The SMARTool is a free web resource for L2 learners of Russian that implements
findings of a learning simulation experiment and corpus research to optimize
the acquisition of Russian vocabulary and morphology. Corpus data
(Janda & Tyers 2018)
reveals that for any given Russian lexeme, only a few (usually 1-3)
wordforms account for nearly all attestations, while remaining wordforms are
rare or unattested. Our computational learning experiment shows that learning
of Russian inflection is best when training is restricted to high frequency
wordforms. The SMARTool builds on these findings for a basic vocabulary of 3000
nouns, adjectives, and verbs culled from major textbooks and other sources to
represent levels A1, A2, B1, and B2 (CEFR scale). We have identified both a)
the three most frequent wordforms for each lexeme (reducing the target number
of wordforms to learn from 150,000 to 9,000) and b) the most typical
grammatical constructions and collocations that motivate each wordform. We have
also created c) corpus-based example sentences instantiating typical use.
Audio for all sentences (in both female and male voices) and English
translations are available at the click of a button. The SMARTool has filters
that facilitate searching by: a) CEFR Level, b) Topic (such as время/time,
еда/food, здоровье/health etc.), c) Analysis (such as Ins.Sing, facilitating
grammatical exercises), and d) Dictionary form.
Janda, Laura A. & Francis M. Tyers. 2018. Less is More: Why All Paradigms are
Defective, and Why that is a Good Thing. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic
Theory 14(2), 33pp.
doi.org/10.1515/cllt-2018-0031.
Team behind this project
- Radovan Bast (UiT The Arctic University of Norway): Design and Programming
- Laura A. Janda (UiT The Arctic University of Norway):
Background research, Concept, Design, Vocabulary selection, Editing of content
- Tore Nesset (UiT The Arctic University of Norway): Concept, Design, Vocabulary selection
- Svetlana Sokolova (UiT The Arctic University of Norway): Concept, Design, Vocabulary selection
- James McDonald (UiT The Arctic University of Norway): Editing of content
- Mikhail Kopotev (University of Helsinki): Design, Vocabulary selection
- Francis M. Tyers (Indiana University): Background research, Concept, Design, Vocabulary selection
- Ekaterina Rakhilina (Higher School of Economics in Moscow): Concept
- Olga Lyashevskaya (Higher School of Economics in Moscow): Concept, Design, Vocabulary selection
- Valentina Zhukova (Higher School of Economics in Moscow): Content
- Evgeniia Sudarikova (Higher School of Economics in Moscow): Content
- Lisa Kibisova (Higher School of Economics in Moscow): Content
