CALL and MALL learning programs have been introduced by preschool teachers into their language classrooms (Sadykova, Kayumova, Khalitova, & Gimaletdinova, 2017; Segers & Verhoeven, 2003), despite reports saying that some of these programs have little educational value (Kazanci & Okan, 2009). This exploratory mixed-methods study aims at examining how Russian language kindergarten and preschool teachers integrate resources of a Russian language online school Live Fairytales™ (Zhivye skazki, 2017) and what design elements of this multimodal digital resource they find conducive or impediment to successful language acquisition by young learners. The data come from the reports of six teachers and survey responses of 18 educators who described and reflected on their experiences integrating resources of the Russian language online school. The data show that teachers made productive use of the digital resource by utilizing its multimodal presentation of the content, integrating interactive activities mostly in a whole-class format, and creating an engaging and enjoyable learning environment of play. Visual representation of material was reported to be the most valuable and necessary for accompanying audio input, introducing or practicing vocabulary, supporting listening comprehension, and overall motivating very young learners to stay on task. This study extends our understanding of what early childhood educators expect from quality digital resources and how they integrate them into educational programs that support language acquisition of bilingual and multilingual preschool children.
Reading comprehension relies on a variety of complex skills that are not effectively assessed by existing Russian language tests. At the same time, Russian textbooks are criticized both for their low text quality and high text complexity. This study addresses issues of Russian language proficiency and comprehension assessment with the development of the Russian Language Test (RLT). The RLT was constructed to measure proficiency relevant to textbook comprehension, such as grammar and vocabulary knowledge, establishing propositional meaning and inferencing. Results from this initial study including 81 fifth-grade and 94 ninth-grade students confirm that students struggle with grammatical inferences and identifying the main idea in a text. Additionally, three standardized Russian exams, VPR, OGE, EGE are analyzed, affording an overview of the testing system for the Russian language from the elementary through high school education levels. This study demonstrates promise for the use of the RLT as a language proficiency assessment and provides a broad context for understanding the current state of Russian language tests for native speakers.
The article addresses linguo-cultural peculiarities of phraseological units with the component 'fire' in five different languages. The authors analyze phraseological funds by comparing and contrasting semantic groups. The greatest similarity is found between English and German phraseological stocks, whereas Spanish and Tatar ones have significant differences both in quantitative and qualitative terms.
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