technology for teaching Slavic languages

[Irene Thompson]

Dear Ben:
Take a look at
<http://nts.lll.hawaii.edu/flmedia/languages/russian.html>
to see if I entered the information about START correctly.
Irene
At 12:46 PM 12/5/97 -0600, you wrote:
>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
>
>
**********************************************
 Irene Thompson
P.O. Box 3572
Princeville, HI  96722
tel/fax: (808) 826-9510
e-mail: napooka at aloha.net
**********************************************