Vol 18, No 3 (2020): RUSSIAN AS WE SPEAK IT: FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF S.A. KHAVRONINA

The article highlights the main milestones of the scientific and methodological activities of the professor of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Serafima Alekseevna Khavronina, the outstanding specialist in the theory and methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language, who made a significant contribution to the formation and development of Russian linguodidactics. S.A. Khavronina is the author of numerous scientific publications, as well as textbooks and teaching aids, normative-methodological and test materials, which have been actively used for many decades in Russia and abroad. Her textbook “Russian in Exercises” is unparalleled in popularity and the number of reprints in dozens of countries. The importance of S.A. Khavronina’s scientific works lies in scientific and methodological description of such complex aspects in the practice of teaching Russian as the word order, ways of expressing time, prefixes, etc. She has also the developed scientific and methodological foundations of teaching Russian as a way of business communication. For her professional achievements, S.A. Khavronina has been awarded the Order of Friendship, Pushkin and Motina medals.

The article is dedicated to the history of teaching the Russian language in Lebanon from the end of the XIX century to present times. The authors tried to analyze how the pivotal historical moments of Russian-Lebanese relations influenced the conditions for teaching the Russian language in Lebanon. The article provides a brief description of the programs and methods used in various educational institutions for teaching Russian in Lebanon, depending on the form in which it was in demand for its functioning (at one stage or another). First as a language taught in some “Moscow schools” of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, then as a language for preserving the Russian culture of the Diaspora initially formed by first wave immigrants and finally at the present stage, Russian as a foreign language or as a native language for bilingual children of compatriots living in Lebanon.

It is crucial for teachers of Russian as a foreign language to investigate the way of development of the ideas about the teaching method in didactics and linguodidactics. Thereby, they can better understand the process of evolution of the scientific thought, its current state and define its prospects. It helps to build a modern theory of teaching that has a practical value. The purpose of this research is to describe the development of the ideas about the teaching method in didactics and linguodidactics, to identify its stages and to analyze the future prospects for the development of the theory of teaching, including the methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The research was based on about 80 theoretical works devoted to didactics and linguodidactics and practical guides for teachers, including manuals for teachers of Russian as a foreign language. The author used the methods of conceptual and contextual analysis, and the historical and descriptive research method. Analyzing the sources, the researcher identified three stages of the development of the ideas about the teaching method in didactics and linguodidactics. When the ideas about the teaching method originated (17th-19th centuries), this concept was not defined. However, the term “teaching method” was actively used, as it referred both to the teaching process and to the teacher’s actions in the classroom. At the stage of formation of scientific ideas about the teaching method (20th century), researchers compiled and analyzed empirical data. Different definitions and classifications of the teaching methods were proposed and various theories of teaching methods were developed. At the stage of critical rethinking (21th century), a new theory of teaching was introduced. It included the description of the main features of teaching methods, their functional classification, and recommendations on how to choose and develop a teaching method. The term “teaching method” is polysemantic, which causes a number of problems. If researchers manage to clearly define this term, a great contribution will be made not only to didactics and linguodidactics, but also to the theory of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

The article analyses the experience of implementing virtual reality (VR) in foreign language teaching, particularly teaching the Russian language in Chinese universities. Basing on different approaches and the results of applying VR in practical classes at the Russian Language Faculty of Sichuan University, the research on the effectiveness of VR technologies has been done in terms of stimulating Russian language learners’ motivation, enhancing their knowledge, strengthening their language capability, developing basic oral Russian, as well as improving the quality of teaching Russian in a non-native environment. The research subject is determined by the transformation of the educational process among students with a relatively good language capability. The novelty and actuality of the topic are due to the following factors. Firstly, it is modelling situations with real-world samples when the organizer of educational process makes it immersive by using computer and recordings. Secondly, auto-reading module can be used. Thirdly, the system can check the consistency between the original text and the one recognized by voice recognition module. The author reviews indicators of the experiment, aimed at assessing teaching results and summarizing the changes in knowledge acquiring with using VR technologies at the Russian Language Faculty of Sichuan University. According to the results of the survey, the author studies the pros and cons of the changes brought by VR and concludes the opinions of the tested students and teachers participating in the experiment. The results of the experiment illustrate changing roles of teachers and students. To be specific, the teacher is no longer a simple organizer, but a supervisor, assistant and consultant, playing a supporting role. Students gradually master the functions of training systems. It stimulates them to work independently under VR. This has been proved by the students’ results in the semester exam and the state accreditation test of translators. Besides, the statistical data are presented on the differences between the traditional model of language teaching and the one under VR.

Modern educational trends, including individualization of learning, shifting the focus from the teacher to the student, taking into account the characteristics of the student's personality, including his native language and culture, arouse interest to national-oriented methodology. The objective of this article is to determine the relevance and prospects of this methodological direction in modern teaching of Russian as a foreign language. To realize the objective set out in the article, we used methods of analyzing scientific literature, scientific observation and synthesis of pedagogical experience, conversations with students and teachers. The article is based on scientific research on the methodology of teaching foreign languages, including Russian as a foreign language, textbooks and manuals, both national-oriented and of general type. The article considers the traditions of applying students’ native language in teaching Russian as a foreign language. We clarify the concepts of “native language accounting” and “reliance on native language”, consider the historical formation of the mentioned principle as one of the leading methodological principles, analyze its implementation in textbooks on Russian as a foreign language. The most attention is paid to the analysis of national-oriented manuals. As an example, the textbook “Le russe à votre rythme. Cours pratique pour francophones” by S.A. Khavronina, A.I. Chirotchenskaïa, and L. Bron-Tchitchagova is considered. The peculiarities of its orientation to French-speaking audience, ways and means of preventing interlanguage interference and achieving a positive transfer of skills from the native language to the studied one are noted. The prospects for creating such textbooks based on previous experience and methodological traditions are outlined. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the analysis of the results of the national-oriented methodology out of a specific educational situation, limited by certain learning conditions. The theoretical significance of the work consists in generalization and analysis of the accumulated methodological experience in this area. The practical significance is determined by the systematization of methods used in a national-oriented textbook for implementing the principle of native language accounting and identifying the prospects for developing new educational materials of this type.

The article analyzes one of the most famous textbooks by S.A. Khavronina for studying Russian as a foreign language “Russian as we speak it”. The book has become a hallmark of the Russian methodology and culture of teaching a non-native language abroad. The author examines the structure of the book, emphasizes the innovative findings of S.A. Khavronina, speaks about the features of presenting and explaining the material. Special attention is paid to the communicative orientation of the textbook, which for the first time offered a clear, simple and at the same time methodologically based strategy for teaching Russian as a foreign language. According to the author of the article, the book by S.A. Khavronina is an example of a balanced approach to the analysis of how the live speech influences on foreigners. It solves the key tasks of modern methodology of Russian as a foreign language: grammar-translated, personal-practical and audio-linguistic. The article draws readers’ attention to the problem of creating a modern textbook on Russian and intercultural communication, taking into account the best achievements in the history of these disciplines, using traditional approaches proven over the years and the latest methods of studying language as a cultural phenomenon.