RAILS Project Completed

[Benjamin Rifkin]

[Apologies or a repeat posting, there was a problem with the URL in the
previous posting.  Please delete that one and keep this one for your
records.]

Dear SEELANGers:

The RAILS (Russian Advanced Interactive Listening Series) Team is proud to
announce the completion of its project:  30 web-based advanced-level
listening comprehension lessons are completed and ready for your use.

These lessons are based on video-taped interviews with prominent Russians
(including former presidential candidate Irina Khakamada) and excerpts from
documentary films (Solovky Power and The Children of Ivan Kuz'mich).

Lessons are accompanied by teachers' manuals and transcripts; students may
use the lessons on PC or Macintosh computers with a high-speed Internet
connection.
 
Licenses to download and use the lessons based on interviews with prominent
Russians are available at no cost for use by students and teachers of
Russian at any educational institution in the world.

Licenses to download and use the lessons based on excerpts from the
documentary films are free to those institutions in North America that have
purchased copies of the given films.

More details about  the licenses and lessons, including images from lessons
illustrating the range of activities in the 30 lessons, are available at the
RAILS website: 
 
http://www.languageinstitute.wisc.edu/rails
 
Contact Dr. Dianna Murphy, Associate Director of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Language Institute at diannamurphy at wisc.edu with any
questions about the RAILS project.
 
As director of the RAILS Project and principal investigator of the US
Department of Education grant that funded it, I also take this opportunity
to publicly acknowledge the following individuals, all affiliated with the
University of Wisconsin-Madison except as otherwise noted:
 
Dianna Murphy, Project Manager
Shannona Donnally Spasova, Project Assistant (Curriculum Developer)
Viktoria Thorstensson, Project Assistant (Curriculum Developer)
Nina Familiant, Project Assistant (Curriculum Developer)
Darya Vassina, Editorial Assistant
Galina Aksenova, Grinnell College and MKhAT, Middlebury College
Jean Hennessey, UW-Masdison Slavic Department Administrator
Marina Golovskaya, UCLA, Filmmaker
Georg Herzfeld, Gold Films Distributor
Olga Kagan, UCLA, External Reviewer
Frank Miller, Columbia U., External Reviewer
Elena Shchepina, Smolny Institute, Editorial Assistant
Richard Robin, George Washington U., Technical Consultant
Anna Yatsenko, Reed College, Editorial Assistant
Ted Gerber, Content Assistant for Sociology
Mark Beissinger, Princeton University, Expert Reviewer for Political Science
Content 
Francine Hirsch, Expert Reviewer for History Content
Anne Goresuch, University of British Columbia, Expert Assistant for History
Content 
Manon VandeWater, Expert Reviewer Assistant for Theater Content
Doug Worsham, Media Consultant
Ron Cramer, Media Consultant
Michelle Glenetski, Web Designer
Bahman Zakeri, Programmer, Xivic Communications
Bruno Browning, IT Consultant
 
All of us on the RAILS team extend our thanks to colleagues at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Letters and Science, Department
of Slavic Languages and Literature, Language Institute, Division of
Information Technology, and L&S Learning Support Services,.
 
Reviews of the RAILS lessons will appear soon in professional publications.
We encourage all teachers of Russian at the advanced level to consider using
these lessons in their courses.

Sincerely,

Ben Rifkin
-- 
Benjamin Rifkin
Professor of Russian and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs
College of Liberal Arts, Temple University
1206 Anderson Hall, 1114 W. Berks St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122 USA
Voice 215-204-1816
Fax 215-204-3731
www.temple.edu/cla
www.temple.edu/fgis/rifkin



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