qualifying to teach Russ., etc., in US

Sat Dec 8 18:06:09 UTC 2007

Dear colleagues and Ms Pashkovska:

Since in the US there are many holders of the Ph.D. who are experts 
in Russian language and literature, it seems possible that there 
would be reduced demand at this time for such experts who are 
LIMITED to Russian.  I suspect that the job openings which do 
appear tend to emphasize Russian PLUS OTHER Slavic languages 
and literatures. --  Such as Russian plus Ukrainian language and 
literature,  for instance?

I agree with Prof Browne that a specialization in Slavic-language 
pedagogy as such is probably much less in demand than,   as I 
suggest,   specialization in Russian plus "secondary" Slavic 
languages and literatures...

Happy holidays to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
_____________________________________________________________________

Date: Sat 8 Dec 11:23:34 CST 2007 
From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU> 
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU>   

Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 04:10:52 +0300 
From: Kateryna Pashkovska <pashkovska_k at MAIL.RU> 
Subject: teaching Russian 

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. 

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 22:47:52 -0500 
From: E Wayles Browne <ewb2 at CORNELL.EDU> 
Subject: Re: teaching Russian 

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 
Cornell University 
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A. 
______________________________________________________ 

Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 07:08:51 +0300 
From: Kateryna Pashkovska <pashkovska_k at MAIL.RU> 
Subject: Re: teaching Russian 

Dear Mr. Browne, 
thank you so much for your response. 
I hold a degree in Linguistics (English, Spanish) from a linguistic university in 
Ukraine (where I'm from)and I remember tremendously demanding methodological 
courses, where they were teaching us how to teach English as a foreign language; 
practice at schools at all grades, from the first to eleventh. 
Now I'm a Master's student of Folklore at Utah State (Fulbright program) 
and I'm looking into possibilities to teach Russian somewhere in the US, 
as I really love Russian language and culture. 
And I really find it confusing that I almost don't see methdological courses, 
and I would consider to get a PhD in Russian here and not in Russia mainly 
for the knowledge of HOW to teach it. 
Do you think I'll be in a good position getting a degree in Russia if I don't find 
what I'm looking for here? 

Thank you 
and everybody who responds to me, 
Kateryna. 
________________________________________________________________

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