The article presents the distributed syllabus "Comprehending the Motherland concept in classroom and extracurricular activities" (years 5–6) designed by the author. Moreover, it describes the results of testing the curriculum at Michurinsk Gymnasium (Tambov Oblast). The relevance of the article is due, firstly, to the fact that the current stage of societal development requires a new social type of personality with a clearly defined citizenship. Another reason is the need to improve the traditional and search for new forms of fostering patriotic awareness in students. The study employed analysis of scientific and methodological literature on the issue under consideration in conjunction with observation, questionnaires, pedagogical experiment, description, analysis and interpretation of its results. The conducted research and experimental work showed that introducing the distributed curriculum into the teaching and educational process substantially increased the development level of all patriotic awareness components (cognitive, emotional and value-based, behavioural) in students. Moreover, it enhanced the significance of the activity component for them (patriotism as actions, deeds for the good of the Motherland). In year-five school students’ conceptual sphere, the Motherland concept evolved from a narrower understanding associated with the "little world" (Motherland as the home town, home, place of birth and residence) to a broader one (Motherland as the homeland, the state that needs protection, defence, and respect).

This study is relevant due to the widespread popularity of the travelogue genre in modern media and the insufficiently understood linguo-methodological potential of travel literature in Russian language teaching. The main methods employed in the study included theoretical analysis (to formulate the research problem), scientific methodological generalisation, and methodological design. The paper examines specific aspects of travel literature content and structure, as well as its linguistic and speech features which enable the comprehensive achievement of personal, meta-disciplinary, and subject-related learning outcomes in Russian language teaching in an integrated manner. The article systematically presents the linguo-methodological potential of the travelogue demonstrating its potential for modeling textual activity in teaching travel literature in Russian language classes.

Studying the distinctive features of ne (English not) and ni (English neither) is determined by the widespread levelling of their semantic differences and interchangeability in the Russian-language speech environment. Firstly, this trend makes phraseological units and idioms containing ni (which are an essential component of Russian national culture) leave the sphere of wide use. Secondly, errors in the ne and ni usage in spoken and written language are becoming common as evidenced by the State Final Examination (GIA) results. This study aims to substantiate the importance of distinguishing between the prefixes and particles ne and ni in the Russian language course taken in secondary school and to systematise work on developing spelling literacy. The school curriculum places emphasis on spelling rules for choosing ne/ni and on the concatenated/spaced spelling of individual grammatical forms. Theoretical analysis and a practical experiment enabled the prefixes ne and ni to be characterised as significant components of negative and indefinite pronouns and pronominal adverbs. The negative particle ne and the emphatic particle ni have a considerable potential to combine with virtually all notional parts of speech, including pronouns (except for the above-mentioned classes). Systematic and consistent studying of ne and ni taking into account their grammatical homonymy results in an increased percentage of correct answers to the questions in the Basic State and Unified State exams in Russian, which was confirmed by the methodological experiment. The article proposes an algorithm for gaining mastery of ne and ni when preparing for the above exams, as well as a set of exercises to acquire the skill of qualifying and spelling them. Native speakers’ conscious attitude towards the ne and ni use not only enhances their spelling literacy, but also promotes the development of linguistic feeling and interest in studying one’s native culture.

This paper examines how children aged 5–8 acquire knowledge of the punctuation marks and principles of Russian punctuation in the process of implicit learning. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that while the topic of children’s spontaneous acquisition of graphics and spelling has been covered in sufficient detail in ontolinguists’ works, punctuation acquisition has not previously been considered. However, research into the distinctive features of spontaneous acquisition of writing by children in the process of their own speech activity is significant not only for the theory of Russian punctuation and its psycholinguistic aspect. It is also important for constructing a route to linguodidactic support for children. The study aims to identify the order and specific features of children’s acquisition of punctuation marks. The article demonstrates that the emergence of punctuation marks in children’s writing is analogous to the development of Russian punctuation to a great extent. The full stop appears first, the exclamation mark follows, and then all other punctuation marks come into common use. The main principles that guide children when they place punctuation marks are intonation and semantics. The logic of learning and using punctuation marks is analysed in relation to various types of texts produced by children. The study highlights the difference in the use of punctuation marks in prose and poetry since the latter is free from punctuation restrictions and offers one a variety of interpretations. Independent reading experience enables children to understand the function of punctuation marks on their own.

The paper foregrounds the methodological legacy of K. B. Barkhin. Content analysis of articles both writ-

ten by and dedicated to the methodologist has revealed a range of issues that have not been adequately addressed and explored in methodology. This article aims to introduce K. B. Barkhin’s works on the issues of verbal culture and speech development methods into the broader research field, and to demonstrate the need for their further investigation and comprehension as being relevant to school practice. The author believes that the stylistic exercises developed by the methodologist and aimed at understanding the "aesthetics of the word" enrich teachers’ methodological toolkit. Moreover, their use is effective not only in Russian language lessons when teaching written speech. Such assignments are also beneficial in literature classes when analysing the language of a literary work and assimilating a set of theoretical-literary concepts associated with the figurative and expressive means employed in works of fiction (artistic speech). The article also examines the first university textbook on Russian language teaching methodology. Its chapters on the methodology of developing students’ speech were written by K. B. Barkhin. These materials are unique since they include questions related to different types of reading and working with books and other sources. The article states that one of the most important issues in the methodological legacy of K. B. Barkhin was studying and analysing international practices of teaching native language and literature (the Appendix to the article gives a list of the sources found). This part requires careful analysis because retrospective comparative studies can become a significant line of research in the national teaching methodology

This article examines the pragmatic organisation of school discourse based on Russian language and lite-

rature classes in grades 5–7 of secondary schools. Particular attention is given to school teachers’ use of pragma tic markers (i.e., units that have lost their original lexical meaning and perform specific pragmatic functions in discourse) as a communicative strategy for holding dialogues in the classroom. Audio recordings of teachers’ speech were converted to text format using the Whisper automatic speech recognition system and then analysed to detect the presence of 60 pragmatic markers. The research results indicate that Russian language and literature teachers frequently use only about 50 % of the pragmatic markers typical of colloquial dialogic speech. Thus, this kind of speech can be classified as a distinct type of discourse. The most common functions of pragmatic markers in teachers’ speech are demarcation and metacommunication. A distinctive feature of teachers’ use of pragmatic markers is frequent combination of pragmatic functions. The unit itak (English so, thus) seems to play a prominent role in structuring pedagogical discourse. The subject taught and the teacher performance do not appear to significantly influence the distribution of pragmatic markers in teachers’ speech. Thus, pragmatic markers primarily enable teachers to structure discourse and manage the dynamics of classroom communication. They also perform an organising role in discussions aimed at developing new knowledge in students.

The article discusses previously unexamined functions of the category of intensity in a literary text. Namely, the primary focus is on modeling the main symbolic antithesis of the story, i. e., "light–darkness", and expressing a child’s worldview within this model. In the first stage, lexical units filling the symbolic light–darkness "frame" were identified. The study relies on a functional-semantic method of describing linguistic units in conjunction with semantic-semiotic symbol modeling. In this literary text, the perceptual image of light, shine, and the colour of fire is conveyed not only by words with light-related semantics such as solntse, sverkat’, blestyashchii, ozarit’ (English sun, sparkle, shiny, illuminate), and others, but also by colour-related words including krasnyi, zheltyi, ryzhii (English red, yellow, red-haired), and so on. The signifier of the "darkness" symbol – the perceptual image of darkness – is expressed by such words as vecher, tuchi, potemnet’, chernyi, seryi (English evening, clouds, to darken, black, grey), and others. The signified of the symbol "light" – ‘life, joy, and happiness’ – is represented by words with the semantics of life and joy including khoroshii, schastlivyi, zasmeyat’sya, mirit’sya (English good, happy, to start laughing, to make up), and others. The signified of the symbol "darkness" – ‘death, evil, and grudge’ – is represented by plokhoi, rasserdit’sya, smert, kladbishche, vojna (English bad, to get angry, death, cemetery, war), and so on. The research strategy involves incorporating the category of intensity into the symbolic "light–darkness" framework. The category transforms the symbolic schema into living images and shapes the child’s emotional and intellectual familiarisation with the surrounding world manifesting itself in four interconnected distinctive features. These include: 1) the physical motion of humans and nature; 2) the grotesqueness of images as extreme exaggeration; 3) world modelling through Svetlana’s eyes, i. e., the horizontal plane of the surroundings, the lower and the upper worlds; 4) evaluativity and emotionality. Linguistic forms of intensity imbue the symbol components with life, motion, and emotions materialising the struggle between light and darkness through various forms of the physical and psychological worlds. The most common means of expressing intensity are degree adverbs, semelfactive verbs, verbs of motion in homogeneous constructions, intensifying particles such as dazhe, tolko (English even, only), and the augmentative suffixes -ushch-, -enn- (bolshushchii, shirochennyi) (English humongous, very wide).

This article analyses the anthropic code of culture verbalised by the words of lexico-semantic groups of nouns associated with the concept of Person. The study is relevant since it interprets the components of such noun groups as a manifestation of cultural codes from the perspective of the anthropocentric paradigm. Lexico-semantic word groups active in native Russian textbooks are considered as potentially significant for denoting a fragment of the Russian linguistic worldview. The frequency of nouns included in these groups serves as a guideline enabling the most prominent lexical-semantic groups to be identified within the total amount of material at the initial stage of the analysis. The further analysis builds on the syntagmatic characteristics of these nouns including their combinability, certain grammatical features of verbal predicate associated with them, and others. These characteristics make it possible to clarif y the issue of using nouns as a verbalised embodiment of the cultural code. Nouns verbalising the anthropic code of culture were systematised within the framework of subcodes. They are anthropomorphic, anthropic-corporeal, anthropic-emotional, anthropic-axiological, and anthropic-spiritual subcodes, as well as the thematic context types in which these words function. The research material comprised exercise texts from native Russian language textbooks for years 5 and 9 autho red by O. M. Aleksandrova, O. V. Zagorovskaya, S. I. Bogdanov, and others.

The article examines the word rebyata (English guys) as a name for a significant concept in Russian linguoculture analysing its semantic development and role in modern discursive practices. The study builds on comprehending the concept as a multidimensional structural and informative unit of consciousness and worldview which, being a form of storing and transferring knowledge, is constantly modified in its constituent components. The analysis aims to identify aspects of concept modification through a synchronic study of the Russian language of the past few decades. Conceptual analysis within the methodological framework of discourse analysis was employed as the primary met hod in conjunction with linguistic semiometrics. The latter enables one to determine sign meanings in the context of its use. The multidimensionality of the network of meanings expressed by the concept is revealed by identifying and analysing diagnostic contexts based on corpus data. The conceptual renewal of the analysed word was found to concern its conceptual, value-based, and figurative components. Conceptually, the research reveals the expansion of the referential sphere of the sign functioning from the original personal family domain to the institutional spheres of professional, military, and public activity. The expansion is based on the extension of the evaluative meanings of friendliness, solidarity, and collectivism which contribute to the development of the sign as an axiologeme. A new series of images is formed to represent the concept, such as relatives – warriors – defenders of the Motherland. The work focuses on the axiological approach to teaching Russian, which, by means of studying the value-based meanings embodied by lexical units, facilitates the development of students’ civic identity. Moreover, this approach enhances the achievement of both educational and personal outcomes.

The unit of modern Russian language courses focused on semi-complex and semi-compound sentences is one of the most difficult compared to other topics. In the widely known current textbooks on syntax, this unit is usually not accompanied by a preamble that would highlight the grammatical phenomenon essence or the principles for classifying constructions related to elementary structure "complicators". Meanwhile, the very status of semi-complex and semi-compound sentences on the gradience scale from simple to composite sentence patterns remains controversial. The article aims to clarify problem areas and provide theoretical and methodological grounds that could serve as the linguo-didactic basis for a university course in the syntax of such sentences. The methodological framework of the study includes general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, observation). Moreover, the research employs procedures common to the humanities in order to describe and interpret individual phenomena, as well as modeling educational situations. The study resulted in a characterisation of the major features inherent in semi-complex and semi-compound sentences, regardless of the construction type complicating it. The hierarchical (multi-tier) formal grammatical structure, the increasing complexity of actant-predicate relations of such sentences, their "polypropositional" semantic structure and the "polyrhematic" communicative organisation caused by "additional" predicativity arising in them are associated with the formation of special, independent of word properties, two-tiered syntactic connections and relations. Rhythmic-melodic prominence with constructional optionality is the most essential feature of a complicator. Therefore, homogeneous part series duplicating the positions already present in the linear chain of the word forms which are members of the predicative centre are not complicating constructions. The same can be said about event names in the role of the main parts or secondary elements extending them. The combination of the enumerated properties leads to the conclusion that there is a close unity, rather than the usually declared heterogeneity of phenomena categorised as complicators. This article offers methodological recommendations for a university course in Russian syntax (the unit "Semi-complex and Semi-compound Sentences").