Russian reading skills. teaching children.

[Romy Taylor]

Hi Katerina, Nola, all,

The translations of Harry Potter, etc., are not great.  I would  
suggest that the introduction of new characters in Russian is an  
analogous process to the introduction of new characters in English; he  
didn't know Harry Potter before the first book came out, right?   
Better to go with great Russian children's literature.  To make  
everything more appealing, perhaps a community center, church,  
synagogue etc. can link you up with other Russian-speaking families so  
he has a peer group, and then organize small-group lessons.  You  
should have no problem finding this in the Philadelphia immigrant  
community, including plenty of retired schoolteachers, or perhaps your  
mother would be good at this.  Russian satellite TV is good too.

Romy Taylor




Quoting Nola <oothappam at EARTHLINK.NET>:

> I have seen Harry Potter in Russian. Perhaps some Russian   
> translations of novels that are popular with American kids, like   
> Harry Potter, would be fun for him? I think I saw "A series of   
> Unfortunate Events"-the Lemony Snicket books, also in Russian. There  
>  are booksellers on ebay who sell a lot of these type books in  
> Russian.
> Nola
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Katerina Romanenko
>   To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>   Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 9:13 AM
>   Subject: [SEELANGS] Russian reading skills. teaching children.
>
>
>   Hi,
>   I suspect that participants of SEELANGs mostly work with adult   
> students, still I thought I'll ask...
>   My son (9 y.old)  born in the US,speaks Russian well  yet with   
> huge percentage of Russinglish transformations and direct   
> translations. We speak Russian at home, but not exclusively and fail  
>  to really enforce the proper language grammar. (I teach art history  
>  and study early Soviet  culture, if anybody wonders what am I doing  
>  on SEELANGS) My son likes to listen when I read in Russian, but   
> prefers to read in English on his own... He is a vivid reader in   
> English, loves it, and is able to read for several hours if the   
> story is good.
>   This summer he'll be at Grandma's (in Phila, not in Russia), who   
> already taught him basic reading skills in Russian. So he knows the   
> alphabet and is able to read simple words and sentences. But  he   
> does not like reading in Russian because it is hard... The goal for   
> this summer is to improve his reading skills and to practice Russian  
>  grammar.
>   So I am looking for recommendations of teaching methods, children   
> friendly grammar exercise textbooks (or websites)  and   
> reading-exercise anthologies that are relevant for Americans.   
> (Russian  fairy tails are boring to him as he cannot relate to the   
> characters...). I was even  thinking about good translations of   
> English literature that he may be familiar with in English...
>
>
>   Any advise would be appreciated!
>
>   By the way, is he a  native or heritage speaker?
>
>   Thanks.
>
>   Katerina Romanenko
>   Doctoral Candidate, Art HIstory
>
>
>
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