technology for teaching Slavic languages

[Benjamin Rifkin]

As another CD-ROM author, I can also say that my CD-ROM,

START:  An introduction to the sound and writing systems of Russian,

is designed to teach the Russian alphabet, sound and writing systems,
principles of phonetics (hard/soft pronunciation of consonants,
voicing/devoicing of consonants, reduction of unstressed vowels), and the
writing of the letters of the cursive alphabet.  The program uses digitized
sound to teach pronunciation and animation to demonstrate the writing of
the letters.  The program can be used with any first-year textbook at the
high school or college level and is set up in 11 separate lessons, each of
which can be completed in one hour or less on the computer.

The START program is available on CD-ROM only on the Macintosh platform and
will be available in time for fall 1998 classes through Focus Publishing
(800/848-7236, www.pullins.com, pullins at seacoast.com).

I am happy to answer questions about the START program by e-mail off the list.

In the meantime, I am happy to say that the START program, together with
Mark Kaiser's Ekran (a companion to Golosa), Slava Paperno's 12 Chairs and
the "Beginning Russian through Film" series, as well as Bill Comer's
"Govorit Rossiia" will all be demonstrated at a forum on instructional
materials at the 1997 AATSEEL Conference in Toronto on 29 December.  (Check
the conference program for exact time and location.)  All the authors plan
to be present at the forum personally, to demonstrate their CD-ROMs and to
answer questions about the materials they have developed.

Furthermore, there will be a workshop on using the internet to teach Slavic
languages, literatures and cultures, led by George Mitrevski of Auburn U.,
at the AATSEEL Conference, from 7-9 pm on 29 December.

With best regards,

Ben Rifkin



*****************************
Benjamin Rifkin
Associate Professor of Russian,
Coordinator of Russian-Language Instruction & Teacher Training
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI  53706

e-mail:  brifkin at facstaff.wisc.edu
telephone:  608/262-1623, 608/262-3498
fax:  608/265-2814