Two Dumb Questions

[Melissa Smith]

Far from dumb questions!

The concept of "second-year Russian" depends very much on what the 
first year consisted of, and what the students' future path of study 
can be expected to me. In the "olden" days (before 1984, 
approximately), there were two or three first-year texts, and only one 
second year "Making Progress With Russian," by Davis and Oprendek.

Beginning in the mid 1980's, the concept of "proficiency" entered 
language teaching, and I believe that "Golosa" can be considered a 
pioneer in this field. However, the authors originally considered the 
two volumes to be SEMESTER-length, and therefore the grammatical 
concepts formerly assumed to be basic to first year, got spread over 
two books, but programs with fewer than 6 (?) contact hours, or with 
weaker students, felt the need to use these books over two years. 
Similar experiences with subsequent texts: Nachalo, Troika, Russian 
Stage One-Two.

A bona fide second year text appeared in "V puti." There are a number 
of materials that can be used at the second-third year level, but none 
is ideal. I have at various points used: Cinema for Russian 
Conversation, Political Russian, The Twelve Chairs Intermediate 
Russian. Since I teach at a university that considers ONE year of 
foreign language to be the requirement and therefore never have more 
than 2-5 students, I tend to orient the materials to the given 
population.

Fortunately, I'm retiring! I welcome the further discussion on this 
issue.

Best wishes,

Melissa Smith
On 5/27/12 11:17 AM, Fusso, Susanne wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> I have two unrelated and possibly naive questions.  You can reply to 
me offlist at sfusso at wesleyan.edu.
> 
> 1.  What have you found to be the best textbooks for second- and 
third-year Russian?  For second year, I'm particularly interested in 
texts that provide solid explanations of and drills for basic grammar 
and syntax.  I'm not so interested in bells and whistles.
> 
> 2.  Is there a listing anywhere of recent Ph.D.'s in Slavic studies 
(encompassing not just literature but other disciplines)?  I cannot 
find anything on the ASEEES or AATSEEL websites, and the only recourse 
seems to be a laborious search through Dissertation Abstracts, which 
I'm not sure is capturing everything.
> 
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Susanne
> 
> Susanne Fusso
> Professor of Russian Language and Literature
> Wesleyan University
> 262 High Street
> Middletown, CT  06459
> 860-685-3123
> 
> 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3461

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