Revitalization of Russian among Canadian Doukhobors through a Community Course

Abstract

This article explores pedagogical, linguistic, and cultural issues involved in designing a community Russian language course for Doukhobors in Canada. To date, only limited descriptions of the Doukhobors’ language use and structure are available, showing that they speak, first and foremost, Doukhobor Russian (DR), a severely endangered variety, which is currently maintained by only a few dozen elderly bilinguals whose dominant language is English, but who retain fluent proficiency in DR. Second, some of the community members speak idiolects which align somewhere along a continuum between DR and Standard Russian (StR). However, the use of any kind of Russian is rapidly diminishing in the community. To support the revitalization of the Doukhobors’ heritage language varieties, an online community Russian language course for adult Doukhobors is being developed. The article discusses key considerations in designing the course, including pedagogical approaches, choice of language variety to teach (StR or DR), and the selection of culturally significant topics and materials for inclusion. The article proposes a bilingual approach exposing learners to both DR and StR, and outlines a range of culturally relevant themes for the course. The article contributes to the topic of critically endangered minority languages.