teaching Russian

[E Wayles Browne]

Dear Mrs. Pashkovska,
I have some thoughts and personal observations. Perhaps
they will encourage some of the other readers of the SEELANGS
list to disagree with me and give their own thoughts and
personal observations. I hope so: v spore rozhdaetsja istina.

When I look at my colleagues at various universities who
teach the Russian language, I see that they have various
profiles:
- Some are professors primarily of Russian literature. This
means that they have a Ph.D. degree in Russian literature
(and have written a doctoral thesis on some Russian poet
or prose writer or on some topic within the Russian literary
tradition). At the universities where they are now, they
teach some courses in Russian literature for students who
know Russian, some courses in Russian literature for students
who don't know Russian and must read works in English
translation, and some courses in Russian language for
beginners or for more advanced students.
- Some are professors of Russian language and linguistics.
This means that they have a Ph.D. degree in Slavic
linguistics (and have written a doctoral thesis on a topic
like "The relative clause in early Ukrainian" or "Uses
of the instrumental case in Russian and Slovenian"). At
the universities where they are now, they teach some
courses in Russian linguistics, perhaps some courses in
general linguistics, and some courses in Russian language for
beginners or for more advanced students.
- Finally, some are truly specialists in the teaching of
the Russian language. These are mostly not professors; they
are lecturers, which means that their job is less permanent
and they earn, on the average, less money. They are either
native speakers of Russian who have studied some literary
or linguistic field (but perhaps have only an M.A. and not
a Ph.D. in it), or native speakers of Russian who have
studied some other field (engineering...English language...
mathematics...medicine...), or non-native speakers of
Russian who have long experience learning Russian themselves
and who began to teach language courses while they were
students (usually: while they were students for a Ph.D.
in Russian literature or Slavic linguistics).

You are in principle correct: when one reasons logically,
methodological courses in "how to teach Russian" should
be an important qualification for future professors or
future lecturers. But, in practice, methodological courses
which would prepare one to teach at the university level
are very rare in the U.S. (It is just the reverse with
future teachers at the elementary-school or secondary-
school level: there are many methodological courses for
them, both general courses in education and specific
courses in how to teach music or how to teach sports or
how to teach mathematics or how to teach Spanish or
how to teach some other language. But the U.S. has
very few people who wish to teach Russian at the secondary-
school level, and very few jobs in teaching Russian in
schools, so there are not many courses in how to teach
Russian in schools.)
With best wishes,
-- 
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

> Dear every one,
> let me ask you once again what qualifications I should have to be eligible
> for a position of a professor of Russian language in the US or Canada? May
> be you can advise specific institutions? I find various programs, but no
> courses like methods of teaching Russian language at the PhD level, but to
> my mind, these methodological courses are most vitally important.
>
> Thank you,
> Kateryna Pashkovska,
> Utah State University.
>
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