Russian-Speakers Taking Elementary Russian

[Donald L. Dyer]

Dear Colleagues:

   I am not unsympathetic to the plight of Russian programs with
decreasing enrollments; I like most of you, I am sure, would like to
see Russian-language enrollments on the increase at American universities.
But I have to say that I would hate to think that the continuation
and or success of my Russian program was dependent on native speakers
of Russian enrolling in my elementary Russian-language courses. There
are other, much better ways to sustain a program, many of which were
discussed this past fall on this list. My sense is that many programs
would actually lose more of the kind of student they want - the one who
has not taken Russian before - by allowing the Russian-speakers in, than
they will retain of the students they would rather not have - the native
speakers of Russian. Let's be honest about this ... who wants to enroll
in an introductory language class - in any language - and then sit down
next to a native speaker of that language. Nothing justifies this.

Donald L. Dyer
Associate Professor of Russian and Linguistics
The University of Mississippi
<mldyer at vm.cc.olemiss.edu>