Teaching and learning languages in context: an interview with Dr Natallia Kabiak
Dr Natallia Kabiak is a Teaching Associate in Russian studies at the School of Languages and Lingusitics, Faculty of Arts. In addition to teaching, Natallia researches Soviet cinema and the usage of quotations from Soviet films in modern Russian. Her research interests also include methodological approaches to teaching Russian as a foreign language, Russian literature, and translation studies. She has recently published a textbook dedicated to teaching Russian through Soviet films «Любимые советские фильмы на уроке РКИ: учебное пособие» (“Favourite Soviet Films in Russian-as-a-foreign language classroom: textbook”).
Felicia interviewed Natallia about her experience teaching the Russian language at the University of Melbourne, as well as her newest textbook.
Felicia Lee
Hi Natallia, thank you for agreeing to the interview. First of all, I was wondering if you could tell us more about yourself, specifically your research interests, the classes that you’re teaching, and also your academic career up until now.
Thank you for the invitation!
I started my teaching career in the early 2000s in Dublin, I had moved to Dublin from Minsk straight after finishing at the Belarusian State University. At the time there was a high demand for Russian teachers in Ireland. I found myself teaching Russian at a number of Dublin language schools and after a time I founded my own Russian language and culture centre in Dublin.
In addition to teaching, I took groups of students on humanitarian trips to Belarus (assisting the children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster), worked as a journalist at a Russian paper and hosted my own radio programme in Russian. The highlight of my teaching career was tutoring postgraduate students at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. The students were enrolled in history courses. Their dedication to learning about the various historical periods of the Soviet Union always inspired me to create new teaching materials. At that time, I developed an interest in Soviet cinema as a wonderful learning device.
When I moved to Australia to marry my husband Luke almost ten years ago, I started teaching Russian courses of all levels at the University of Melbourne. I completed a PhD at Melbourne – my thesis was on the use of popular ‘winged phrases’ (phrases from films that make their way into everyday written and spoken discourse) from Soviet films in modern Russian – I have since published papers in academic journals and most recently a textbook on the subject.
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Could you tell us more about your experience teaching Russian at the University of Melbourne?
It’s amazing to teach Russian at the University of Melbourne! I found it very easy to switch from teaching Russian at an Irish university to doing so at the University of Melbourne. In my experience, expectations of a tutor here and in Ireland are very similar – and the students share the same sense of humour!
Teaching is not just a job for me, it is more of a lifestyle. I enjoy creating new teaching materials and always think about how to make the learning process more effective and enjoyable for the students. Even when I take my children to the park, I often carry an academic journal, a dictionary, or a book with me. The campus is a truly inspiring environment of learning and possibility. It is so nice to have students back interacting with one another in such a wonderful setting.
That’s wonderful to hear! But teaching often comes with its challenges. What do you think is the biggest challenge thus far for you?
The main challenge has been the same for everybody – the pandemic creating an inability to teach face-to-face in a classroom.
For that reason, the return to campus was cause for a big celebration – a week after starting a new academic year we went together with Russian Level 5 students to see the ballet “Anna Karenina” at Arts Centre.
In addition, there were four Soviet film evening screenings for Arts students on campus. Everyone had some traditional Russian food at the screenings – pirozhki, bliny and chocolates. We were lucky to receive funding from the Diversity & Inclusion committee for these evenings. These Soviet film screenings proved popular and it’s something we hope to continue and expand into the future. Final year Russian students also went to the opening night of the Russian Resurrection Film festival in October.
Last but not least, the students performed in Russian language at the SOLL Cabaret Night. I was very happy to assist them with the selection of a classic Russian cabaret song from the 1920s. My dance costumes and years of dancing experience the folk band came in handy, and it was the first time I taught the students some of the traditional dance movements. They worked hard and it was a great success!
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The events sound really exciting! I’m sure the students enjoyed them thoroughly. Now, I believe that Russian is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. The grammar rules are very complex (I’ve had a hand at learning the language but failed terribly). What’s the best way to learn the language, in your opinion?
I agree, Russian grammar is not easy. It is important to understand the logic behind the rules and not to learn them separately, but in context, for example through conversation, literature, or film. There is no magic formula which one can apply and learn a foreign language in six weeks. Dedication, regular practice and repetition is the key to success. And we always need to look at the bright side. When we teach Russian grammar in year one, I give students examples from Czech which I also studied at the University. Russian has only two verb conjugations and Czech has five. Russian has a much easier past tense for verbs than English. Thus, some aspects of Russian grammar are easier if compared to other languages. That said, all the Slavic languages are deeply connected, so mastering Russian gives students a great ability to range across such languages as Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech, Croatian, and others.
And speaking of learning a language in context, you just published a new book entitled “Favourite Soviet Films in Russian-as-a-foreign language classroom” as part of a learning resource for students learning Russian. Could you tell us more about the entire process from its incubation to its birth?
I started writing teaching materials on Soviet films at the National University of Ireland a long time ago. I felt it was helpful for students in the history department there to see different periods of Soviet history ‘from within’, through the lens of Soviet film creators.
When I started teaching at the University of Melbourne, I revised the materials so that they were suitable for Russian 5 and Russian 6 courses, and later I was offered an exciting opportunity to design and teach a Russian Culture through Film Course. I created teaching materials for the course, and I edited and refined the program each year based on student feedback.
The entire process from the idea to publication took a few years. We kept talking after tutorials about the choice of Soviet films for the course and about the right balance between the Soviet and modern Russian films which might be included into the course. It was very interesting to hear how students enjoy studying Soviet cinema and learning about the past to understand modern Russia better.
In my PhD, I researched the usage of high-frequency Soviet film quotations – or “winged phrases” – in modern Russian. After the confirmation I wrote about my teaching approaches on Soviet film in “Русский язык за рубежом” (Russian Language Abroad) – a peer-reviewed academic journal by The Pushkin State Russian Language Institute in Moscow. A few months later I was delighted to hear that my paper was noted as one of the top articles at an annual webinar by journal editors. This gave me the confidence to publish a book. I submitted the book proposal in 2020 to Flinta publisher in Moscow and it went from there.
And what were some of the challenges that you faced along the way?
The key challenge was to choose just ten films for the book. Talking to students over years about their favourite films helped me to make the final decision. That is why the book is called “Favourite Soviet Films in Russian-as-a-foreign language classroom”. I hoped to have some colour illustrations, and Mosfilm studios in Moscow were very generous in providing unique, high-quality images for the book.
Adding my research findings to teaching materials required much revision. Each book chapter has three exercises on popular winged phrases from each Soviet film. Some of the films are quoted in their entirety, each line is a winged phrase, this is how popular they are. Selecting most useful winged phrases applicable to the modern Russian-as-a-foreign-language classroom was also challenging.
And finally, proofreading almost 400 pages of text had to be done a few times. It reminded me of the time when I was proofreading my PhD thesis. I am very grateful to my friend, colleague and the book editor, Larissa Andreeva, for her patience with the proofreading process and for all the useful suggestions along the way.
The process sounds tedious, but the book is so well-received that I believe it’s all worth the effort! What do you think contributed to the success of the book?
I’m very glad to see that art and cinema become a powerful teaching tool for language instructors. I hope that my colleagues agree with me that every Russian language university degree course should include at least one classic Soviet film. Russian linguist V. Elistratov wrote about a deep connection between Soviet cinema of the 20th century and earlier tradition of Russian culture, classical Russian literature, and Russian folklore. It is perhaps hard to appreciate how popular these Soviet film quotations are in modern Russian. They are a real feature of the culture!
I aimed to offer new approaches to using Soviet film as a teaching material. For example, there are exercises that help students to work on intonation to prepare for the TORFL B2 Russian exam, which are based on Soviet film dialogues. Each book chapter includes modern Russian conversation exercises which help the students to understand usage of winged phrases from Soviet films. To my knowledge, it is the first textbook on Soviet films which includes exercises on such phrases.
Has the use of films always been your language teaching strategy?
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I think that it is important to learn a language in context, even from the very beginning. That is why earlier in my teaching career I published a textbook with stories by students from different countries who learn Russian («Очень простые истории» / “Very simple stories”). They are simple, suitable for beginners and make context-based grammar learning easy.
Now I teach more advanced courses and use film for practicing all four language skills. It took a few years to establish a structure for each lesson and to decide what exercises to include prior to viewing the film, during viewing and after viewing it. Even now, with the book published, I still want to improve it!
The key is always to remember that this is the students’ course and that the students will have to benefit from it and enjoy it at the same time. It makes for a very enjoyable job.
Finally, given the success of your new textbook, would you have any plans to write another one soon?
This is not the first textbook I’ve published, and I will be lucky if more of my teaching materials are accepted for publication. Cinema – Soviet and modern – is a great source of inspiration for language teachers. I will be very happy to publish more, given the opportunity. At present my focus is on publishing my PhD research in academic journals and I find it very exciting.
Well, thank you so much, Natallia, for sharing with us your enthusiasm for teaching Russian to our students, as well as the very exciting journey of writing your new textbook!
Thank you, Felicia.