My Research

My research in linguistics is situated at the intersection between second and heritage language acquisition and maintenance, theoretical linguistics, and classroom-based language instruction. Being a teacher-researcher, I primarily focus on the acquisition of Russian as a heritage and second language in the United States.My literary research interests are related to the Russian literature of the Soviet period through the lens of twentieth-century literary criticism and theory. I focus on different psychological interpretations of Soviet literature, especially the psychology of resistance and non-resistance.

For a complete list of my publications and presentations, see my CV.

Dissertation Research

My dissertation project, generously funded by the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) (see the certificate here) and SPARC Graduate Research Grant from the Office of Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina, explores the linguistic nature of grammar knowledge of heritage speakers and second language learners of Russian in the United States. I address the processing and acquisition of the grammar feature of specificity (or referentiality) in Russian. Specificity implies the existence of an entity not necessarily known to all the interlocutors. In English, it is closely related to the system of articles, which the Russian language lacks. In Russian, specificity is expressed through different grammatical structures on various linguistic levels, including syntax-semantics, morpho-syntax, and syntax-discourse. Measuring participants' reaction times in a set of online experiments, I compare how different bilingual populations on different proficiency levels process and acquire this feature, depending on the linguistic level of its realization.Conference presentation: (2024) The effects of modifier position and function in the sentence on anaphor resolution in second and heritage language Russian. Slavic Linguistics Society 19 (SLS-19), Provo, UT. This conference presentation, along with my previous work on the Russian nominal structure, has received an honorable mention at the 2024 Charles E. Townsend Memorial Award for excellence in scholarship and long-term commitment to the field of Slavic Linguistics.

Projects on Second and Heritage Language Acquisition and Maintenance

Usage-based language instruction of grammar

How can theoretical linguistics inform classroom-based language instruction of Russian cases and word order?

This project was generously funded by the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (CALPER) at the Penn State University.

Article: (2024) Olesya Kisselev and Angelina Rubina. Mastering Russian case: Learning challenges, current textbook approaches, and new perspectives. Read it here.
Article: (2025) Olesya Kisselev, Angelina Rubina, Kevin McManus. Teaching Russian nominative-accusative case distinction: A usage-based experimental study. Read it here.

Orthographic skills and literacy development

How do second language and heritage speakers of Russian acquire Russian orthography and phonology?

Exploring this research question, I am collaborating with colleagues from the University of Alabama, Brandeis University, and the University of South Carolina.

Article: (submitted for review) Angelina Rubina, Sarah John, Danielle Fahey, Mila Tasseva. The effect of partially overlapping orthographies on the processing of Russian-English cognates.
Article: (submitted for review) Irina Dubinina, Olesya Kisselev, and Angelina Rubina. Orthography development in Russian as a heritage language: A corpus-based study of errors in adjectival and nominal endings.

Russian heritage language maintenance

What factors impact the maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in the U.S. Russophone diaspora in the time of political conflict?

Article: (2025) Irina Dubinina, Iza Savenkova, Angelina Rubina, and Olesya Kisselev. The dynamics of Russian language maintenance in the U.S.-based Russophone diaspora: Conflicted heritage, resilience, and persistence. Languages, 10(10). Read it here.
Article: (work in progress) Iza Savenkova, Irina Dubinina, Angelina Rubina, & Olesya Kisselev. Maintaining Russian, redefining identity: The U.S. Russophone diaspora in a time of conflict.

Projects on Theoretical Linguistics

Theoretical approaches to Russian nominal structure

What is the structure of the nominal phrase in Russian? How does English-Russian feature reassembly affect second language acquisition?

Article: (2022) Angelina Rubina and Stanley Dubinsky. Morpho-syntactic, contextual, and lexical determinants of non-referentiality in Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 30(1). Read it here.
Article: (work in progress) Mila Tasseva, Angelina Rubina. Gender and number feature reassembly in L2 Russian.

Projects in Literary Studies

Psychological approaches to 20th century Russian literature

How is resistance and non-resistance to state power expressed in Soviet literature?

Book chapter: (2024) Intersections between language, social norms, and individual cognition in Natalya Baranskaya’s A Week Like Any Other. In T. Dolack (Ed.), Russian literature and cognitive science. Lexington Books.
Conference presentation: (2024) Clothes for conscience: The workings of shame and guilt in Vasily Grossman’s ‘Everything Flows.’ American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL), Las Vegas, NV.
Conference presentation: (2024) ‘Little people’ in revolt or in defense? Intersections between the lives of Lydia Chukovskaya and her protagonist Sofia Petrovna in the context of the Russian history. Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, Chapel Hill, NC.

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