dictionaries on beginning level Russian tests?

[Walt Richmond]

I've been teaching Russian since 1995 and have never had a student ask if
dictionaries are permitted. I'm trying to think of a context where it
would actually be useful, anyway. Most of my quizzes test the student's
ability to decline/conjugate and reconstruct sentences. A dictionary
wouldn't help there. The vocabulary in those sentences has already been
subject of vocabulary quizzes, and they know they're supposed to know it.
I do include an English-Russian translation section even on the earliest
quizzes, but I tell them that if they can't remember a word in one of the
sentences they can replace it with one they do remember as long as they
note that's what they did.

I think the biggest problem is that they'll end up using the dictionary to
second guess everything and get distracted from other aspects of the quiz.


Best,
Walt Richmond
Occidental College

Subject: [SEELANGS] dictionaries on beginning level Russian tests?

Hello Everyone,

I have one Beginning Russian student from Argentina who insists that it is
normal for students to use dictionaries when taking beginner-level tests.
I have told him why I do not permit dictionaries (one reason being that he
needs to memorize new vocabulary), but I am hoping to also get some input
from you as to whether you allow dictionaries on beginning level language
tests, and why/why not.   This question had never occurred to me in the
past, because it just seems obvious to me that they are not used.  Thank
you!

Elena

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