placement in RUSS 101--the other side of the coin

Sat Feb 4 20:52:35 UTC 2006

Dear Friends,

I can only speak from the vantage point of old age (62)
and the British system - having been thrown in the deep
end, floundered terribly but achieved a BA Hons in Russian.

I would divide the 2 groups initially:
actually, there are THREE GROUPS to consider:

- monolingual Anglo-speakers really do need their own class

- Native Russian speakers, who enjoyed by and large an
  excellent Russian schooling system, and were probably
  taught their grammar & spelling very well.

- Heritage speakers (me).  We fall between 2 chairs.
  Our spoken Russian can be excellent, reading slow but
  adequate and with time speeds up.  BUT, our problem lies
  in that we have had (some of us) home education.
  Parents taught us well to speak and read, but collapsed
  on teaching grammar or spelling rules ...
  Yes, we have psychological hang-ups when Russian adults
  tell us that we are illiterates.
  Of course we want to joint elementary classes to learn the
  basics, to give us confidence to continue, later, at a rapid
  pace. 
  We never had the advantage of attending Russian schools with
  proper teachers, but received home-based lessons from family
  members.

Vera Beljakova >  now teaching adult SA businessmen
Johannesburg

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Prof Steven P Hill s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 03:53:47 -0600
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] placement in RUSS 101--the other side of the coin

Dear colleagues:

John Stuart Mill (or Jeremy Bentham) once wrote about "the greatest good
for the 
greatest number."  That can be a compelling argument.

In Russian-language classes at U.S. universities,  we sometimes face a
situation (say, 
in "Russian 101" or "102") that has NO ideal solution.   Namely, a mixed
class partly 
consisting, on the one hand,  of traditional beginners, monolingual
speakers of English  
who grew up in the US and know nothing whatsoever about Russian -- not even
the 
alphabet, let alone any vocabulary. And, on the other hand, consisting of
"heritage 
speakers" whose first language was Russian from birth to say, age 10 or 14
or 18 
(whenever their family left the former USSR).  

It sounds as if some of our colleagues have come up with workable
compromises 
that enable them to hold onto BOTH contingents of students.  Three cheers
if those 
solutions work well.

But it's possible that there will be other "101"  (or "102," etc.) classes
where the 
split between the two contingents seems impossible to bridge.  Either the
heritage 
speakers find the class is far too elementary and going too slow. 
(Although in some 
universities the heritage speakers may end up with "A+" grades without
making any 
effort, and some of them, the deliberate fakers,  probably are happy about
that!)  

Or else, and this is what concerns me, the other contingent (traditional
monolingual 
English speakers) find themselves out of their depth, trying to compete
with the 
heritage speakers, become discouraged,  and conclude that "Russian is too
hard."  
So the monolinguals after a couple of weeks DROP RUSSIAN and switch to
Spanish 
or French, which their classmates tell them are "easy languages."  That's a
bad 
outcome.  We can ill afford to lose some of the limited number of
undergrads 
who actually select Russian for their first undergrad language to study.

Which brings me back to Mill or Bentham.  If the teacher of this sort of
mixed 
class faces the unenviable risk of losing some students from one contingent 
or the other, then our friend Mill may offer a reasonable answer. 

If a class has, say, 1 or 2 or 3 heritage speakers who have "taken over"
the class 
and dominate all the discussion (appearing to know "all the answers"),
while the 
traditional contingent consists of, say, 10 or 15 or 20 monolinguals, and
if the 
result is that several of the latter contingent have become totally
discouraged 
and are preparing to DROP RUSSIAN, then the teacher may be confronted with 
a painful choice: losing a couple of heritage speakers, or losing many MORE

monolinguals. 

If some of the promising solutions mentioned on this list-server (including 
my own) just won't work in a particular class at a particular school,  then
we 
may be guided by Mill and Bentham's wisdom. It's less painful to move 1 or 
2 heritage speakers out of the "101 or "102" class,  than to lose 4 or 6 or
8 
monolinguals from that group. 

Mill's dictum can even have a compounding effect.  Those students who leave 
a "101" class (either heritage speakers or monolinguals) will probably
spread 
the bad news to their friends and classmates around campus.  The question 
would be: HOW MANY doom-sayers are spreading this bad news? If, on a 
particular campus, it would be 4 or 6 or 8 monolinguals (who had become 
discouraged and left Russian in the early weeks), who would go around their 
dorms and other classes, bad-mouthing Russian as "too hard," then the 
resistance to taking Russian could grow exponentially..

On the other hand, if a class would consist of, say, 7 heritage speakers
and 
only 3 traditional monolinguals,  and if the split seems unbridgeable, then 
Mill's wisdom would suggest trying to hold onto the seven at the risk of
losing 
the three.  ("The greatest good for the greatest number.")

Needless to say, we all hope we can come up with solutions and compromises 
that will enable us to hold onto ALL the students in a class.  That's the
best 
solution of all.  And this list-server, by enabling us to compare notes, is
a big 
help in that direction. 

Best wishes to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
__ __ _ __ __ __ __ _ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _          

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------