Integrating the Linguistic Landscape of a Megapolis and Digital Technologies in Teaching Russian to High School Students: The Case of the Topic «Almaty as a Tourist Center»

Abstract

The article examines the integration of the urban linguistic landscape and digital educational technologies in teaching Russian to high school students, using the module «Almaty as a Tourist Center». The study addresses the need to connect school language education with the authentic multilingual environment of the megapolis and maintain high learning motivation. The theoretical framework integrates sociolinguistic linguistic landscape theory (R. Landry, R. Bourhis), concepts of linguistic personality (Yu.N. Karaulov), linguoculturology (V.V. Vorobyev), communicative language education (Ye.I. Passov), and the TPACK framework (P. Mishra, M. Koehler). Integration is conceptualized as a pedagogical sequence of stages («collection — classification — visualization — language practice — interpretation — project»), in which authentic urban signage provides empirical data, while digital instruments enable data gathering, linguistic coding, cartographic visualization, interactive drill, and collaborative presentation. The empirical basis comprised a corpus of 85 unique linguistic landscape objects from Almaty. The pedagogical intervention was conducted during the 2024/2025 academic year with 46 Grade 10 students: Group 1 (n = 22) comprised students studying Russian as their first language (L1), and Group 2 (n = 24) included students studying it as a second language (L2). In both groups, a statistically significant increase in mean scores on a 100-point lexicalgrammatical test was recorded: from 68.4 ± 7.9 to 79.6 ± 6.8 points in Group 1, and from 64.9 ± 8.5 to 74.8 ± 7.3 points in Group 2 (paired t-test, p < 0.001). Post-test between-group comparison via the Mann–Whitney U-test showed no statistically significant differences (U = 201.5; p = 0.08), confirming equal didactic efficacy of the model across both linguistic profiles. Questionnaire results showed enhanced motivation in 84.8% of students and high usability ratings for digital platforms (89.1%). Structured observation and content analysis of project products demonstrated increased communicative activity and fewer grammatical errors in toponym usage. The findings validate the instructional value of integrating linguistic landscaping with digital tools. The lack of a control group frames the findings as an exploratory trial and defines directions for future research.