First-year Russian language textbook "Golosa"

[David Mayberry]

From:   NAME: David Mayberry
        FUNC: Modern Languages
        TEL: (614)593-2765                    <MAYBERRY at A1@OUVAX>
To:     MX%"SEELANGS at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU"@MRGATE at OUVAX

We just started using Golosa this year here at Ohio University, and we are very
pleased with it.  We are on a quarter system with only 4 contact hours per week.
At present, we are planning to finish the 2 books in five quarters, doing 4
units per quarter.  We began with the idea of doing one volume a year, but we
found that the pace was a little slow.

As for the material itself, it is very well organized and presented. The only
problem I can find with the system is that the written exercises for a
particular chapter in the workbook are often on the back page of the last oral
exercises for that chapter, which means that students don't have their entire
set of oral exercises intact in their books when they go to the language lab.

Another minor problem is that, like every other set of tapes one gets from a
publisher, the pauses for students to respond/repeat are just too short.  My
guess is that no publisher will ever get this right. 8^)

Of course, these are minor quibbles, and hopefully the next edition will take
care of the workbook problem (are you listening, Rich?).  There is no comparison
between the Clark-style grammar handbooks and the newer textbooks which actually
suppose the student might some day want to do more than read Russian.