How many school students nowadays could call the Russian language their favorite subject? Why do Russian lessons at school seem boring and formal? Mechanical learning of the rules, endless insertion of missing letters and the fulfilment of typical tasks cannot interest the modern school student. Is there an alternative?
Working with the Russian National Corpus in teaching humanities, such as literature, Russian, history, can demonstrate that language is a living and evolving system that has its past, present, and future. And students can try themselves as researchers: derive a definition from observing contexts, see how the meaning of a word changes over several years, and predict the spelling of new words.
Working with the RNC can shape and develop
- research skills
- functional literacy
- interest in language
- understanding of the history of the language
- usage of reference resources
- ability to analyze context
- understanding the word behavour in fiction
Exercises based on the corpus
Various exercises: training, repetition, developing, creative, control exercises. They can be used for independent work both at school and at home, as well as for performance rating.
Examples of school assignments using the corpus
- Life of a word (changes of meaning and grammatical features with time):
- 9—10 класс, Когда в русском языке появилось слово «прикол» и как менялось его значение?
- 9—10 класс, Всегда ли слово «положительно» значило то же самое, что сейчас?
- 10 класс, Когда в русском языке появилось слово «блогер» и как менялось его написание?
- Shades of meanings (working with paronyms):
- 9—10 класс, Как корпус русского языка показывает, что бывает рыбьим, а что рыбным?
- 7 класс, Когда же все-таки писать «сплеча», а когда «с плеча»?
- Frequency dictionary (a word in the works of a writer, for a selected period):
- 9—10 класс, Какие прилагательные со значением высокой оценки использовались
в произведениях начала XIX века, а какие — в произведениях начала XXI века?
Examples of school reseach projects based on the corpus
- Лексикографическое описание тематической группы «ткани» в современных словарях русского языка.
- Алия Мингазова, 10 класс, МАОУ «Гимназия-интернат №4», г. Казань.
