How to implement the idea of philologisation in the practice of teaching Russian? (On the anniversary of Professor N. L. Mishatina)

Abstract

The article substantiates the methodological significance of the idea of content philologisation while teaching Russian promoted by Professor N. L. Mishatina. We understand philologisation as the expansion and deepening of the content of Russian language teaching through knowledge about the relationship between language and culture, language and national mentality. Based on this, we consider N. L. Mishatina’s idea promising. This approach draws on comprehending the triad "language–man–culture". It provides a broad context for school language education and involves students’ inclusion in the conceptual sphere of Russian culture. The paper argues that the idea of philologisation consolidates the polyphony of approaches to Russian language teaching. We identify the developmental stages which the philologisation conception has gone through. The research demonstrates that the current stage addresses the issue of methodological support necessary to implement the new approach. Such support includes developing a typology of lessons and exercises for students, as well as recommendations for teachers. We indicate ways to apply this idea in Russian language lessons: turning to national linguistic concepts; studying the history of words, phraseological units, proverbs; using texts of culture as didactic materials; employing methods of cultural text interpretation, socio-cultural and cultural-historical commentary, supertext journey; developing individual transdisciplinary educational projects. By way of example, we consider the potential of the integrated lesson of the Russian language and literature (11th form) "A Russian cemetery near Paris" and show how the idea of language education philologisation is implemented. The lesson plan was developed drawing on the analysis of Yu. V. Drunina’s prose "Europe through a soldier’s eyes", R. Rozhdestvensky’s poem "A Cemetery near Paris", as well as thematically and ideologically related works by other authors. In the light of N. L. Mishatina’s idea, working on these texts forms a value-based attitude towards the Motherland, its people, history, and culture. Such work shows the richness of the native language and its expressiveness.