Difficulties in the teaching of Russian as a foreign language: The perspectives of an ethnically Tatar specialist in Russian philology and an American student

Abstract

This article examines the experience of a United States citizen who studied on an individual basis under the guidance of three teachers, each of whom was responsible for a specific thematic or grammatical topic with the goal of improving speaking proficiency. Analyses of the difficulties in studying Russian are given from the point of view of both teacher and pupil. The relevance of the topic is evident, as the multilingual twenty-first century is characterized by the practical need for the development and improvement of both individual and collective methods of language teaching. This research may be used in the immediate practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language and may also broaden understanding in the sphere of multicultural communication.