Larry Gene Heien (January 18, 1937 – September 12, 1991) was an American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Slavist Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was ...

, expert of Russian studies and

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

teaching, also known for his interest in music. In 1969 – January 1991 he was assistant professor, later from 1984 full professor of Russian in the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

Biography

Heien was born in Mt. Olive, Illinois, and grew up in Decatur, Illinois. His parents were Arthur F. and LaVetta Heien. In 1959 he received a B.S. Ed. degree in music from

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University (EIU) is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradual ...

. In 1967 he received the

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

and in 1969 a double major

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Russian language and literature and higher education administration from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

(doctoral thesis "A psycholinguistic study in the organization and presentation of grammatical principles"). In the fall of 1969 Heien started his work at the University of Hawaii as

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in the European Language Department and was promoted in 1984 to full professor. In the European Language Department he held positions of the chair of the Russian Division (1975–76, 1980–86), chair of Russian graduate program (1975–76, 1980–86), and chair of the Russian

Area Studies Area studies, also known as regional studies, is an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what a ...

program (1977–79, 1983–85), participated in numerous scientific conferences and in exchange programs with the USSR. In 1975 he did a year of research in the

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

Institute of the Russian Language in Moscow. He was member of the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...

AATSEEL The American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) is an academic organization founded in 1941. AATSEEL holds an annual conference each January and publishes the ''Slavic and East European Journal'' (SEEJ), a peer ...

(American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages), ACTR(American Council on Teaching of Russian) and ACTFL(American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages). Heien had a near-native command of Russian, and besides Russian he also spoke French, Bulgarian, German and Polish. His research interests included applied

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and language teaching methodology, contemporary Russian language, Russian word frequency, and Russian music. Since music was one of his lifelong interests, he was offered a grant to translate the book "

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

’s early ballets" of

Irina Vershinina Irina or Iryna (Cyrillic: Ирина, Ірина) is a feminine given name of Ancient Greek origin, commonly borne by followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is derived from Eirene (), an ancient Greek goddess, personification of peace. It ...

. Professor. Heien also worked on a Russian textbook “Reading Russian for Musicians”. Unfortunately both books remain unpublished. He taught a course of Russian to University of Hawaiʻi music students. After retiring due to the reasons on health from the University of Hawaiʻi in January 1991, Heien died on September 12, 1991, in Singapore from the autoimmune disease

amyloidosis Amyloidosis is a group of diseases in which abnormal proteins, known as amyloid fibrils, build up in tissue. There are several non-specific and vague signs and symptoms associated with amyloidosis. These include fatigue, peripheral edema, weigh ...

Personal life

Heien was married twice, first time during his student days in

to Nancy Mansfield with whom he had two sons, Jeffrey and Stephen. He divorced her in 1979. In 1983 he married Debra Lee Pingree, who was working on her master's degree under his guidance. They had daughter Amanda, born in 1987.

Interesting facts

Among colleagues he was known for his wry sense of humor and had the nickname of Zoshchenko (Zoshchenko was famous Russian humorist).

Publications

Books

Vershinina, Irina Iakovlevna. Stravinsky's early ballets. Transl. by Larry Heien. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, as scheduled to appear in 1990 but was never published230 p.

Chapters in books

"Loanword recognition in Russian" pages 43–53 IN: Russian without a dictionary: reading and listening, edited by Frank Ingram. (East Lansing: Russian language journal, 1984 ) "An experimental approach to language teaching" pages 28–32 IN: Teaching, learning, acquiring Russian (Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1984) "Bystro li Bistro?: Russians and French cabarets" pages 105-116 IN: East meets West: homage to Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr.; edited by R. Hadlich and J.D. Ellsworth (Honolulu:UH Press, 1989)

Articles

"The use of eyes in Fadeev’s novel Razgrom," oviet literature Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 1986, number 6, pages 80–85. Transl. into Chinese by Sih Junzhi

ulia Ulia Fidentia or simply Ulia was a Roman municipium in the province of Hispania Baetica. The site is the location of the current city of Montemayor, Córdoba. During the Second Hispanian campaign of Caesar's Civil War almost all the towns of ...

"Loanword recognition in Russian," Russian language journal, 1984, volume XXXVIII, fall, number 131, pages 51–62. "Роль родного языка в развитии слушания и понимания звучащей речи (начальный этап)" ole of the mother tongue in development of audition skills and understanding of oral language(the initial stage) Русский язык за рубежом (Russian language abroad), 1974, number 2 (30), pages 82–85. "Root frequency in scientific Russian," Russian language journal, 1980, volume XXXIV, winter, number 117, pages 57–81. "Towards a systematic development of listening comprehension," Russian language journal, 1975, volume XXIX, number 103, pages 85–93. "Принципы организации граматического материала при программированном обучении." Russian language journal, 1973, number 96, pages 56–62. "Language teaching in different keys," The modern language journal, 1973, volume LVII, number 4, pages 185-189. "Coordinating the teaching of European languages," with colleagues Raymond Moody, John E. Crean, and David J. Quinn; and "Current research on learning and teaching," with Raymond Moody, Educational perspectives, 1973, volume 12, number 4, pages 16–20, pages 21–26. "Testing the speaking skill in the language laboratory," Hawaii language teacher, 1970, volume 12, number 2, pages 88–92.

Papers

"Исследование и преподавание русской-советской литературы в американских университетах" esearch on and teaching of Russian /Soviet literature in American universities presented to the faculty of the Institute of Foreign Literature, Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China, July 1984 "Узнавание заимствованых слов в научной речи" ecognition of loanwords in scientific Russian V MAPRIAL (International Congress of Teachers of Russian language and literature), Prague, Czechoslovakia, August 1982 "Новое исследование на частотность корней в научной речи" urther research on root frequency in scientific Russian II Soviet-American Conference on the Russian language, Northwestern University, September 1981 "Основная роль глагола в обучении специалистов чтению научного материала" he primary role of the verb in teaching specialists to read scientific Russian VI MAPRIAL, Budapest, Hungary, August 1986

External links

1
http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/departments/russian/findingaids/LarryHeienFindingAid.pdf
(accessed November 21, 2009) 2
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/1527/6/HARRYSEEIR_r.pdf.txt
(accessed November 21, 2009) 3
Larry Heien Papers at University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
(accessed September 17, 2015) {{DEFAULTSORT:Heien, Larry Gene 1937 births 1991 deaths 20th-century American linguists Linguists of Slavic languages People from Mount Olive, Illinois University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa faculty Indiana University Bloomington alumni Eastern Illinois University alumni