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Total Dictations as Means of Enlightenment

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Total Dictations as Means of Enlightenment


10.02.2016

Photo © Yuri Smityuk/TASSThe conference “Dynamic Processes in Modern Russian” was organized by the Total Dictation Foundation, the Novosibirsk State University, the Siberian Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russkiy Mir Foundation. It was attended by about 200 people, including leading Russian linguists, educators, managers and experts of the Total Dictation project from nine countries (Russia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, France, China, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom). The conference was divided into three sessions.

The scientific part of the conference consisted of three roundtables entitled “Computer Linguistics,” “Issues in Codifying Spelling Norms” and “Russian as a Foreign Language.” The practical part comprised workshops and master classes devoted to project management and relations with media and governmental institutions, as well as roundtables and presentations.

Speakers came to three main conclusions based on the outcomes of the past editions of the Total Dictation at the meeting of the organization’s Expert Council.

Firstly, Russians seem to know the rules of Russian grammar and spelling very well after learning them at school. Most people taking part in the Total Dictation make mistakes when it comes to complicated and contradictory rules and words they have never heard of.

Secondly, people know how to spell most of the words from the Russian-language school curricula. They make more mistakes when spelling words they didn’t learn at school. As a result, the Expert Council offered to put more effort into the lists of words to be learned at school.

Thirdly, Internet memes pose no threat to the Russian language.

Irina Levontina, well-known linguist and lecturer from the Postnauka web portal, gave a popular science lecture “Why We Fight About Words.” It was attended by about 300 people, including conference participants and other listeners.

The conference concluded with a thematic ‘Science Slam’ featuring a biologist, a mathematician, a programmer, a linguist and a game developer who talked about language and communications research. Evgeni Pavlovsky, director of a laboratory at the Department of Mechanics and Mathematics under the Novosibirsk State University, won the contest thanks to his report on artificial intelligence.

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