(MAPRYAL, International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature, Russian Federation)

Professor Liudmila Verbitskaya

Liudmila Alekseyevna Verbitskaya is one of the first contemporary scholars to provide description to modern pronunciation norms of Russian language. She had an outstanding academic career in Saint Petersburg State University from assistant to Full Professor in the Phonetics Department. Author of more than 300 research papers and textbooks on Russian language, phonetics, phonology and methodology of teaching Russian language. Her research on the problems of contemporary pronunciation became the basis of a new direction in the study of language – “The Norms of Pronunciation and how Phonetics interfere”.

For 14 years Liudmila Verbitskaya served as rector of Saint Petersburg University and initiated the opening of two new faculties there. She has been a member of the presidium of the College of Rectors of St Petersburg of the North-West Region of Russia. In 1999 she founded the Russian Society of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature, in 2003 she was elected President of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature, and in 2013 she became President of the Russian Academy of Education. As President of MAPRYAL, she stood at the origins of innovative projects in the field of Russian language study: the world festival of Russian language; a series of seminars for language instructors held worldwide – “MAPRYAL  – to the Russian world”; projects – “Russian language in the field of manpower training for international infrastructure projects”, “Duty, responsibility, time: a modern worldview as seen by contemporary Russian writers”, as well as sociolinguistic research in the field of lingo-didactic testing.