Russian nominative-accusative case distinction. Usage-based classroom-based study of English-speaking learners of L2 Russian

The learning of case paradigms is a well-documented challenge for learners of Russian, yet research on pedagogical approaches connecting evidence based language acquisition theories with classroom practices of teaching case morphology is lacking. The current project addresses this gap by investigating the effects of usage-based language instruction for learning prototypical Russian nominative and accusative noun case endings to express subject and object information. This study analyzed the results of an assessment measure that followed a classroom intervention in immersion and non-immersion contexts with 48 English-speaking beginner learners of L2 Russian. Learners were introduced to accusative noun case endings through awareness raising activities, extensive task-based interpretation and production practice. The results show that systematically directing attention to form-meaning similarities and differences between L1 and L2 supported L2 grammar learning. Masculine and neuter accusative endings were found to pose greater challenges, as were nominative and accusative nouns in noninitial positions in the sentence (i.e., OVS, OSV, SVO, SOV). Beyond its instructional implications, the study offers insights into the underlying linguistic representations created in language immersion and non-immersion contexts.