Teaching English in Russia

Zoya ProshinaInstitute of Foreign Languages, Far Eastern National University,

Vladivostok, Russia

Language Situation in Russia

• Over 100 languages

• Russian – state / national language

• 30 other official language (in autonomous republics & regions)

Sakha Autonomous Republic

• 2 national languages - Russian and Yakut;

• 5 official languages – Even, Evenki, Yukagir, Chukot, and Dolgan;

• 1 official working language – English since 2000

Historical context

• An educated person =

well-read +

foreign languages

(A.Pavlovskaya.

History of Foreign Language Education in Russia.)

• 19th century: French

• 1900-1950: German

• Since 1950s: EFL at secondary schools

• Self-sufficiency in the closed society

• Perestroika > EL boom

• Economic needs

Educational context

• 19th century: Private education – learn to speak by speaking (nurses, governesses)

• 1950-70s: Primary goal: reading + translation. FL as an outlet, gate to the outside world.

• 1980s-until now: intercultural communication in oral and writing forms

Preschools

• Non-mandatory classes

• 5-year-olds and earlier

Secondary Schools

• General Comprehensive Secondary School (525 hrs / 3 hrs a week)

• 5th -11th grades (normal)

• 1st – 11th grades (experimental)

• Intensive English Schools (4-6 hrs /wk)

• 2nd -11th grades

Foreign Language

is a mandatory subject

at school,

English being one of them.

Interview of R.Line, Great Britain Ambassador to Russia:

Today about 85 % of Russian students study English

in cities, 70% - in towns, 60 % in villages.

Teachers

• Local

• Peace Corps volunteers (1992-2002)

• At universities: occasional EL grantees and fellows

Model of ELT

• European part of Russia

British English

• Asian part of Russia

American English < British English

5-7 grade curriculum in FLSubject matter Hrs

Family and friends. Home. Leisure, hobbies. Shopping. Letter writing.

80

School. Holidays. Seasons. 60

Russia and target language countries (geography, climate, weather, capitals, sightseeings). City and countryside.

90

Health. Environment. 40

8-9 grade curriculum in FLSubject matter Hrs

Interpersonal relations. Character features of a person. Sport, music, movies, theater, discotheque. Fashion.

50

School life. Pen-pals. Professions. Role of a FL.

35

Russia and target language countries (culture, national holidays, customs and traditions). Traveling. Outstanding people. Mass media.

75

Nature and ecology. Healthy way of life. 30

Final Exams

• National unified exam • Listening• Reading• Vocabulary and Grammar• Writing• Speaking

• Centralized test

• School tests

University Enrollment

• Entrance exam for humanities majors

• National unified exam

• Centralized test

• Tutoring

• ‘Preparatory’ training courses

Universities

• “The Bologna process”: diploma convertability – adapting to Europe

• Three types of diplomas:

Bachelor degree (4 yrs)

Specialist (5 yrs)

Master degree (6 yrs)

Universities

English for majors(teachers, translators,

interpreters,IC specialists)

English for non-majors

=General + ESP

English for Majors• Groups of 10-15 students• 4-5-6 years• 10-14 hours/week• Aspects:

– Speaking– Listening– Reading (home-reading; individual reading)– Writing– Grammar– Vocabulary– Rhetorics– Linguistics (General L., Theory of E.Grammar,

E.Phonetics, E.Lexicology, E.Stylistics, Pragmatics, Translation Theory…)

English for Non-Majors

• Groups of 15-40 students

• 2 years + optional 2 years

• 4 hrs/week

• Non-aspective T/L

• Content-based education

Post-university degree

• FL exam:

reading / translating

speaking on the research theme

no writing

Functional context

• Inter-economic:

transnational companies

business with foreign partners

• Intercultural:

information about other countries

information about Russia

Intercultural usage of English

English

Inner Circle cultures Russian cultureExpanding / Outside

Circle cultures

Chinese,Korean,

Japanese

British,American,Australian

Intermediary translationof Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

words from English into Russian

Intermediary translation is translation from an English variety used by non-native speakers, i.e. from ELF.

e.g.,Chinese -> China English -> Russian

China Daily

• The Sino-Russian Suifenhe-Bogelanqinei Trade Complex

• Bogelanqinei = Pogranichnyi

• B < P

• L < R

• Q < CH

• -gel- < -gr-, -qin- < -chn-

Difficulties of Intermediary Translation

• Irregular spelling

• Spelling variations

• From English or from Japanese?

• Qigong• Xianggang

• Tai-chi / tai-ji• Chikung / qigong• Tao / Dao• Hangul / hangeul

• Sushi – CУШИ / СУСИ

Course of East-Asian Englishes at FENU

• Pluricentricity of English and basics of the World Englishes theory

• Brief description of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Englishes, their development, status, and specifics.

• Systems of Romanization in China, Japan, Korea

• Correlations between Cyrillic and Romanized writing systems that exist in these Asian countries.

• Asian loan words in English, their assimilation.

• Translating texts on Asian cultures

Moscow State University

• School of Foreign Languages.

• 2001 – new speciality: “Russia” (Department of Regional Studies)

“Those who know foreign languages have not studied Russia enough.”

(Prof. Svetlana Ter-Minasova)

St. Petersburg SchoolVictor V. Kabakchi

• GLASNOST <l/2> political "the policy or practice of more open consultative government of information, esp. in the Soviet Union since 1985 [Russ. гласность, literally, publicity, openness]." (OEED)

Этот русизм прочно вошел в словарь английского языка в период пе рестройки (OED 1972), потеряв при этом мягкий знак.

Е. g.: The world, having learned the word glasnost last year, now twist ed its tongues around perestroika. (Newsweek 04.01.1988; summing up the year of 1987) <> The U.S.S.R. — that mystery inside an enigma that so fascinated Americans in this Year of Glasnost — is celebrating its seventh decade... (Life Jan 1988)

As well known as that word has become around the world, there is still no English translation that fully carries its Russian meaning. It is usually trans lated as 'openness', but it is both more than that and less than that. (Gorbachev 1988, p. 145)

• GLASNOST and PERESTROIKAPerestroika and glasnost, glasnost and perestroika. They

will still be secure in the vocabularies of all the languages of the world long after the children of the Soviet Union and its satellites have begun to ask: 'Mummy, who was Lenin?' or for that matter: 'Mummy, who was Gorbachev?' (Keith Waterhouse 'Just Two Big Words', Daily Mail 22.08.1991)

Natalya Yuzefovich, Khabarovsk

Englishization of Russian

• Direct borrowings

• Syntactic calques

• Hybrids

• Corporative mixture

Direct Borrowings into Russian

• Business: promotion, advertiser, head-hunter, shopping, management

• Communication: internet, web-design, on-line, display, fax, computer, mass media

• Administration: speaker, grant• Policy: electorate, consensus, pluralism• Mass media & entertainment: talkshow,

daily, publicity, DJ, rap, hip-hop, single• Food: cheeseburger, pepsi, cola, french-

fries

Syntactic calques:N + N

• интернет-кафе < internet café

• караоке-бар < karaoke bar

• вэб-администратор < web-administrator

• офис-менеджер < office-manager

Hybrids:

“Духless” by Sergei Minayev

слухмейкер (rumor-maker),

беспрайсовый (priceless)

Russification

• Баксы < BUCKSы • Кликать < CLICKать (to click the mouse)

• Байкерша < BIKERша (female biker)

• Пиарщик < PRщик (a PR person)

Corporative Mixing Jargon

Эйчары обязаны мотивировать сейлзов на приобретение коммуникейшн скиллз. В частности, презентейшн скиллз. Именно скиллз, а не нолидж, как считают некоторые, вообще часто определяют саксесс в бизнесе. И дело не только в профите. Своеобразным бенефитом от работы может быть и обычный сатисфекшн, которого нам всем так не хватает.

• HRs are bound to motivate sale agents to develop communica-tion skills. Presenta-tion skills, in particular. Skills, not knowledge, as somebody may think, enhance success in business. And it is not just profit that matters. You can benefit from work by getting mere satisfaction which all of us lack so much.

Nativization of English

• New words and collocations:

unpleasantries

home task (= home assignment),

foreign passport (=for traveling abroad)

state university (=national university)

heroine mother (=having 5 and more children)

Palace of Culture (=community center)

Candidate of Science (Russian PhD)

Change of meaning:

• scientific conference (academic research)

• hostess (geisha+waitress)

• Gymnasium (type of school)

• New Russians (rich)

• social work (unpaid work)

Russian mentality in English syntax• Imperative: Read the text.

• Over-emphasized negation : Do not disappear (< Stay in touch). I think I cannot do that. (< I don’t think I can do that.)

• Double negation: It is not possible not to see the complexity of the problem.

• Affirmative and negative disagreement: Yes, I won’t be able to do it. No, you can call me any time.

Russian students’ preference of the variety of English to study

Variety of English %

American English 63

British English 48

Australian English 10

East Asian English 6

Russia English 5

I do not care 3

Faculty preference for varieties of English to be taught

Variety of English %

American English 69

British English 56

Australian English 8

East Asian English 21

Russia English 3

Do not know 3

Faculty’s self-labeling of the variety of their English

Variety of English %

American English 13

British English 31

Russia English 5

A mixture (AmE + BrE) 13

A mixture (influenced by Russian)

44

I do not know 0

• Russia English = acrolect

• Russian English = mesolect

• Ruslish = basilect

Deviations = mistakes?

Deviation “is the result of a productive process which marks the typical variety-specific features; and it is systematic within a variety, and not idiosyncratic.”

(Kachru 1983: 81)