, and their meaningful interpretation. The study confirmed the authors' assumption that specially created psychological and pedagogical conditions, which are the introduction of models for the formation of intercultural competence in educational activities, are effective and contribute to the preparation of competent participants in intercultural communication, which in turn will be reflected in both the training of specialists and in the stabilisation of interethnic relations, taking into account the cultural characteristics and interests of each nation living Moldova and Russia. The developed pedagogical model for the formation of intercultural competence among foreign students can become a conceptual basis for the compilation of modern textbooks, teaching and methodological complexes in the Russian language and literature, both for university and pre-university educational institutions. The results of the study are of practical interest for scientists and university professors who are busy with problems of improving the quality of education of modern specialists and, further, the managerial staff of higher educational institutions, heads of departments that constantly monitor the quality of education.
2020
The abstract should provide a comprehensive summary of the work performed, including the motivation of the research, aim of the research, methods of the research, main results of the research, contribution to the theory and practice of the research. For nine years, the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute has been successfully using the educational and teaching technology - intercultural educational project (IEP) - in teaching Russian as a foreign language. The goal of the project is to ensure intercultural communication among all the participants: foreign students and Moscow schoolchildren. During this project, the audience gets acquainted with the differences between languages and cultures. The specifics of this format of educational and design activities is determined by the relevant factors: the collaboration of foreign students studying Russian, and the other -, native speakers of the Russian language and culture. For the Moscow schoolchildren, the project is a part of thei...
Problems and Discrepancies of Intercultural Communication in Russian and Foreign Science
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
The paper deals with analysis of the present problems of intercultural communication, such as its status among related sciences, different approaches to study this science, and its discrepancies in Russian and foreign science. Various approaches regarding the status of intercultural communication and its place among other sciences is examined. It has been shown that intercultural communication is at the intersection of numerous sciences and has a highly interdisciplinary status.
Forum for Linguistic Studies, 2023
This paper examined the representation of culture in Russian as a foreign language (RFL) textbooks to understand the problem of creating a theory of intercultural textbooks, with Italy as a case study. The four most popular RFL textbooks used by first-year students in Italian universities were studied: Poyekhali, Molodets, Mir tesen, and Davayte. A comparative content analysis of the chosen sample was performed to test how Russian culture is represented in RFL textbooks. The results reveal that such textbooks reflect only a partial and sometimes stereotypical image of Russian culture, with a strong correlation between ideologies and bias derived from RFL theories and textbook creation. In other words, these textbooks convey essentialist and/or reductionist views of the culture of Russia (e.g., poor attention paid to the Russophone dimension, stereotypes, and lack of opportunities for intercultural dialogue). The cultural topics contained in the textbooks evaluated do not quite contribute but rather hinder the formation of students' intercultural communicative competence. Therefore, it is argued that the content of an RFL textbook should help students create complex, multilayered notions of Russian and Russophone cultures for themselves.