The Teaching of Russian Language and Literature

THE TEACHING OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Roman Samarin The study of Russian language and literature in the higher educ. ational establishments of the Soviet Union is conducted mainly in universities and teacher training institutes in their departments for training philologists, journalists, and speciaiists on various countries. Lecture courses on Soviet literature are given by the faculties of history and philosophy. Besides, these subjects may be taken by students of all the other departments, if they so desire. If, for example, students of mathematics, physics, or chemistry express the wish to study Russian language and literature a special group is arranged, with a philologist providing instruction. Of course, we have in mind advanced study of these subjects, for all students receive a solid grounding in them in the secondary schools. This article deals specifically with the teaching of the Russian language and literature in the philology faculty at the Lomonosov State University in Moscow. Philology students of this faculty specializing in the Romance and Germanic languages and literature, the Slavic languages and literature, classic philology, and other subjects must take the courses in modern Russian and the history of Russian literature. Thus, the syllabus of the Slavic languages and literature department provides 164 hours for the study of modern Russian, over 100 hours of which are devoted to classroom work. Lectures are also given in Russian literature (240 hours) and foreign literature (144 hours). However, philology students preparing to become teachers of Russian language and literature or scientific researchers in the field of Russian philology proper (linguists or literary scholars) receive more profound and multi-sided instruction in these subjects. The main SUbjects of the entire course at Moscow University are the Russian language in all its academic aspects and the history of Russian RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 13 and Soviet literature. Instruction in these subjects is offered by the departments of Russian language, Russian literature, and Soviet literature . Specifically, the department of Russian language provides instruction in Old Slavic, modem Russian, Russian dialectology, the history of Russian grammar, the history of the Russian literary language, comparative grammar of the eastern Slavic languages, and the methodology of teaching Russian in school. The course in Old Slavic is intended to provide future teachers of Russian language and literature with a knowledge of the structure of this language. Old Slavic, the most ancient of all the Slavic languages, already had its written language in the ninth century. The oldest Russian literary monuments to come down to us belong to the eleventh century and are copies of Old Slavic texts going further back into the past. For a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of Old Russian and its historic evolution, the study of Old Slavic, which is closely allied to it, is quite important. Old Slavic has played a major rOle in the development of the Russian literary language. Old Slavic is taught at Moscow University in the freshman year. The programme provides 68 lecture hours and the same amount of time for classroom work. Instruction in modern Russian, given in the students' second and third years, pursues the following aims: to give a systematic course in the theory of the phonetics, vocabulary, word formation, and grammar of modem Russian, to acquaint the students with the graphic system and the scientific rudiments of orthography and punctuation of written Russian, to show the students of modem Russian its Importance in the life of society, to reveal its wealth, to help students fully master the norms of Russian literary speech and to help future teachers of Russian language and literature to develop a good grasp of linguistic analysis. The course in modem Russian includes lexicology, phonetics, orthoepy, graphics and orthography, word formation, and grammar (including morphology and syntax). The dialectology of the Russian language is given in the second year. The study of the dialects of the different areas inhabited by the Russian people provides valuable material on the history of the Russian language. A good grounding in Russian dialectology is important also for a full understanding of works of fiction of both Russian classic and Soviet literature, besides being of great practical value for teachers of the Russian language. The course on the historical...