Russian handwriting in US classrooms in the computer age

[Beyer, Tom]

At Middlebury student learn cursive in first year, much like I learned the
Palmer method in first grade. They begin using lined paper- two lines at
first, writing in pen (meaning they have to practice several times before
the final version). After they have learned the alphabet I give them two
books used by Russian first graders to practice penmanship.
But computers for text input also come into play almost immediately. A first
night assignment is to print out a page from rambler.ru, just so they know
their computers have Cyrillic. I also point to input methods, speak of
finding and using online dictionaries, how to type in Cyrillic using either
the Russian or some YAWERTY keyboard or online keyboards. Since some have
Iphones, Ipads, Itouches, and who knows what else before long, etc I simply
point them to google and say figure out how to type in Russian one way or
another on whatever device(s) you have. Many do word lists on the
computer,and there are some other assignments in first year: type a menu,
make a business card, etc. But cursive by hand is still for the foreseeable
future a necessary skill that I feel we should teach.

Good luck and best wishes to all who toil in the garden of Basic Russian.



On 9/8/10 9:45 AM, "Monnier, Nicole M." <MonnierN at MISSOURI.EDU> wrote:

> Richard!
> 
> Great question - one I was contemplating posting to the list as well. As I
> began the semester this year, I was struck by how many students don't use
> cursive in English and the added difficulties of this fact for the teaching
> of Russian cursive.
> 
> As to your conditions, our current textbook (Live from Russia) does not have
> online exercises, so students inevitably have to handwrite their textbook
> exercises, as well as their exams and quizzes, so learning cursive is
> unavoidable at this juncture. I also tell them that they should be taking
> notes, and all my notes on the board are in cursive; likewise, when they
> head off to Russia (I always tell them "when," not "if"!), they're going to
> find themselves in situations where they'll have to read or write cursive.
> 
> HOWEVER, I have been seriously contemplating requiring them to learn how to
> type in Russian, preferably with the Gosstandart layout (again, on the same
> premise that they find themselves in Russia some day with no option of the
> QUERTY translit keyboard), if only because it will give them incredible
> interactive access to real Russian online (Vkontakte, chat, etc.). I'm
> thinking about doing this in the second semester of first-year (ours is a
> 15-week course at 6 hours/week).
> 
> I do not curtail students' use of the computer, though few venture onto the
> keyboard on their own in any event.
> 
> If our university required all students to have laptops of some sort, I
> would be even more likely to require students to learn to type in Russian.
> 
> Other than that, I can only say that I am as curious as you as to other
> practices in our field.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Nicole
> 
> 
> ****************************
> Dr. Nicole Monnier
> Associate Teaching Professor of Russian
> Director of Undergraduate Studies (Russian)
> German & Russian Studies
> 428A Strickland (formerly GCB)
> University of Missouri
> Columbia, MO 65211
> 
> phone: 573.882.3370
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/8/10 7:48 AM, "Richard Robin" <rrobin at GWU.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> Dear SEELANGers,
>> 
>> I¹d like to get some feedback from colleagues on the issue of teaching
>> Russian script to beginners in an era of computer-delivered materials.
>> 
>> Imagine using a textbook under the following conditions:
>> 
>>    1. Every exercise is online but also available in the printed version of
>>    a student workbook (tear out pages, etc.)
>>    2. Your students have computers that can type Cyrillic, and using either
>>    the native Gosstandart layout or the phonetic ³student² keyboard, they can
>>    type Russian.
>>    3. While all the exercises are on line, some are (a) machine gradable
>>    (simple choose the ending or fill in the blank with an unambiguous word or
>>    phrase, (b) sentence or paragraph length, submittable electronically to
>> the
>>    teacher, but not machine gradable.
>> 
>> 
>> Questions:
>> 
>>    1. Do you teach cursive basically for recognition and embrace the use of
>>    all the online exercises?
>>    2. Do you limit the use of the students¹ use of the computer until they
>>    have mastered cursive?
>>    3. If you answered yes, to Question 2, what are the limits? How long must
>>    they write things by hand? (It helps if you calculate by instructional
>>    hours, where a typical 4-hour a week semester of 15 weeks comes to 60
>> hours,
>>    a year ‹ 120 hours). Do they have to write everything by hand or is there
>> an
>>    acceptable mix of handwritten work and computer work?
>>    4. Any other opinions you have on the subject.
>> 
>> Either public or private answers are appreciated. This is not a formal
>> scholarly survey (obviously). I just want to get people to express some
>> opinions on the matter.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Richard Robin
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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