grad students/ outreach

[Stephen Blackwell]

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Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 08:32:44 EST
From: Stephen Blackwell <SHBLACKW at ucs.indiana.edu>
X-To: PO1::"seelangs at cunyvm.cyny.edu"
Subject: grad student activities
To: seelangs at cunyvm.cyny.edu


One activity that I have been involved in lately seems to me
to have enormous potential value for the quantity of students
in our field.  The town where I have been working teaches Russian
to its third- and fourth-graders.  The third graders are especially
enthusiastic.  I do not mean to propogate the myth that they are
language learning geniuses--they are not.  But the LOVE the stuff.
They have no inhibitions.  The alphabet is a game to them.  They
enjoy making strange noises.

My point is that these kids, when older, will not see Russian as any
more scary or difficult than, say, Spanish or French or German.  They
may even harbor a bit of nostalgia for the language, even if they have
not been able to study it in high-school.

Here's my proposal: there is a nation-wide trend toward introducing
foreign languages in elementary schools.  But this trend is slow in
gathering steam, and there is a large window of opportunity. By expanding
outreach contacts, and making available advanced undergrads and
grad students of all levels to offer extended series of Russian lessons
at these grade levels, Russian can get a head start in the schools,
and by providing free service now (with, perhaps, some credit for the
"teachers" in their degree programs) can by stealth main-stream itself
while no-one is looking.  Spanish is around most kids every day, so
their interest in it is understandable.  A balancing presence of
Russian should at least prevent a massive act of national "forgetting"
about the Russian language and people, and we as a nation are very
forgetful.

When schools finally and officially introduce foreign language instruction,
the bashmak will already be in the door.

The greatest benefits lie about ten years down the road, but consider:

o       The outreach can be used as evidence of the departments value
o       The growing exposure among youngsters can be indicated as a future
                source of large numbers of students (future=< 10 years)
o       Ten years goes by quicker than we think.

I hope that some of you find these ideas useful.  I think that faculty
and grad students could develop them together at various institutions.


Stephen Blackwell
shblackw at ucs.indiana.edu