Russian language: Learning Russian as the second foreign language via Internet

The first Internet-Conference “Russian language @ Literature @ Culture: urgent problems of study and teaching in the Baltic States and countries of CIS” was held on 5 – 12 October on the portal “Russian language for all”.

This event was organized by the Language and Literature department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University together with the Russian Association of teachers of Russian language and Literature.

The Conference attracted 120 specialists from 15 countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Austria, Italy, Spain, USA, Canada, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Ukraine.  Among them the philologists, culture experts, teachers of Russian as a foreign language, developers of Russian language teaching methods with the use of modern interactive technologies.

“The Conference is aimed at setting up the permanent Internet-basis, which will favour the creation of professional net association of teachers of Russian language, Russian literature and Russian culture in Russia and abroad as well. This is essential for exchange of experience, scientific and methodological projects” – told Larisa Dunaeva, the Senior Secretary of the Conference organizing committee, assistant dean of the Language and Literature department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The program of the Internet-Conference included virtual Meetings of sections and round tables. Among the discussed issues were: “Russian language in the countries of the world: study and teaching”, “Russian as the second and foreign language in the Russian school and abroad: history and present day”, “The problems of the modern Russian language textbook”.

“The problems of national policy and bilingualism, cross-cultural communication and the establishment of the linguistic world-image, teaching Russian as the second and foreign language in the Russian school and in schools abroad aroused great interest among the Conference participants and hot forum debates”, - mentioned Larisa Dunaeva.

During the Internet-Conference the TV space bridge was broadcasted on-line between the participants of the round table Meeting “Use of Internet in spreading the scientific and academic literature of Russian as a foreign language”, which simultaneously was held at the Language and Literature department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), in the Russian cultural centers in Tel Aviv (Israel), Kiev (Ukraine), Brussels (Belgium), Budapest (Hungary). The participants of the round table meeting were the representatives of the academic literature publishing houses, the heads, teachers and students of the foreign cultural and educational centers and departments, the textbook authors and teachers.

The organizers inform that the second Internet-Conference “Russian language @ Literature @ Culture: urgent problems of study and teaching in Russia and abroad” (http://world.russianforall.ru/conf) will take place from 23 – 29 November. The participants of the second Conference will raise a wider range of problems and continue the discussion of the October Conference reports. On the closing of the second Conference a single collection of works from two conferences will come out.

The Internet-Conference dedicated to the teaching of Russian language as a foreign, for the first time organized in the web-format, attracted great interest among the professionals.”Already now we can judge that the first attempt turned out to be a success, we received positive responses from the participants and other audience, and also the suggestions to share the experience”, - summed up Larisa Dunaeva.