Russian webcasts are back

[Richard Robin]

I am happy to announce that Special Russian webcasts are back. The site is
www.gwu.edu/~slavic/webast/. The only (unfortunate) change this year is that
due to funding cuts, the webcasts will appear not every week, but every two
weeks, usually by late Monday afternoon. (Today's wbecasts appeared a day
late, because they are produced between Novosbirsk and New York, but the
final upload to the server comes out of Washington, DC - usually from my
house, which at the moment has no electricity due to Hurricane Isabel.

-Rich Robin

For those of you who are new to Special Russian webcasts, here's a brief
description:

SPECIAL RUSSIAN WEBCASTS delivers a survey of the previous week's news in
simplified standard Russian. Listeners of Voice of America's "Special
English" broadcasts will recognize the slightly slower rate of speech and
textual redundancy which characterize these webcasts.
Why Special Russian? Back in Soviet times, the news was easy to understand.
The propaganda-laden messages were predictable and the diction clear and
slow. Post-communist newscasts feature telegraphic speech and slurry
diction. Our webcasts serve as a stepping stone between the teacher talk of
the classroom and the "real" Russian of the media.

Authentic news. The news itself is taken from a number of Russian sites,
including Lenta.Ru, Gazeta.Ru, and ??? ??????. The accompanying exercises
pre-listening background information, vocabulary support, and post-listening
activities. Some of these are open-ended questions. Others are interactive.
Listeners can check their answers with a mouse click.

Timeframe. The news cycle covered is from Monday to Friday. The news is
recorded and posted the following Monday. Exercises are available by Tuesday
morning. In other words, listeners should expect at least a 96-hour delay in
"timeliness."

Who can listen? The news items, style, and exercise level are aimed at
students with listening skills at ACTFL Intermediate Mid to Intermediate
High. In most cases, that corresponds to college Russian at the end of
second-year.


_________________________________
Richard Robin, Associate Professor, Chair
German and Slavic Dept.
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20008
rrobin at gwu.edu
http://home.gwu.edu/~rrobin
????? ??-?????? ?? ???? ??????????.
Chitayu po-russki vo vsex kodirovkax.

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