The session will present an overview of empirical and sociolinguistic research of Russian HL and explore the implications of this research for the Russian HL classroom. We will first briefly describe the characteristics of a typical heritage speaker of Russian and consider the linguistic vitality of Russian language research and pedagogy in the U.S. Next, we will discuss current trends in behavioral and cognitive studies of Russian HL, specifically addressing the role of the listening and reading modalities in heritage speakers in comparison with adult classroom L2 learners of Russian; explore the differences in heritage and adult L2 learners’ linguistic profiles and the role of global language proficiency, as assessed by an oral proficiency interview (OPI) test, in the comparisons of these two speaker groups; and address cognitive neuroscience perspectives on the neural correlates of bilingual proficiency with a focus on neuroimaging, including fMRI and DTI.

We will then review current pedagogical approaches proposed for the use in the HL classrooms, highlight their theoretical and epistemological underpinnings and weig their appropriateness and effectiveness in teaching the current generation of Russian heritage learners. We will discuss how the similarities and differences of the heritage-dominant language dyad with regard to linguistic features, sociocultural patterns and ideological shifts may influence the pedagogical choices in the HL classroom. We propose that a successful pedagogical approach in the heritage classroom should account for specific linguistic and acquisitional characteristics of the learners, as well as their motivations for studying and maintaining the heritage language and the sociocultural characteristics of the heritage language community to which our learners belong.