On May 3 and 4, the Russian-Armenian University hosted an international scientific methodological conference, dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the birth of Soviet Russian scholar, specialist in grammar and vocabulary of the Russian language, professor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, editor of the multi-volume Dictionary of Modern Russian Literary Language, outstanding methodologist Stepan Barkhudarov. 
 
The Barkhudarov Readings brought together leading Russian philologists, methodologists and translators in order to exchange the latest scientific and scientific methodological ideas in Russian studies, discuss the functioning of the Russian language in the educational space of Armenia, achievements in the field of computer technology in the process of teaching Russian as foreign language and, of course, traditional and innovative methods of teaching Russian as foreign language.  

 

This year, the conference brought together 38 participants from 5 countries and 17 higher education institutions. The format was mixed, which allowed all the participants to present their speeches in person, remotely, and in absentia. Speakers from Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, Russia and Finland spoke at the plenary and breakout sessions. Thus, scientific works were presented by the academic staff of the following universities: the Russian-Armenian University, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language (Moscow), Brusov State University (Yerevan), the Razumovsky State Medical University of Saratov, LUTLAB Universities Language Center (Lappeenranta), Higher College of Transport and Communications (Astana), Institute of Design and Technology "Symbat" of the Almaty University of Humanities and Economics, Karaganda Research University named after Academician E. Buketov, Mikhailovsky Military Artillery Academy (St. Petersburg), Moscow City Pedagogical University, Russian State University in the name of A. Herzen (St. Petersburg), and Armenian State University of Economics.
 
At the plenary session of the "Barkhudarov Readings'', Ph.D., Associate Professor, Acting Professor, Head of the Department of Russian Language and Professional Communication, Head of the Center for Russian Studies Karen Hakobyan presented a report "On the dynamics of changes in the state of the Russian language in the Republic of Armenia.” PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Professor of the Department of Pedagogy and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages ​​at the Brusov State University Nina Tatkalo presented a report on the priority competencies of RFL teachers in Armenia in the 21st century, in collaboration with the PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Professor of the Department of Russian Language and Professional Communication of the Institute of Humanities of RAU Inna Sarkisyan. Svetlana Trotsyuk, PhD, Associate Professor at the Higher School of Linguistics and Pedagogy of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, spoke about neural networks as a pedagogical tool in teaching Russian as a foreign language.

 

The work of the conference further continued at breakout sessions, where reports were presented in the framework of such areas as: 
• RFL in the educational space of the Republic of Armenia: a retrospective review and predictions for the future;
• the subject "Russian language": the content and features of teaching at universities and schools (problems, prospects, textbooks);
• teaching Russian as a foreign language (traditions and innovations);
• the place of translation in the RFL learning system;
• issues of bilingualism;
• the use of computer technology in the learning process of RFL.
 
“A few days ago, on April 30, the grand opening of our Russian Studies Center took place. And today we are holding such a landmark event here, a scientific methodological conference on the Russian language dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the outstanding Soviet Russian methodologist, our compatriot S. Barkhudarov. We immediately set about implementing the most important tasks of our Center, those being organizing and holding international scientific conferences and strengthening and expanding cooperation with Russian partner universities and other foreign universities. It’s worth mentioning that among the foreign participants of the conference there are our fellow scholars in Russian philology from Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and almost all employees of the Laboratory of Cognitive and Linguistic Research of the Pushkin State Institute of the Russian Language, chaired by the head Maria Lebedeva,” shared the organizer of the conference, head of the Department of Russian Language and Professional Communication, Head of the Center for Russian Studies Karen Hakobyan.

 

It should be noted that the conference was organized by the Center of Russian Studies and the Department of Russian Language and Professional Communication of the Institute of Humanities of the RAU.
 
 

 

Translated by Christina Hakobyan,
I year Master’s Student in Translation & Interpretation, RAU