Abstract
This special issue of the Heritage Language Journal presents five research articles on Russian heritage learners (HLLs), a topic to which Dr. Olga Kagan dedicated her life. A talented educator, dedicated researcher and passionate advocate for bilingualism, she made fundamental contributions to the field of heritage language(HL)study. Several major topics were significantly developed thanks to the work of Dr. Kagan, and notable examples include issues of placement and assessment of HLLs(Kagan & Friedman, 2004;Kagan, 2005), their intercultural competence and sense of identity(Kagan, 2010, 2012; Carreira & Kagan, 2011), and the development and maintenance of writing skills for Russian HLLs (Bermel & Kagan, 2000; Friedman & Kagan, 2008). The field of HL pedagogy benefited enormously from her work, and she was one of the pioneers who developed its foundational principles (Kagan & Dillon, 2008;Brinton, Kagan, & Bauckus, 2008).Dr. Kagan was also a visionary who had a unique understanding of the HL studies field as a whole with its special needs and profound importance for the study of language, bilingualism, and second language acquisition. She had a rare talent for connecting the science of pedagogy with the art of teaching, which is why the textbooks co-authored by her are widely used in Russian language classrooms for both L2 and heritage learners, and why her articles on heritage and L2language pedagogy continue to be required reading for beginning language educators.