The Bible -- Audio and Text Simultaneously

[Benjamin Sher]

Dear Colleagues:

I highly recommend to you and your students to listen to readings of
portions from the Bible by Family Radio International using the free
RealPlayer while following the text online using, e.g. the Russian
Synod edition available on the Internet.

Each broadcast of Family Radio International's Russian edition
includes an extended reading from the Bible. For example, the
program I listened to today included a reading of the first six
chapters from Ezekiel. The reading is rich, moving and professional.

I realize that such an audio broadcast BY ITSELF might be too
difficult for many if not most undergraduate or graduate students or,
for that matter, even for many non-native speakers of Russian, and
this includes me. However, by combining it with the online version
of the Russian Bible, the listener/reader is granted a truly
remarkable experience. And there is no need to go the language lab
when it is all available on demand on the Internet at the student's
own leisure time.

The Bible is not only, of course, a magnificent work of literature in
its own right. It is also just the kind of text students need TO HEAR
AND READ SIMULTANEOUSLY in order to learn and reinforce their
knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary, morphology, aspectual
usage, stylistic devices, intonational patterns and, of course, word
stress, even if occasionally the stress differs from that of
contemporary Russian. The wonderful linguistic kaleidoscope of
endlessly REPEATED YET VARIED syntactical patterns, including
vivid imagery, metaphors and synonyms, expressed in a simple yet
rich Russian, heard and read simultaneously, will do wonders for
any conscientious student.

You will find Family Radio International on my Index under
"Multimedia -- Radio -- Family Radio International". When you get
there, look for "Foreign Languages" on the left panel. Under
"Russian" you will find a list of 60 (sixty) audio broadcasts covering
the past two months. Once the program is on, switch to the Russian
Bible on another screen and wait for the announcer to announce the
Bible reading for the day.

The Russian Synod 1917 edition of the Bible (both Old and New
Testaments) is available on my Index under "Religion -- Bible --
Russian Orthodox -- Bible" (also under Literature).

The address of the Index itself is to be found at the bottom of my
signature below.

Yours,

Benjamin

Benjamin Sher
Sher's Russian Web and Index
http://personal.msy.bellsouth.net/msy/s/h/sher07/