This study investigated the role of cross-linguistic similarity in the acquisition of Russian initial stop contrasts by Chinese learners, addressing two specific research questions: (1) How similar are Russian voiced stops to Mandarin stops for Chinese learners?; and (2) How can the speech learning model (SLM) be applied to account for the…

In the article the concept of "a family reading" is analyzed, the significance of " the family reading" model is disclosed, the role of grandparents in the formation of the child's personality is revealed. The goal of the article is to point out the possibility of improving the reading culture in the case of an awareness of the…

Based on oral and written testimony of pupils and teachers, this essay examines the lived educational experience of the school-age cohort of children in Stalin's Russia from 1931 to 1945. The state alone determined the structure and curricula of the nation's schools. However, Soviet youngsters, their parents, and teachers responded to the center's…

Practically no one will dispute that the future of Russia depends on the successfulness of the multifaceted modernization of Russian society, a task that cannot be confined solely to the socioeconomic sphere. The most fundamental task is that of changing the societal system of values and institutions. If Russia is to modernize successfully, the…

This paper considers the work of the Russian social philosopher and cultural theorist, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin as a source of understanding for those involved in action learning. Drawing upon data gathered over two years during the evaluation of 20 action learning sets in the north of England, we will seek to work with the ideas of Bakhtin to…

In this commentary, the author stresses that reading habits in Russia have changed since the Soviet era, and the more intellectual journals and magazines in particular have lost their importance. Audiences for books and magazines have fragmented, and there are fewer sources of commonly shared information and ideas than was true a few decades ago.…

It is acknowledged that the value of reading has gone down in today's Russian society, and this is rated as unequivocally negative. Instead of "the most well-read country in the world," Russia is now called a "society of TV viewers" by the some observers; it is not a nation of independent thinkers but passive objects of the…

During the period of glasnost, between 1985 and 1990, all of Russian literature changed. After 60 years of division between official and unofficial, dissident and emigre, the publishing of Russian literature became unified. Censorship and government control practically disintegrated. Among the "new voices" in Russian literature is…

Russian Village Prose began in the 1950s with articles critical of the way collective farms were being managed and developed into an insider's view of rural life and a celebration of the values and rituals of traditional rural Russia. It represented a new approach to rural themes and characters and a return to literature of high aesthetic quality…

On 28 November 2006 Russia observes the one-hundredth anniversary of Dmitrii Sergeevich Likhachev. By an edict of President V.V. Putin 2006 has been designated the year of D.S. Likhachev. A scientist of encyclopedic scope and a renowned researcher into Old Russian literature, Academician Likhachev became, starting in the second half of the 1980s,…

This paper provides historical background on the Jews in Russia and relates the development of children's literature to historical events and situations such as the discriminatory national policy of Tsarism, the fall of Tsarism and the abolishment of discrimination, the political repression of the 1930s, World War II, and Stalin's anti-Jewish…

Some papers from a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) symposium, "Significant Russian/Soviet Cultural and Pedagogical Developments of the 1980s: Educating American Students for the Year 2000," are presented. After an explanation of the system of transliteration used in the works, the following papers and authors are included:…

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov spent 6 of the last 7 years of his life at Yalta (located on the Crimean Peninsula) where he had a house constructed in order that he might live in a climate favorable to his failing health. During these years Chekhov married the actress Olga Knipper and met Leo Tolstoy, who was near the end of his life. Chekhov also…

This essay examines American awareness of Soviet literature and writers and vice versa and discusses problems involved in making Soviet literature available to Americans. Highlights include accessibility through public and private libraries and establishing and publicizing a Soviet writings library collection. Some Soviet publications and…

Research into the history of Russian education has been primarily concerned with the sociopolitical dynamics of the educational field?concretely, with government policies on education and science, with the social composition of the teaching and academic corps, and with the broadly ideological attitudes and activities of government officials,…