4000 level course

[Dr. Frederick H. White]

A question has been raised by a colleague in another language department
about our 4000 level undergraduate courses (4th year).  This colleague
wants to know why for these courses, our students do not read all of the
texts in Russian?  The courses in question are survey courses of a more
specific nature -- The St. Petersburg Myth; Russian Memoir Literature.

Part I of my answer would be that we are a small department of 2 people,
however, we have over 30 majors and another 10-12 minors.  Therefore, we
are forced to rotate our courses in order to accommodate a major or
minor finishing their degree in 4 years and must offer courses at all
levels, which could accommodate 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students.

Part II of my answer is that as I remember, there were two types of 4th
year courses when I was an undergraduate.  There was the "Reading
Course" in which all the texts were in Russian, but the readings were
less so that we could work our ways through the text, grammar, etc.
There were also "Theme Courses" in which the content was at the 4th year
level, but the texts were read in English -- I am thinking about a
course which I had on Dostoevsky.

I would be very interested to get your input on what is done with 4th
year literature/culture courses at your university.  What is the policy
on Russian texts in these undergraduate courses?

Please refer to this off-line:  fwhite at mun.ca

Thank you in advance.

Cheers,
F

********************************
Dr. Frederick H. White
Memorial University   SN3056
Department of German and Russian
St. John's, NL    A1B 3X9
Ph: 709-737-8829
Fax: 709-737-4000
Office: 709-737-8831
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