"Faked" placement scores from native speakers

[Debenedette, Lynne]

We don't have the problem in the same form at Brown (heritage speakers with
relatively good conversational Russian trying to fake their way into 1st
year), but it's worth noting that even when students aren't trying to "work
the system" and are perfectly honest about being able to speak they often
have the wrong idea about what course is best for them. Many of the barely
literate (in Russian) freshmen I see at placement tests have been told by
older family members for years that they "don't know anything" because they
read slowly or write only block letters, or family members have laughed at
them when they've made certain kinds of errors. Many are truly convinced
that 1st year is the only place for them to be. It's natural that they would
find the idea of placement in a higher level frightening and try to avoid
it. Another overly simplistic notion they usually have is best summed up: "I
know Russian, I just don't know the grammar." The first conversation I have
with most of my heritage speakers is in English and is about what some
characteristics of h.s. language are.

As for catching the "fakers" at placement time, if you're using only a
computerized or multiple choice placement test without a face-to-face
interview, it's going to be hard to catch them before classes start.
However, once the term begins and you have a roster for the first year class
you can almost always tell from it what names are "suspect" (the dead
giveaway being something like "Bernstein, Alexandra Efim", since despite the
Americanized spelling of Bernshtejn it's obvious her "middle name" that was
too long for the computer to print all of on the roster is really a
patronymic in disguise); those students I go up to after class and ask point
blank what language they speak at home and when their family arrived in the
US. My syllabus also states that ANYONE with ANY previous exposure to
Russian is forbidden to remain in the class without first having an oral
placement interview with me, and if, in announcing this sort of policy, you
make it clear that it will be extremely obvious to the teacher if a student
already knows some Russian, I think they're less likely to hide from you
successfully.

One thing you can do if you let them stay in 1st year (I think Tatjana
Akishina has talked about doing this at USC) is to adjust how they're
graded: for ex., since they already know the vocabulary, they're going to be
held to a much higher standard of correct spelling and will have twice as
much deducted for those errors as the non-heritage students do. Personally,
I only allow heritage students to do 1st year if, in addition to being
non-literate, they grew up in homes where a lot of English was used along
with Russian, and where the children may have heard Russian but usually or
always answered in English.

As for how to integrate them in mixed classrooms, my own experience is that
it's not easy, but can be rewarding, and always requires an investment of at
least 1-2 additional hours a week meeting time. To keep the time commitment
manageable I only take on heritage speakers of one type, because they go
relatively well into our third year: born here or emigrated before age 8,
non-literate but with adequate to good conversational Russian. The
non-heritage students are conversant enough by third year that they can
mostly hold their own talking, the heritage students aren't bored by the
content, and it's easier than it would be at lower levels to give the two
groups separate grammar assignments but deal with the same films, readings,
etc. The her. sp. do most of their initial work from the txtbk Russian for
Russians and then combine that with work the other 3rd year students are
doing, and the grammar parts of their tests deal with whatever grammar
they're learning rather than what the other students have. The grading
rubrics I use for them are slightly different as well. When possible their position as
heritage speakers becomes part of the whole class focus, as when the h.s. are
asked to interview a family member about something like features of the Soviet vs. the US educational system
and the non-heritage speakers are required to find out what the heritage speakers learned 
from the interview.

 
Lynne deBenedette
Sr. Lecturer in Russian
Dept. of Slavic Languages
Brown University
Providence RI 02912
email: lynne_debenedette-at-brown.edu (replace -at- with @)

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