online translation and students

[Kenneth Brostrom]

You're absolutely right--some degree of learning is altogether
different from the larcenous impulse behind simple plagiarism (to be
sure, sometimes it is the result of overwhelming time pressures).
But what you describe below is really an interesting  case.  Since
you left WSU we've been getting more and more heritage speakers
because of a large influx of Russian-speaking immigrants into the
Detroit area.  To be honest, the increase in the number of our majors
is influenced by the number of heritage speaking students who are
genuinely fluent and literate in Russian.  They can test out of four
years of Russian and then take care of the literature and culture
requirements relatively quickly.  For them it's a quick major
(although not always easy, when they must confront Russian
literature, often for the first time).  They tend to use this as a
second major in order to enhance their credentials as they try to
enter professional programs.  Anyway--this is what struck me: I
wonder how many of them would know what "sharashka" means.  Your note
took me back to all the time I spent working on Solzhenitsyn during a
different era.  And I have two draft articles on him that I should
get back to . . .  I still think that he's a very important writer,
who raised general human issues that both transcended the confines of
the Cold War and placed that madness within the arena of recognizable
human action and motivation.  But I'm getting on my high horse ...

>My own understanding of essay writing is that it ought to be a learning
>experience for the student as much as an opportunity for assessment, and I
>am not inclined to penalize learning.  The issue is being able to verify
>that learning is indeed taking place.  In this case there was the student's
>use of the word "sharashka"--occurring in the simple sentence "Potom on
>rabotal v sharashke"--and then of course the question becomes whether
>sharashka has any meaning for the essay-writer beyond "a noun in the
>prepositional case designating place of employment"  (his Oxford dictionary
>would be of no help).  It was therefore of use to know what English-lang.
>website had been read; I was able to confirm that the site gave the Russian
>word in italics and explained what it meant.  I still told the student to
>look up more info about the word, but at least I knew it would have been
>understood to be more than just "where the guy worked".
>
>Lynne
>--
>Lynne deBenedette
>Senior Lecturer in Russian
>Brown University / Slavic Languages
>20 Manning Walk, Box E
>Providence, RI 02912
>tel 401-863-7572 or 401-863-2689
>fax 401-863-7330
>lynne_debenedette at brown.edu
>SPRING 2003 Office Hours Tu 2.30-4; We 3.30-5
>
>
>
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--
Kenneth Brostrom
Assoc. Prof. of Russian
Dept. of German and Slavic Studies
443 Manoogian Hall
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Telephone: (313) 577-6238
FAX (313) 577-3266
E-mail: kenneth.brostrom at wayne.edu

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