Moldavians in Russian class

[Devin P Browne]

Emily,

I did my student teaching of Russian in a high school with a large amount
of Russian-speaking emigres.  (I was scared to death going into it, by
the way!)  They had a seperate class within the class--did literature,
worked on their own, etc.  They had to take a language, and they were
allowed to take Russian, so this is how they were dealt with:
minimally.  Although I never had the chance--so I might be speaking a bit
naively--I would have liked to have integrated them into the whole
class.  I think it could have been done, if approached the right way.
Talk about great models for conversation!  I realize that native speakers
tend to intimidate non-native kids, but I think this could be overcome.
I think native-speaking students might be used as "assistants" who can
help other kids with their Russian.  Altho it could be awkward at first
and might take extra time with the teacher showing them how to assist, I
think it could be very beneficial to all.  I'll be interested to hear how
others respond.

Sincerely,

Devin


___________________________________________________________________________
Devin P. Browne                                   Clairton Education Center
Foreign Language Teacher                                 501 Waddell Avenue
dpbrowne+ at pitt.edu                                      Clairton, PA  15025
                                                             (412) 233-9200


On Sat, 27 Jan 1996, Emily Tall wrote:

> Does anyone else beside me have an enormous influx of emigres from
> Moldavia in their classes? I have about half a dozen, all native
> speakers of Russian, of course. We can't accommodate them in a
> separate class, I don't want to kick them out, and yet it must
> be discouraging to the other students in the class to have them
> there. Emily Tall