Lexical and Spelling Accuracy of Russian Adult Heritage and Foreign Language Learners in Written Elicited Narratives

A Preliminary Study

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study on correlations between the frequency of lexical and orthographic errors in written narratives produced by learners of Russian as a foreign language (FLLs; n = 11) and heritage speakers of Russian (HLLs; n = 14), in two elicitation modes: telling and retelling. The study also explores the correlation between lexical accuracy and overall language proficiency in these two groups. Narratives were elicited using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN), and a validated multiple-choice language proficiency test served as the anchor test. The results of a preliminary study based on a small sample of participants showed that Russian FLLs produced significantly more lexical errors and fewer orthographic errors in both retelling and telling modes compared to HLLs. Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found between the frequency of lexical errors in telling and the results of the language proficiency test in HLLs. These findings show that the relationship between different components of language competence may differ significantly between HLLs and FLLs and be shaped by different patterns. The study further emphasizes the need for individual instructional strategies for different types of language learners.