• age and how it affects teaching Russian as a foreign language to children
• what modern children want from lessons
• who we are working with — children or parents
• two books and why I recommend them
• what to do with grammar
• age and how it affects teaching Russian as a foreign language to children

The age of the student affects not only the teaching of Russian as a foreign language; age affects teaching in general. People are different at 3 years old than they are at 60 years old. I also had an article about how to teach Russian as a foreign language to people over 50.

Children are very different at different ages. Tactility is essential for children up to about 7 years old — they need to touch, move, and break everything. This is normal. This is what you need to base your teaching on.

Therefore, it is inadvisable to teach online because there is nothing to touch. Still, there are teachers who teach online.

There is a lot of literature that describes in detail the stages of speech development in children, what happens at what time. A little later, I will show you two books that I recommend.

What do modern children want from RFL lessons?

• to influence their learning
• entertainment, ease
• quick results

According to Russian linguist Alla Akishina, a child learns language by listening and communicating, not by analyzing.

Much is being written about learning through games. Games are important and necessary, and you can really teach a lot by using them. You need to know why you use these games and how best to use them — playing with purpose. By the way, my video about games in RFL lessons already has 19,000 views; here is the link. People are interested in this topic. In my video, I just list the games without classification. In my blog, I have an article about games in RFL lessons; here is the link. There is a classification of games: memory games (lotto and bingo for me) and guessing games. This classification can be found in the book “Learning to Teach” by Alla Akishina, p. 223.

Children and adults like to play in class. Teenagers — not so much.

Treat games as exercises, but do not call exercises games.

Working with parents is even more important than working with children. For one thing, parents pay you for your work, so it is important to establish contact with them and maintain good relations.

It is important to explain to parents what is happening in class and why we do this or that exercise. This is maintaining feedback on the one hand, because parents are interested in knowing what is happening in class. When parents understand what is happening, they can support their child in the activity; for example, do not let him quit.

How can you explain to parents what is happening in class? The necessary words can be taken from literature. A smart author explained it to you; you explain it to your parents. All knowledge is always transferred this way — from person to person; no other way has been invented yet. A teacher simply must know what is written for parents. First, you are a beginner teacher; you will not understand literature on psychology overnight. Thus, start with something easier at the initial level. Books for parents are just entry-level pedagogy. Then you will move on to more professional reading. This is the first thing. Second, reading such literature gives you the language, the words, for communicating with parents. You have read a book for parents, and you have understood how and what to say in order to convey your thoughts to them. I often hear this from my blog readers and YouTube viewers: “You gave me the words to talk to the parents of my students, to explain to them what and how we do in class.”

Two books

I always recommend books by Alla Akishina. And this time I have two such recommendations. One is “Learning to Teach,” and the other is “Learning to Teach Children the Russian Language: 111 Answers to Parents’ Questions.”

The second book is written for parents, but it will also be very useful for beginning teachers to study, especially the detailed description of the stages of speech development in children and how to work with them at each stage. Read, learn.

What about grammar? The teacher needs to know the grammar of RFL; the student does not need to. I have a video on how to teach RFL without grammar.

Akishina and Kagan write about this:

1. Go from meaning (sense) to form. “I don’t have a book” means the absence of something.
2. When working on cases, pay attention to verb control: look — watch — what? (a book, a film).
3. Teach students to ask questions for each case form: He looks at the teacher. Where is he looking? Who is he looking at?

It is useful to include repeated questions in the dialogues (“We didn’t hear”):

• He is looking at the teacher.
• Where is he looking?

Who is he looking at?

• At the teacher.
• Ah! He is looking at the teacher.
• You need to work with the text, with the phrase, and not with a separate word or combination, and certainly not with the rules.

This is exactly how my Soroka textbooks are structured. For example, the genitive case. We simply count objects: one — many.

(This is page 41 from the Soroka 2 textbook.)

Then we say what we have and what we don’t. We constantly ask questions and give answers to them. Look at the pages from the Soroka 2 textbook. Throughout the lesson we look at pictures, count objects, and talk about them.

(Soroka 2 textbook, page 45)

(Soroka 2 workbook, page 45)

At the end of Soroka 2, we have a comic strip that contains everything we know about the genitive and prepositional cases. Children see the situation. You have learned that in “many cars” and “no cars,” the word “car” changes in the same way.

Well, that’s it. To sum up. Teaching RFL to children differs from teaching it to adults. Children are also not homogeneous; there is a very strong difference in age. When you work with children, you also work with parents at the same time. Yes, we do not teach grammar to children. Write questions in the comments.

How are such RFL lessons different from lessons with a mother? The child is with the mother all the time, especially at this age. There is no communication plan and no tasks with the mother.

The teacher comes to communicate with the student for a short time. With the teacher, you need to concentrate on the material in a short lesson.

The mother may be busy with other things and not talk to the child at all (or the mother is tired and has no time for conversation). The teacher does not shut up; he talks constantly.

The mother can switch and start speaking the language of society. The teacher does not do this; he speaks only in Russian.

When my little student and I are walking outside, I tell her everything: “We are going outside. Look, there is a car here.” That is, I pronounce each action. The mother may not be able to do this. Firstly, not all mothers are talkative. Secondly, she can do something else when she is with the child — for example, she pays for purchases in the supermarket, while the child just sits there passively.

This is the main difference from lessons with a mother at such a tender age.

What is better, a mother or a teacher? For learning a language, it is better to have someone who communicates with the child in Russian.

Do you need to plan a lesson with a 2-year-old? I don’t plan. I follow the child. She touches my watch or bag; I tell her “watch,” “bag.”

Although there is no plan, I still adhere to some rules that I have developed over the years of working with children, and during the time of raising my own children.

I also follow the recommendations of Alla Akishina from her book “Learning to Teach Children the Russian Language: 111 Answers to Parents’ Questions.”

Alla Akishina recommends (from pages 26-27):

Touching. Stroking, patting on the shoulder, fingering. Accompany all actions with words.

Conversation. With gentle intonations. Address the child by name. More often reproduce sounds from the baby’s repertoire, as if speaking the same language with him. Be sure to listen to the baby’s “answer” and address him again, continuing the “conversation.”

Smile. Accompany all actions with a friendly smile, especially when the child smiles at you.

Gaze. Look into the baby’s eyes, try to prolong visual contact as long as possible. If you want the baby to repeat some sounds or words after you, smile, catch his gaze, and, looking into his eyes, repeat these sounds and words.

Finger training.

Of course, this is a long-term game. We will see the result only in a few years. Now the child can only say “hello” and “goodbye,” but she says it with excellent pronunciation.

A little family history. The girl’s mother is from a French-speaking family, although she was born in the USA. She herself regrets very much that her parents did not speak French to her, and that she does not know this language. Therefore, now her grandmother also speaks French to the girl, and I speak Russian. It turns out that she is a trilingual child.

She reacts normally to switching languages, does not worry, doesn’t demand from me be keep quiet (as sometimes happens with some children). A very friendly and cheerful girl.

I cannot show photos or videos, because the parents do not allow filming. This is understandable.

Write your questions about teaching a 2-year-old, I will be happy to answer.

In the second part, I will show exercises for those who are starting to independently swim in written speech in Russian.

In the third part — i.e., at the end of the article, as I usually do — I will tell you a little about the theory. About what written speech is in general, not only for children.

First part

We study letters and spelling. This can and should be done simultaneously.

What writing exercises do we have at this stage of studying Russian as a Foreign Language with children?

Copying: You can copy both words and sentences. Everything that you study.

Dictations: This is generally a super exercise. An indicator of everything. Both the student is in good shape and the teacher sees growth points. I have both an article and a video about dictations.

For the video, visit https://youtu.be/ntWaLgullcQ.

For the article, visit https://sorokad.com/2020/09/24/zachem-nam-diktanty/.

If copying is difficult, work with crosswords. This is also an exercise in copying, and also an exercise in spelling. There are many programs on the internet that will help you generate your own crosswords. Use them to have your students write Russian words by hand.

Anagrams: Working with anagrams also helps work with spelling; we remember the order of letters in a word. I worked with two types of anagrams. The first type is when we assemble a word from letters from cubes or cards.

For shorts on this topic, visit https://youtube.com/shorts/MYTHvsLcYLU.

The second type of anagram is for some reason more difficult — this is when the letters are written on a sheet of paper or on a board. For some reason, it is more difficult for students to do this task, but the essence is the same: anagrams — we assemble a word from the proposed set of letters.

Another exercise is one I call Crocodile (in the adult version, Hangman). We indicate how many letters are in the word. We name one letter at a time, trying to guess the word. With each incorrect letter, the little man approaches the abyss.

A must!! When we do these exercises (or games, if you like), then the children must have a sample in front of their eyes. This is a must! We do not invent anything, and we do not take anything out of our heads. At least because the child has nothing in his head yet. When we study, we always copy someone. Copying is a mandatory stage in the learning process.

Secondly, we must first read all writing assignments aloud, and then do them orally. And only then we write them. Since we learn a language by ear, we need to connect what we hear with its graphic version. This is because they have words in sound separately, and their graphic version is also separate. If you give them an assignment right away, they will not do it.

Now I have shown you the exercises that we need to teach writing to RFL students — children 7 to 9 years old.

Second part

When our students have already grown up and learned to write Cyrillic letters, can write words in dictations without mistakes, and we can encourage them to start writing something on their own using a model. Why am I not talking about them starting to express their thoughts in Russian? Well, at least because we have children, they are not yet very good at expressing their thoughts in their native language. They are just starting to do it. That’s why I say that we start writing something in Russian using a model. This is, of course, not independent written speech.

We lead children into the world of writing very slowly.

I will talk about the exercises and show how we do them in the textbooks Soroka and Sarafan. Starting from the Soroka 3 level, we do written assignments. In them, we learn to independently formulate our thoughts in writing. We work on the statement.

In Soroka 3, we start with lists. This is the simplest; even a child who knows very little Russian can do it.

When we have learned to write lists, we gradually move toward independent writing: small sentences first and then a small paragraph.

Then we have a small text and a diagram for it. Empty spaces appear in the diagram. In the very last diagram, everything is empty and you must fill everything in yourself. We constantly have supports, doing everything step by step. (It is necessary to provide illustrations here, see the link to them above). The point of these lessons is to hold the student’s hand until he feels strong enough to walk on his own.

I have already written in detail about the writing exercises in the Soroka and Sarafan textbooks: visit https://sorokad.com/2023/02/10/pismo-v-sarafane/.

Third part

The third part is kind of “theoretical.”

What do speech and writing have in common, and how do they differ?

When we speak, we use intonation, pauses and gestures. When we write, we only have words. And the one who reads can understand these words in different ways. It happens that I read a text today, and I see one meaning in it. Tomorrow, I read the same text and I see a different meaning in it. The text has not changed! What has changed? Only my perception.

By the way, this is one of the reasons for conflicts in social networks. When one writes in one context, the other reads in another context.

What unites speaking and writing is that these are productive types of speech activity. This is the case when we ourselves must produce something. This is our work.

Listening and reading are reproductive types of speech activity — i.e., we perceive them. In this case, we are the passive side.

Every healthy child begins to speak at a certain age. But in order to learn to write, she must be taught separately.

When written speech is read from a piece of paper, it still remains written speech. This is immediately audible; listeners do not like it.

Oral speech is spontaneous, and has more rough edges, pauses and repetitions. But SMS (Short Message Service) is not written speech in the literal sense; it is oral speech, but recorded in a text message.

Actually, that is why people still prefer to leave voice messages — because when you write, you still have to stop and think about how best to formulate your thought. But when you speak a voice message, you don’t have to think about it.

In general, everything is complicated.

Write what you think about written speech, and what your students do to develop writing. All the best!

For those who don’t know — a weekend school is a place where immigrants gather to teach their children Russian. This is not a state school with programs, requirements and final exams. Classes are usually held on Saturday and Sunday, hence the name.

So, we have children ages 7 to 9. The whole group is about the same age. Of course, it is better to divide such classes by levels. Well, at least so that native speakers and RFL students do not sit together.

If you can’t divide, then there are several strategies. Since everyone’s level is different, it means that the students are bilingual — i.e., they are not learning the language from scratch, but already know something, and bilinguals are a spectrum. Let’s remember this. What to do? Start from the end. See what’s at the end, how you want to achieve it. Think through the stages, how to reach the goal.

The advantage of a weekend school is that at the end of the year there is no certification, no exam at the end. Therefore, you are free to do whatever you want.

What ideas do I have?

Proceed with small courses, small projects that are three to four months long.

Be sure to test all the children, especially at the beginning! You can give any test; the main thing is that it checks all types of speech activity. At least you know more deeply what is going on in the heads of your students. Such knowledge helps you get your bearings.

Maybe, for the course you have chosen, your students will have just enough knowledge. If, for example, your course is packed into a production of the Russian folk tale “Teremok,” then there is no need for special grammar. And you can speak in monosyllables.

When there is such a motley crowd, it is better to choose one reference point for yourself. This could be some specific student. Or it could be some kind of test at the end. You can focus on the average level of the group (you conducted the testing; you know the average temperature in the hospital for optimal comfort and efficiency). Another option is to focus on strong students; the weak ones will swim on their own (or drown).

But there should be only one benchmark — we work toward it. By the way, this benchmark can be changed if you no longer like it.

What other strategy can there be? If the teacher has additional exercises in store (reading, for example), then these exercises can be offered to the student. But when will he do them? You need to plan a separate time for him to do them. When? At what point in the lesson? Please remember that you will not be able to turn group work into individual work! And in my opinion, all of these “additional tasks” will lead to nothing; they will only cause stress.

Here is a story from my life. I was taking a training course, and we were given a group of high school children. We had a student named Danil. He spoke Russian very well. Everything was in order with cases and verb conjugation. But he could not read or write! He was in a group with his American peers, Russian as a Foreign Language students. They were good at reading and writing. What strategy would you choose?

This was in a public school, in a summer program in Russian; the teacher didn’t have much choice but to simply follow the chosen program — and not pay much attention if someone sagged somewhere. In general, in the States the strategy is to help the strong.

There are textbooks that are supposedly designed for working in mixed-level groups. See for yourself. Such textbooks seem to have special exercises for those who can’t keep up with the group, and there are exercises that are designed for very strong students, but — there is still some level that teachers focus on! And this is the level I’m talking about. In the description, I leave a link to a review of a textbook from Germany, which was created specifically for mixed-level groups. But it is still difficult to work with such groups. It is better to divide them by levels.

In the end, working in a group where students have different levels of language proficiency is pure hell, and it’s better to divide such groups by levels. But if you can’t divide your group … well, then I hope you don’t die prematurely from stress. All the best!

We have three sections.

Section 1. I will show you techniques that you can immediately apply in practice in your lesson.

Section 2. We will talk a little about the theoretical basis. I will tell you what to look at, what topics, and what materials to look for, so that you yourself can develop the skill of teaching children without explaining grammar.

Section 3. How we teach children a language without explaining grammar to them with the “Soroka” textbook.

Section 1

In this section, I show specific actions and comment on them. At the end, I will simply make a summary of the actions without commentary.

Examples are taken from the Akishina-Kagan book “Learning to Teach,” pages 133-136.

Step 1 extended — The teacher shows a picture and says: Девочка читает книгу.

It is better to listen with a picture, without a graphic version. That is, it is better to hear first than to read! Let me remind you that this is the very first introduction to this grammatical structure. The students are not familiar with it yet. Девочка читает книгу.

Step 2 extended — The students listen and repeat after the teacher: Девочка читает книгу.

As soon as we get acquainted with something for the first time, we immediately repeat it out loud. Once is enough for now.

Step 3 extended — The students remember what they have already studied before; they need it for support. So, they remember familiar models like:

Кто это? Это девочка. Что делает девочка? Девочка читает.

To help the students remember better, the teacher asks them questions.

To study this specific topic (which we are now illustrating), the students already need to know and use a certain number of transitive verbs; for example, писать, читать, знать, слушать and учить. They should know inanimate nouns and their gender forms. This is necessary for support when studying a new topic. I have written and spoken a lot about how to train the gender of nouns based on color, and I have a video about the Three Bogatyrs that I use as a teaching aid.

Step 4 extended — The teacher pronounces the word книгу, trying to emphasize the ending with her voice. The teacher’s task is to draw the students’ attention to the third element in the structure. What are the other two elements? Девочка and читает. The third element is a книгу.

Step 5 extended — The teacher pronounces structures of this type with the accusative case of the masculine gender: Она читает журнал. Он читает текст. Они смотрят телевизор.

Students listen and repeat after the teacher (you can use a picture). Let me remind you that the students are familiar with these verbs and already know how to conjugate them. The students are familiar with all the words (TV, etc.).

Here the teacher needs to remove the fear of the new form, which we have already become familiar with. Show that in the masculine gender everything is calm and nothing has changed. Well, let me remind you that by this time your students have already understood the difference in gender and know the gender endings.

Step 6 extended — The teacher needs to find out how the students understood the meaning of the third element. What words can they use? For example, you can make a joke: Ask, Это телевизор смотрит? The students answer: Нет! The teacher asks: Это текст читает? The students answer: Нет! You can take another phrase.

Step 7 extended — The teacher then gives examples with words of the neuter gender. He says: Она читает письмо. Он слушает радио. The students see that these are words of the neuter gender.

Step 8 extended — Finally, the feminine forms are given. The teacher says: Мы слушали музыку. Они читают газету. Оначитает книгу.

Step 9 extended — The students can derive the rule for forming the accusative case of the feminine gender themselves. If the students have difficulty, then you need to show them how the letter changes at the end (if this is a graphic version), or how the sound changes at the end (if they are learning by ear, without a graphic version). Here you can summarize the forms in a table. This is not necessary. You can also write down a sample phrase and translate it into your native language.

Step 10 extended — The next step is what question does the third member answer? Here, the students do not yet know the answer to this question. The teacher should show it to them. Ask a question and give an answer: Что она читает? Она читает книгу?

All the words are familiar to the students, and now the new form of the word book is familiar.

Step 11 extended — Students ask questions about the sentences they worked with today: Что они слушают? – Музыку. Что она читает? – Журнал. Что он пишет? – Письмо.

The primary consolidation of what has been learned occurs — its repeated use, preferably with the use of pictures.

Students ask questions. The teacher monitors the correctness of the phrases. Students’ mistakes, as a rule, appear due to inaccurate knowledge of the gender of nouns. I remind you that the gender of nouns can be studied based on color. I wrote and filmed a video about my Three Bogatyrs simulator. It was created specifically to train gender.

Step 12 extended — We have finished developing language competence and are starting to develop speech competence. Numerous questions are speech training.

First the teacher asks the students, then the students ask the teacher or each other these questions.

Я читают книгу, а вы?

Вы читали книгу или журнал?

Что вы читали?

Что вы слушали?

Что вы смотрели?

Step 13 extended — We continue to practice what we have learned in speech; you need to join the opinion.

Я читаю книгу. – Я тоже читаю книгу.

Step 14 extended — We practice speech. The task is to say the opposite.

Я читала книгу. – А я смотрела фильм.

Step 15 extended — We practice in speech. Situations. You are in a store and ask to show the things. Дайте, пожалуйста …

Step 16 extended — Students learn control of the use of the accusative case orally and in writing. Write down what you need to buy in the store, and then talk about it. Tell what you wrote, listened to and read this week. Tell the class about it. The teacher helps, of course.

Well, that’s it. I took this material from the book “Learning to Teach.”

Let’s draw conclusions.

1) Page 131 from the book “Learning to Teach”: Go from the meaning (sense) to the form. I don’t have a book means the absence of something.

2) Working on cases — pay attention to the verb control: look, watch, what? (a book, a film).

3) Teach students to ask questions for each case form: He looks at the teacher. Where is he looking? Who is he looking at?

It is useful to include repeated questions in the dialogues (“We didn’t hear”):

Он смотрит на преподавателя.

Куда он смотрит?

На кого он смотрит?

На преподавателя.

А! Он смотрит на преподавателя.

4) You need to work with the text, with the phrase, and not with a separate word or combination, and certainly not with the rules.

At the end of the first section, I will make a summary, as I promised: just techniques from the lesson without explanations.

1. The teacher shows a picture and says: Девочка читает книгу.

2. The students listen and repeat after the teacher: Девочка читает книгу.

3. The teacher asks questions: Кто это? Девочка. Что девочка делает? Девочка читает.

4. The teacher says the word книгу, trying to emphasize the ending with her voice.

5. The teacher says the following phrases: Он читает журнал Они смотрят телевизор. Они слушали текст. The students listen and repeat after the teacher. You can and should use a picture.

6. The teacher can joke: Это телевизор смотрит? Это книга читает? The students answer, нет!

7. Then the teacher says: Она читала письмо. Он слушает радио. The students listen and repeat, paying attention to the third word in the sentence.

8. The teacher says: Мы читали газету. Они слушали музыку. Ончитает книгу.

9. Students can derive the rules themselves. In the feminine gender, the form of the word changes. There was the letter A at the end, now it is the letter У. If students have difficulty, then you need to show them how the letter changes at the end (if this is a graphic version), or how the sound changes at the end (if they are learning by ear without a graphic version).

10. The teacher asks the students questions: Что девочка читает? (This was our very first sentence).

11. Students ask questions about the sentences they worked with today: Что они слушают? – Музыку. Что она читает? – Журнал. Что он пишет? – Письмо.

12. We practice in speech — numerous questions. First, the teacher asks them of the students, then the students ask these questions of the teacher or of each other.

Я читают книгу, а вы?

Вы читали книгу или журнал?

Что вы читали?

Что вы слушали?

Что вы смотрели?

13. We practice in speech — join in the opinion.

Я читаю книгу. – Я тоже читаю книгу.

14. Speech practice – say the opposite.

Я читала книгу. – А я смотрела фильм.

15. Speech practice – you are in a store, asking to show things. Дайте, пожалуйста …

16. Usage control: (a) Give me, please! (in a store); (b) answers to questions: What are you reading?

Section 2

The second section involves theoretical situations. I will tell you what to watch, what materials to look for to develop the skill of teaching children without explaining grammar.

In general, I am a boring person, I read a lot of books on the methods of teaching different languages ​​in my time, and now I am broadcasting this. I am not developing anything new; I use what other methodologists have developed.

I have always (all my life in languages) been interested in this — how to teach in such a way that it would be possible to avoid studying grammar. This is how I came to the methods of teaching foreign languages, and then RFL (Russian as a Foreign Language).

Let’s see what they write in the book “Learning to Teach,” page 140. Deductive and inductive introduction of grammar:

1) Deductive — the teacher explains the rule and trains it with the audience. A classic example is the grammar-translation method.

2) Inductive — the students themselves “discover” the rule. This is exactly what we need. All teachers of the methodology note this. What children need is an inductive introduction of grammar.

There is another author from Russia, named Shchukin. He, like me, does not invent anything; he generalizes and tells you about it. In his book “Teaching Foreign Languages,” on page 178, Shchukin lists inductive methods of work.

All of these methods began to appear more than a hundred years ago; for example, the direct method. The developers were Berlitz and Pimsleur. Pimsleur is still working — they have an application for learning foreign languages. And so on.

But the fact is that no one uses these methods in their pure form anymore. Now eclecticism is used in full swing — when some elements (or several elements) are taken from each method and combined, creating new methods.

Section 3

(from my article on grammar)

Those who are familiar with my textbooks know that there are no grammar rules in them, and that all tables with endings are final. We finish studying the lexical and grammatical topic with them.

In the textbook “Soroka” we have many mini-dialogues. The students just needed to practice lexical and grammatical constructions in speech. What we read about in the book “Learning to Teach” are questions and answers.

“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, and select words and grammar for the situation. For example, let’s take the topic “agreement of cardinal numbers with nouns.” This sounds scary even for an adult! If we take a small piece of this topic — two hours, three hours, four hours — then it becomes somehow more pleasant. We learned and practiced only four words: the numerals two, three and four, and the word hours. We learned and practiced their combinations. Let me remind you that in “Soroka” we study each form of a word as a separate word. We practiced the word combinations to remember them better. (“Soroka 1,” page 43)

Then we continue with five hours, six hours, seven hours. We learned 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 rubles, 5 rubles. Aha! We remember what we learned about hours and time, because there is the same rule there. (“Soroka 3” page 9)

(video about grammar)

(from my article about deriving rules)

I often suggest that my students derive rules themselves. I also write about this in the Teacher’s Book. Why do I do this? What does this give us in studying Russian as a foreign language with the “Soroka” textbook?

First, let’s look at the Teacher’s Book and see what we are talking about.

For example, Lesson 3, Session 2. I quote: The textbooks are open on page 11. The teacher reads the words out loud and asks the students how they can explain the difference in the word pairs идет/идут, спит/спят, сидит/сидят, etc. The student should say that when talking about one person, they use the words спит, сидит, читает, and when talking about several people, they use спят, сидят, читают.

Second example: Lesson 7, Session 1. Quote: After this, the teacher asks the students: “Maybe you’ve already guessed when to say зеленый, and when зеленая? The students give their own answers, making different guesses. If they find it difficult, then give a hint that they need to look at the last letters in the words.

For some teachers, this is very unusual. They are used to the teacher explaining the rule, and then the students practicing it. What happens when the teacher explains and the students “practice”? The students need to 1) remember the rule, 2) see the situation in which this rule is applied, and 3) apply this rule. In my opinion, this is very difficult. In my practice, most young students have rules in their heads in one place, and their implementation is in a completely different place. And it doesn’t matter whether they play chess, cross the road at a traffic light or learn Russian.

I suggest a different way. I suggest giving a situation and showing what exactly needs to be done in this situation. Secondly, I suggest observing the language, what is happening in it, and tracking patterns. What does this give us?

First, it develops observation and analytical skills. This is useful for developing the mind, and it helps in life.

Second, it is also useful because the student himself tries and is using his brain; it is active.

When you bring a rule on a silver platter, efforts are needed only to remember this rule and there is little motivation. This is passive perception.

If we derive the rule ourselves, then this is active perception; we remember it faster and for a long time. Because we have appropriated it, it is ours, we have put our energy into it and we have become co-creators.

Many will say that children do not know how to derive such rules; however, this is not true. Children’s word creation is precisely the result of observing language and deriving rules. Everyone has read Chukovsky’s “From Three to Five.” I have a video about deriving rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcueiGVKcVo.

Children all over the world do this, not just Russian-speaking ones. They observe the language, draw conclusions and apply them. Most likely, children draw conclusions unconsciously. When you ask your students to draw rules, they will begin to do it consciously: that’s the only difference.

So, it is possible to teach without explaining grammar. Such methods have been developed for a long time, and they can and should be used in the classroom. This works for both children and adults. This is exactly how teaching is done in the “Soroka” textbook. All the best!

Video lessons. It is very good to watch them, especially at a young age. If you trust the channel, you can turn it on so that the child can watch and go do other things. Passive can easily become active, and that is how it should be. Language comes in through the ears. When there is a lot of language input in the environment, it is great. Video lessons are just language in the environment. Convenient for parents. Convenient for teachers to give homework: “Watch a video.” A very good option. A small note. If it is only watching a video, then this is passive perception. To turn passive into active, I would add some active forms of work: questions or discussions.

A computer application. If the application is competent, then there is both passive and active perception. You can practice a lot of things, do exercises for all types of speech activity. It is important for parents to receive a report (the app should send this) that the child did not just click buttons, but how much time he spent, at what level, how much was correct/incorrect. All of this can be done in the app. A competent app will teach you itself, it will work everything out. And at a personal meeting in class, when everyone has worked through it, you can chat, play in a group, show the child his achievements. For me personally, the value of the app is that the computer app mixes up the tasks. Now it offers you one set of words or pictures, and then it mixes everything up and there will be a different set of words. This is a huge plus compared with the written text from a textbook (or even a video, which is also static). Why is this important? Because children have very good visual memory — when students see the same set of words, they simply remember the set of words visually. That is why we need the pictures to somehow change places or the words to change places. That is why we read the cards in class, and we read the cards so that they can be mixed up all the time, you know, so that if someone did it for me, some machine did it for me, I would only be happy.

Textbooks. The textbook already has all of the exercises thought out; the system is thought out. It is very good if the textbook can “speak.” Because after all, in the 21st century, languages ​​need to be taught with sound, and not explain phonetics on the fingers. If there are many different groups of students, then taking a textbook and following it is great, because less time is spent on preparing for lessons.

A textbook is very good for work, both for individual work and for work in a class with a teacher. A class is a group. The child sees that he is not alone (“suffering”) — in a group it is easy to create a language environment. For kids, a teacher is an extension of their mother. They begin to love the language because of the person who teaches this language (and because of their mother, too).

I have a video  about how to choose a textbook of Russian as a foreign language for children, and about how you can teach without a textbook at all.

What do I advise? Use everything at once, simultaneously: the textbook, video materials, and applications.

For those teachers who know the methodology; the technology; in what order to give lexical topics, grammatical topics, phonetics — for those who know all these, they don’t even need a textbook.

I’ll show you how I can conduct an RFL (Russian as a foreign language) lesson without a textbook.

First, I’ll make a list of words that we need to learn during the lesson. It’s desirable, of course, if it’s not just a list of words but some topic — for example, “City” or “School,” “Toys,” “Family” — so that the words are related to each other.

Then I mentally divide the whole lesson into four parts: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In terms of time, this is usually a quarter of the lesson for each type of speech activity.

Then I’ll think about what exercises to fill this topic with — what exercises I’ll have for listening. Maybe I’ll bring some videos to the students for the lesson, or maybe I’ll bring some songs. It all depends on the topic, and it all depends on the level and what they have covered. Then I will think about what exercises we will have for speaking on this topic. I will decide how we will practice (drill) words. Often listening and speaking exercises can be combined, so I will think about how to do this. I will look at what exercises we will practice words with, and in what dialogues we will use them for reinforcement. This is all about the oral part.

In the second half of the lesson, we will pay more attention to reading and writing. I will select exercises for reading. Personally, I like to read short dialogues so that later I can use them as a model for independent questions and answers.

I already have some kind of technology in my head. I already know: “Aha, this is an exercise for speaking, and this exercise is for writing.” If you do not yet know which exercises are designed for which type of speech activity, then watch my webinar about this — here is the link.

Let’s continue. For a lesson without a textbook, we need to know in what order to give the task, how to monitor its completion, and what are the criteria for whether the topic has been learned or not. You must understand why we need each specific task, what skill it teaches. And here we go back to the beginning again — study the profession, the technology of education. Yes, everything is very technological, and everything is described in different methodological books. For example, in the book by Akishina-Kagan “Learning to Teach,” all types of exercises are described, and why exactly we do them in the RFL lesson.

Then I look at the time. How much time do I have for each type of speech activity. Usually my lessons last 60 minutes. It turns out that we listen for 15 minutes, speak for 15 minutes, read for 15 minutes and write for 15 minutes.

If you do not know what exercises there are and for what purposes they are intended, then most likely you are a beginner teacher. In this case, you only know how to open brackets. There is nothing wrong with that; you will learn everything. In your case, you need a textbook. In the textbook, you will at least read and translate the dialogue. Reading the dialogue from the textbook in roles is already good — you will do something that is different from the brackets.

If you have a weekend school, you are your own boss and you decide in your school which textbooks to study from, or to refuse them altogether. Then before you refuse, think about what you will work with.

If there is a very large flow of students, and everyone has different programs (in my case, six groups of different ages and levels on one day), it is better to take something ready-made for each group, to spend less time preparing lessons.

And yes, I know that in the USA some schools really refuse textbooks. They have a curriculum that indicates what topics they cover; the teachers themselves fill the lesson. But you must understand what you are doing, what exercises to fill this lesson with. Even where to get these exercises.

In some countries there are banks with exercises. For example, in the U.S. teachers create their own exercises, then share them in these banks. There you can sort by subject, by topic. But there is very little for free in such banks — the main access is paid. And, most likely, the school where the teachers work pays for all this pleasure. This is how the experience is exchanged. And it all works great. But, when working with such sites, in addition to access, you also need to check the exercises themselves. Firstly, to what extent does this exercise correspond to the level of your students? Lexical and grammatical. Secondly, there may be mistakes, typos.

Result: It is quite possible to teach without textbooks.

Well then, the last question is this: If I am so smart and generally believe that it is possible to work without textbooks, then why do I write these textbooks? I will answer now. The thing is that, firstly, I was not always so smart. I study, I look at what my colleagues are doing — colleagues who teach other languages besides Russian as a foreign language — and what is new in the methodology. I read scientific articles, and at the same time I teach myself. In my opinion textbooks are needed in two cases, the first of which is for beginning teachers who have not yet gained experience, who still need to study a little to work out the technical side of the issue — which exercises are needed for what, how to control so that they tick off each item on the list of what needs to be done. The second case is when teachers are very busy, and they have absolutely no time to create their own programs. In this case, a textbook is very convenient — you take it, everything is already written there, everything that needs to be done is already there. See for yourself which is better. You can teach quite normally without textbooks.

We have two parts. In the first part, I will tell you about the procedure for working with vocabulary in practice.

In the second part, we will get acquainted a little with the theory of the methods of teaching RFL.

Part 1

Stage one:

Getting acquainted with words. This is a very short stage.

The teacher says the word and shows a picture; the student then listens, understands and reacts. As an example, I take numerals. I show a card with a number and say out loud what is written. It is better to take a set of three cards (objects). The student is only listening and does not repeat anything! When we have shown all the new words and heard how they sound, we proceed to the second stage.

The second stage of acquaintance:

We learn to recognize the word. I show the student three cards with different numerals. I say one number. For example, 21. The student shows me the said number. Then I say another number and the student shows it. Here you can repeat after the teacher a little. The duration of the stage is determined by the teacher. If the student says everything correctly, you can move on to the next stage.

The third stage:

Oral drill. The student learns to pronounce new words correctly. In the case of numerals, we take a card, say a number and the student repeats it several times. Just like that: “Nineteen, nineteen, nineteen.” Yes, each word needs to be practiced like this. Yes, the student repeats it several times. Your students will not do this at home, that’s for sure. Therefore, everything needs to be done in class. To avoid boredom, you can come up with some tricks. But drilling is necessary if you want the student to speak later. This stage can be combined with reading. In our case, it is reading from cards. I write a lot about reading from cards, as you will know from reading this blog.

The fourth stage:

It comes when everyone has worked. The student operates with a new word. The teacher and student change roles: The student says the word (numeral), and the teacher shows the number on the card. If you have a group, then everything is much more fun — one of the group members says a word (for example, a numeral), and the other group members show it.

You can finish such a fun lesson with a game. The group lines up. The first student whispers one of the studied words into the ear of his neighbor, and so on down the chain. The last in the row says the word out loud.

Note 1.

Can I use other words: clothes, food, toys? Yes, of course you can! Remember that we take the words that can be simply shown in a picture or by pointing to an object (a table, book, telephone, room, and so on).

Note 2.

I work with Americans. They often confuse numerals that end in 2 and 9. They practically do not distinguish them by ear, and it is difficult for them to pronounce such numerals correctly. So, pay attention to this: Americans need more time to learn the difference. I offer them dictations: 2, 9, 12, 19, 20, 29, 19, 12, 20, 9.

Note 3.

We are talking about beginners, about those who have just started learning Russian as a foreign language. At higher levels, working with vocabulary may be different.

Note 4.

For those interested in how we work with numerals in the RFL “Soroka” textbook, I have a video on this topic. Here is the link .

Part 2

Let’s see what A.A. Akishina and O.E. Kagan write about working with vocabulary. As you know, Akishina and Kagan are very authoritative authors of RFL (Russian as a foreign language) books. Their book “Learning to Teach” is simply a treasure trove of wisdom for teachers. But since not all teachers are familiar with this book, or have not quite mastered the terms, I want to help them and retell what was written with examples from the RFL textbook “Soroka.” Let me remind you that Akishina and Kagan write about vocabulary on Pages 147 to 163 of their book.

Very important! Quote: “At the initial stage, speech occurs primarily due to lexical accumulation.” This means that the more words you have learned at the initial stage, the faster you will speak.

What shortcomings in working with vocabulary do Akishina and Kagan note?

• Too much vocabulary that students do not have time to learn in the allotted time. The optimal number of words that can be worked on during a lesson depends on the age of the students and the duration of the lesson. For example, my students age 7 to 9 study for one hour (60 minutes), and we manage to learn seven to eight words per lesson. Older students can learn more. In the book “Learning to Teach,” the authors write about 20 words per lesson of one and a half hours. These are adults (teenagers are also adults in my eyes).

• Insufficient vocabulary training in class. Students are asked to learn words at home, and in the classroom the words are already monitored. Insufficient training leads to the fact that words are quickly forgotten. Today we already talked about training during the lesson. If you forgot, then read the first, practical part of this article again.

• Presenting words out of context, in the form of lists. This is especially unacceptable with children. All lists, even with pictures, do not help.

• Insufficient work on word formation, which helps students both remember words and expand their passive vocabulary. Word formation is great, especially with adult students. We do not work on word formation with young students yet.

• Insufficient repetition of words in the learning process. Definitely this is not about “Soroka.” In the RFL “Soroka” textbook, all words are repeated in different forms and situations — they are constantly spinning in exercises, words are strung together in different situations. Teachers constantly write about this in their reviews. Therefore, if you study with “Soroka,” words will be constantly repeated.

• Words are not always brought out into independent speech by students. Yes, this is a common mistake in RFL lessons. I constantly write about bringing words out into speech. In “Soroka” we do exercises on bringing words out into speech.

• Akishina and Kagan write about working with a dictionary. This really helps to see a word in all of its ambiguity. But now we need to write a separate article about dictionaries, because there are a lot of them now and they have changed.

• When encountering a new word, the teacher rushes to translate it, without offering the students (where possible) to try to determine the meaning of the word themselves, based on the context, based on the composition of the word, etc. It is important to remember two words here: “Where possible!” That is, sometimes the translation justifies itself. The second point: Yes, the teacher is in a hurry to translate. I learned to restrain myself only recently. I rushed to translate everything. Stop! Let the students think for themselves, they will succeed! Here is the link to my video about the intermediary language in RFL lessons https://youtu.be/vdFIwZcd8WQ

I have shared a lot of information with you today. If you have questions, write them in the comments.

All the best!

For us immigrants, the language hasn’t changed since we left. It remained the same as when we brought it from the motherland.

Some words transformed their meaning right before my eyes. For instance, at the time when I was leaving Russia, visitors were invited to sit by the word садиться. Now people are more likely to say присаживайтесь. The next example is about the word задний. For me, задний means someone standing at the back. Nowadays, in Russia, this word has acquired the meaning of последний. In my girlhood, the word касаемо apparently meant что касается. It sounds rough to me now as it referred to spoken language. I’m not criticizing; I’m just stating the fact that my language is becoming archaic. I simply can’t keep up with it.

The descendants of immigrants who relocated to the U.S. about 100 years ago, after the events of 1917, call a school of the Russian language “Отрада.” They also say уборная instead of туалет. And do you know what the word отрада means? There is even a song with the words: “Живет моя отрада в высоком терему.” I suspected that it is a cognate with the word радость, but I still had to look it up in the dictionary to make sure. The original meaning of the word “отрада” is удовольствие, радость. For instance:“Дети — наша отрада.”

And I don’t have the word уборная in my vocabulary; I’m an immigrant from another time.

Also, there are Old Believers who live in Alaska, in the U.S. I talk to them only in English, as their Russian differs from mine; though they consider Russian their native tongue. I can only guess which variant of Russian they speak. Their names captivate me with their antiquity — for instance, the name Ulita. By the way, it doesn’t stop them from buying my books.

I’m telling you this because I hope to convey the idea that language is a living entity that flows, lives and evolves. Language is always changing. You can see it in the meanings of words, the use of cases, and the syntax.

If we continue with the river analogy, the language of immigrants is like a small (or large) body of water that remained as the river changed direction. This body of water no longer connects with the river from which it originated, and lives separately under its own laws.

So, what language do we learn? Some people may say, “There is a classical version of Russian that Chekhov spoke, for example. This variant must be learned!”

Let’s then read Chekhov. All quotations are from Chekhov’s complete works and letters, Moscow, 1946–1951.

«Рассказ неизвестного человека»:

«Я заказывал в ресторане кусок ростбифа и говорил в телефон Елисееву, чтобы прислали нам икры, сыру, устриц и проч.» (VIII том, страница 180).

Here is one more example from Chekhov’s letters. The volume and page numbers are listed in parentheses after the quote.

Chekhov wrote: «Сейчас в телефон говорила со мной Татаринова» (XIX, 231); «Альтшуллер говорил в телефон» (XIX, 231); «Сейчас говорил в телефон гурзуфский учитель» (XIX, 280); «Сейчас говорил в телефон с Л. Толстым» (XIX, 186) и т. д.

Someone may argue, “But wait, Chekhov lived 150 years ago (1860–1904). At that time, people had only invented the phone, and the norm of the language was in flux.” That’s true. I totally agree with it. Then, what language do we learn?

Let’s then turn to another classic, Korney Chukovsky, and his work, “Живoй кaк жизнь,” which is my favorite regarding language. Here’s the final quote for today.

Когда читаешь такие биографии слов, окончательно утверждаешься в мысли, что русский язык, как и всякий здоровый и сильный организм, весь в движении, в динамике непрерывного роста.

Одни его слова отмирают, другие рождаются, третьи из областных и жаргонных становятся литературными, четвертые из литературных уходят в просторечие, пятые произносятся совсем по-другому, чем произносились лет сорок назад, шестые требуют других падежей, чем это было, скажем, при Жуковском и Пушкине.

Нет ни на миг остановки, и не может быть остановки.

Здесь все движется, все течет, все меняется. И только пуристы из самых наивных всегда воображают, что язык — это нечто неподвижное, навеки застылое — не бурный поток, но стоячее озеро.

So, what conclusion do we reach? What language do we learn? When teaching a language, we should remember that it is constantly evolving. Therefore, in my opinion, we had better focus on the modern standards of the language that are commonly found in dictionaries. Immigrants who have difficulty finding modern dictionaries can turn to special websites such as грaмота.ру. It is still available for us; it’s our отрада.

All the best!

How do I feel about it? How do I conduct my lessons?

I tend to begin with the questions, What for? What is your final objective? What goals do you pursue? Who are your students? Then I focus on the situation. Let’s consider different situations and see how it is with the use of translation and intermediary language in relation to the course objective.

Situation #1: You have a diverse group of students and all of them speak different languages. What language are you going to translate? In my opinion, the matter of intermediary language becomes irrelevant here. You have only Russian, so you use this language for study. However, a diverse group is a rare thing. Commonly, we work in a country where our students speak the same language.

Situation #2: Some teachers believe that everything in a foreign language lesson should be translated for small children. I personally think that very little depends on the age of the students. For example, there is the method of total physical response (TPR), which is commonly used with preschoolers. With TPR, a teacher uses actions and pictures rather than translation. Since I don’t work with preschool children and this method is only slightly familiar to me, we won’t dwell on it. You can read more about it in the guest post on my blog (See also: “Перевод на уроках РКИ”).

Situation #3: Students have a high level of language skill, and we are having a translation lesson. Obviously, there is a translation, and an intermediary language is actively used here. It is in this language that we should explain all shades of meaning.

Situation #4: The most common case is when we are somewhere in the middle. Our students already know some things, but not everything. They are not beginners, and at the same time, their knowledge is still far from high-level. In my opinion, we need an intermediary language here in order to control comprehension and task performance.

Finally, I’d like to share my own experience and attitude toward translation. Generally, I explain all the grammar to students in their mother tongue. Especially as we are not limited by grammar, we cover lexical topics as well. We learn words, word combinations and speech situations. Yes, an intermediary language is involved here.

Gradually, we decrease its presence in our lesson. The more we dive into a lexical-grammatical topic, the more we get involved, and the less we use an intermediary language. At the final stage, when the topic is explored and introduced to speech, we no longer use it. Students have a good command of the material within the topic by this time.

When it’s time for a new topic, a new wave of not knowing moves toward knowledge, and as we did before, we start from explanation using the intermediary language. Gradually, we again diminish its presence and reduce it to nothing.

Note: It’s better to learn some words and phrases immediately and then review them each lesson, so that they can firmly settle in our students’ heads — for instance, the phrase Я не понимаю. Повторите, пожалуйста!, or command words such as “повторите, читай, слушай, открой, закрой учебник” and so on. These words are needed in all lessons, and it’s better to remember them at the very beginning. To feel confident and secure, a student should know how to ask for something to be repeated and use words that indicate he needs some assistance in understanding. If something goes wrong, he will be helped.

Sometimes students ask the teacher to translate something for them. If we work in a group, I first ask if there is someone who wants to help with translation or explanation. If we work individually, then it depends on the situation. If it’s a completely unfamiliar word, I translate it right away. Additionally, I can give an example of using this word in a sentence or phrase, especially if it’s ambiguous.

If students ask me to translate a word that they have recently learned, I first help them to recall it. I say sentences and phrases where we used it, and give examples. Ordinarily, that’s enough for students to remember. If I see that it isn’t working, I simply translate it.

Finally, I’d like to tell you about my attitude toward the lexical-grammatical method. I’m OK with it. Each course has its own goals. According to the goals, we choose the method. If your goal is to pass a grammar exam, you don’t need to spend your time on speaking skills. But if you still need to speak, don’t forget to introduce all grammar to your speech.

Sometimes a teacher’s arsenal includes a method that he has used his entire career. If he is a professional and his students achieve their goals, that’s great. And it has nothing to do with translation or an intermediary language. Some students want to explore only the familiar and common. Some students are ready to experiment. Situations are different!

To sum up, we use translation and an intermediary language depending on the goals we set for the course.