Today the topic of our conversation is the grammar of RFL (Russian as a foreign language). Today we have three sections:

1. Why does a native speaker need RFL grammar (and what surprised me personally)?

2. I will show how I teach RFL grammar to children 7 to 9 years old (of course, using my textbooks).

3. What do the classics say in the book “Learning to Teach” by A.A. Akishina and O.E. Kagan?

1.

Why does a native Russian speaker need RFL grammar? I also asked myself this question when I was a new teacher. But I signed up for courses, where the first thing they explained to me was the difference. The difference is this: For a native speaker, choosing the right case is not a problem at all. When a native speaker learns the rules of grammar at school, it is important for him to use the correct endings. For a foreigner, endings are not a problem. Foreign students can easily learn the endings of any case. The problem for them is to figure out exactly when this or that case is used. When do we need the accusative and when do we need the genitive?

For me, the surprises of RFL grammar began with the questions “What time is it?” and, in general, “How much?” I had no idea that from two to four we count with the genitive case in the singular (two hours), and from five onward we use the genitive case of the plural (five hours).

Or, for example, as a native speaker, I did not suspect that only imperfect verbs are used in the present tense.

I am sure that you will find even more pleasant surprises for yourself.

What I want to conclude: When you teach Russian as a foreign language, the grammar of RFL needs to be taught separately, and this must be done without fail — even if you are a native speaker and philologist.

I personally use grammar reference books all the time. One was published in Russia (Pekhlivanova and Lebedeva), and the other was sent to me from the training center where I took courses. I also study RFL textbooks published in different countries to see how colleagues explain certain grammatical topics. I put something into my piggy bank to use in class.

2.

Those who are familiar with my textbooks know that they do not contain grammar rules or tables with endings. Some even conclude that there is no grammar there. And some even decided that I don’t like grammar.

I love grammar very much! And the entire RFL Soroka course revolves around grammar. If you take the work of Pekhlivanova and Lebedeva and compare it with Soroka, you will be pleasantly surprised, especially in Soroka 2 and 3, how much I follow the grammar recommendations. Another thing is that yes, I don’t study the rules and don’t write huge tables with endings. Soroka is written for children. The main thing for me was not to scare the child with grammar. I also know that even if a child knows the rules, this does not mean that he can follow them. Therefore, I have a different approach — in Soroka we study the situation, select words and grammar to suit the situation. For example, let’s take the topic “Agreeing cardinal numbers with nouns.” It sounds scary! If we take a small piece of this topic: два часа, три часа, четыре часа, then somehow it becomes more pleasant. We learned and practiced only four words: the numerals два, три, четыре and the word часа (o’clock). We learned and practiced their combinations. I remind you that in Soroka we study each form of a word as a separate word. We practiced word combinations to remember them better. (“Soroka 1: Russian for Kids,” page 43)

Then we continue for пять часов, шесть часов, семь часов. We memorized and practiced in Soroka 1. A little later, in Soroka 3 we go to the store and pay for our purchases. Our prices are 2 рубля, 5 рублей. Yeah! We remember what we taught about clocks and time, because it’s the same rule. (“Soroka 3: Russian for Kids,” page 9)

We also introduce rules in class! This is not for all students, but for observant ones. I had both an article and a video about derivation of rules. Here are the links.

When we work on Soroka, we focus on four types of speech activity: listening, speaking, reading and writing. As you know, grammar is not a type of speech activity. By the way, I put together a long and boring webinar on different types of tasks. In it I told what type of activity certain tasks were designed for. I’ll leave a link so you can take a look. I warn you that this is a long video. But you can start studying it from the content so that you can immediately move on to those sections that interest you and watch what interests you.

Here are the links. https://sorokad.com/en/2022/01/13/learning-the-rules-by-derivation/ and video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcueiGVKcVo

This is how things are with grammar in Soroka.

3.

What do we have in the recommendations of the classics? We read my favorite book by A.A. Akishina and O.E. Kagan (“Learning to Teach,” pages 131 to 133) to find recommendations for working on grammar. I note that almost everything listed is available in Soroka.

1) Before explaining how a grammatical form is formed, you need to pay attention to its meaning — i.e., go from meaning to form. I already talked about this above, when we gave an example from Soroka with numerals.

2) When working on cases, it is recommended to pay attention to verb control. Я вижу слона, я рисую принцессу. Let’s remember Soroka again. (“Soroka 3: Russian for Kids,” Student’s Book, bottom of page 7 — приходить, возвращаться, уходить, доставать)

3) When working on the case system, it is good to teach students to ask questions for each case form; you can show exercises with questions from Soroka. (“Soroka 3,” page 7 — at the top of the page we have talking heads with just the right questions)

4) It is necessary to work with the text, with a phrase, and not with an individual word or phrase. In Soroka, I have phrases and mini-dialogues (show talking heads with dialogue) on the pages of Soroka Forty 3 page 47

5) Work on word formation, teach students to see the morphological composition of words. This is useful, but I don’t have it in Soroka.

6) Work on the form must be carried out until students learn to use it in communication.

7) Do not forget that all popular exercises with form substitution and translation are a test of language competence only! I’m so glad that Akishina and Kagan mentioned this as a separate item. Some teachers are very fond of opening parentheses, and then they are surprised that the students don’t know anything!

8) Make wider use of various teaching tactics and strategies. Involve students more in explaining new material and formulating rules on their own. (I already mentioned the video about how we derive rules in class.)

9) Allow the student to express his thoughts, without constantly correcting his grammatical errors. The student has the right to make mistakes. I have an article about mistakes in lessons; here is the link.

By the way, in the book “Learning to Teach” a lot is written about grammar on pages 129 to 147. Read, study, apply! If you want to ask something about Soroka or tell how you study grammar in Russian as a foreign language lessons, then write in the comments.

Best wishes!