KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The international scientific conference dedicated to the 100^th birth anniversary of academician, famous linguist and pedagogue Sergey Abrahamyan kicked off at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia today. The two-day event is organized by the Division of Armenology and Social Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA), the Institute of Language after H. Acharian of the NAS RA, as well as the Armenian State Pedagogical University and Vanadzor State University after H. Tumanyan.

The scientific and pedagogical activities of Sergey Abrahamyan are strongly linked to the history of the Armenian State Pedagogical University as well; he worked at the ASPU for over 20 years and made great contributions to the grand task of preparing teachers of elementary schools and Armenian language and literature specialists. The prominent Armenian linguist of the mid-20^th century is also author of nearly 20 monographs, textbooks and handbooks for schools and universities and 100 articles.

In his opening remarks, Victor Katvalyan, Director of the NAS RA Institute of Language after H. Acharian, provided biographical information about the life of Sergey Abrahamyan and emphasized that the intellectual has a sustainable place among great Armenian linguists and has left a very deep and remnant trace in the development of Armenian linguistics.

According to the speaker, Sergey Abrahamyan, who is originally from Artsakh and vested with the best attributes of an Armenian, was a broad-minded and insightful scientist, a master of precision of scientific words, who did not limit himself to the existing rules and always took into consideration the language-speech unity and state of language when considering phenomena.

Victor Katvalyan notes that, as one of those who has best studied and described the grammatical structure of modern Armenian, Sergey Abrahamyan made interesting observations at different levels of study of the language, and the graduality principle for classification of parts of speech serves as a major contribution to the description of modern Armenian to this day.

Besides linguistics, academician-secretary of the Division of Armenology and Social Sciences of the NAS RA Yuri Suvaryan also attached importance to the major contribution and merit of Sergey Abrahamyan in two other fields, including terminology and Armenification of terms and the creation of textbooks — development of educational programs in the areas of Armenian language and literature.

As one of the organizers of the scientific conference, ASPU Rector Srbuhi Gevorgyan also expressed her greetings to the attendees. Professor emphasized that the talented scientist, pedagogue Sergey Abrahamyan, who left a rich scientific-methodical legacy and was known for his massive works, was inextricably linked to the Armenian State Pedagogical University, identifying the methodological issues in teaching. Even today, the valuable legacy that the pedagogue-linguist left as a methodological resource, remains in demand at the ASPU and is used for those teach pedagogy.

Srbuhi Gevorgyan voiced hope that the rich legacy of Sergey Abrahamyan will become a new start for young specialists who will also touch upon pedagogy, teaching methodologies and psychological issues in their works — sectors to which much importance is attached in Armenian schools today.

“Sergey Abrahamyan’s students remember him as a professor of principle, a linguist who was well-versed in his profession and an author of books that will last forever,” Dean of the ASPU Faculty of Philology Ashot Galstyan remarked and emphasized that his PhD students currently work at various universities of the country, including the Armenian State Pedagogical University and maintain the high reputation of the director.

Corresponding member of the NAS RA, Head of the Chair of Armenian Ancient and Medieval Literature and its Teaching Methods at the Armenian State Pedagogical University, Professor Aelita Dolukhanyan delivered a speech during the plenary session of the scientific conference.

The speaker, who personally knew the pedagogue and scientist, noted that Sergey Abrahamyan was a genuine linguist who was concerned about the future of Armenian language, taught Armenian with devotion and with the spirit of propelling the language.

In the speech entitled “The syntax textbook by Sergey Abrahamyan will never get old”, the Professor remarked that this was something new and provided solutions to all the pedagogical and scientific problems posed in school textbooks, fostering the correct recognition of the structure of the native language and development of the logical thinking of pupils.

Among the participants of the scientific conference dedicated to the 100^th birth anniversary of academician Sergey Abrahamyan are representatives of various academic and educational institutions; there will be 34 speeches devoted to the phonetics, morphology, grammar, syntax of modern Armenian, issues in general linguistics, etymology, vocabulary, language history, Armenian language instruction and teaching, etc.