Meeting the present - day challenge : teaching Russian through English

Abstract

The Russian language has changed its role and status from being lingua franca of the Russian empire to one of the popular foreign languages taught at schools and universities of Lithuania. In the course of loosening historic, social, political and economic ties with Russia has become a thing of the past. It has resulted in the increase of interest in the Russian language which is regarded not as the language of occupiers but the language of opportunities nowadays. Learners of Russian are aware that Russian proficiency facilitates transnational business contacts across the post –Soviet space and within the Russian diaspora around the world. Moreover, multilingualism and bilingual education constitute an important resource in the modern world. To date changes in language and education policies are taking place at Vytautas Magnus University due to the emergence of new disciplines, subjects and language environment. We are witnessing more democratic forms in language policy making. The University has opened its doors to foreign students who are willing to study foreign languages, among which is Russian. As a result, there appeared a strong need for designing a course of teaching Russian through English. The present paper discusses the issues and problems related to the planning of the new course: its syllabus, objectives, materials and methodology. Focusing on socio-cultural context, the authors consider the study of personal learning needs, motivating factors, learning styles and strategies, modern approaches and techniques as key points to the course design. The future research will be aimed at defining the role of Moodle assisted learning in supporting social contacts and collaborative learning in teaching Russian through English.