Verbs in Russian Stage One and Two

[J. Douglas Clayton]

Dear SEELANGERS:

Summing up the discussion so far, it seems that the "second" conjugation is
listed first because it is less complex than the "first". Altho' Davidson
has not responded, presumably the terms "first" and "second" were retained
for comparison purposes with other methods. The problem is that it adds
another level of mystification for students learning the language.
Genevra's four (!) conjugations studied in Paris in 1951 are presumably now
history.

Two interesting comments (because they seem to represent the opposite poles
of current approaches to the issue of language teaching) are those by Greg
Thomson (i.e. that the discussion reveals a "surprisingly traditional"
approach to language learning), and that by Oscar Swan that "since 1948
[i.e., since Roman Jakobson's famous article] there is only one
conjugation" - try explaining that to first-year students.

Personally, I tell my students that there are in my class to do two things:
*learn* the language, and *study* it. Learn because it's a useful skill and
a horizon-opener, and study, because there is an intellectual challenge in
understanding how the Russian language works, and in universities students
should have be confronted with intellectual challenges. The objective (in
my view) is to turn out philologists, i.e., people with an advanced
linguistic culture, not simply people who can speak the language.
Otherwise, I don't see how we can justify our presence in the university.
If Swan and Thomson represent one of the two poles, I feel it is incumbent
on me to help my students strike a balance between the acquisition of
communicative skills and the study of Russian grammar (understood, of
course, in a larger sense than simply learning morphological rules). If
that's old-fashioned - so be it.

Russian Stage One and Two, which I have used for some time, are an
interesting  attempt to combine communicative skills and grammatical
insights. The point I raised that began this discussion is one of the many
frustrations I have with the book - but I've learned to live with it (as we
must with any textbook).

This is far more than I intended to write, but it's Friday afternoon and
for some reason I felt a need to get on my soap-box.

Doug



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J. Douglas Clayton                 Tel. 613-562-5800 Ext. 3765 (office)
Professor                               613-241-1782 (home)
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            "Life is far too tragic to be taken seriously"