Fw: Russian Through Pushkin

[David Powelstock]

Dear SEELANGers,

I received a number of queries in response to my posting about Chicago's
new first-year Russian language course, "Russian through Pushkin."  I asked
the course assistant for the class to write me a brief description of what
they are doing, and I pass this along to those of you are interested.
Although still in the experimental stage, the class seems to be a popular
alternative to our more traditional first-year Russian course.

dp

>
>       The University of Chicago is offering a new course, "Russian through
> Pushkin," as an alternative track to the traditional first-year Russian
class.
> We are happy to report that the class has attracted extremely motivated
> undergraduates (mostly first-year students) as well as graduate students
from
> fields as diverse as Latin American history, Middle-eastern history and
> political science. The goal of the class is to present all of the
decelensional
> cases by the end of the first quarter, and a general overview of Russian
grammar
> by the end of the year.  In addition, we will help our students acquire a
> beautiful Russian pronounciation by emphasizing the oral-recitational
component
> of the class.  Finally, we hope to inspire an interest in Russian
literature and
> culture. Having successfully completed our class, our students should be
able to
> continue in second-year Russian along side students who were trained in
the
> traditional first-year course.
>       We have based the first quarter of the course on Henry R. Cooper's
> materials "The Language of Pushkin," which include the text and glossary
for
> Pushkin's "Bronze Horseman," as well as a presentation of the alphabet,
the
> sound system, and the grammar (using examples from the poem).
>       The "lecture" class meets three days a week, and it is in this section
> that the students work on the poem. Having mastered the alphabet, they
began
> grammar work with the introduction of the poem.  As an introductory
exercise
> they were asked to go through the enire introduction, underlying verbs,
circling
> nouns and placing wavy lines under adjectives.  Clearly, the emphasis at
that
> point was on recognition of forms rather than memorization of vocabulary
or
> understanding of the poem per se. Soon they were introduced to the
singular of
> the nominative, accusative, genitive and prepositional cases as well as
> nominative and accusative (inanimate) plural.  By the third week they
began
> memorization of vocabulary.  Assignemnts have included written grammar
> exercises, communicative anketa-type exercises, and oral recitation of
the poem.
> The students each have a tape of a native speaker reading the poem to aid
them
> in the preparation of oral presentations.
>       A drill section which meets twice a week supplements the work that the
> students do in the lecture section. The drill section focuses on
activization of
> grammar in contemporary, conversational Russian.  Since one of the goals
of the
> course is to have our students continue next year in a traditional second
year
> Russian class, we consider this activization component key to the
students'
> success.
>       This course is a work in progress and we look forward to updating you on
> its success later in the academic-year.  Next quarter we will finish the
poem
> and begin work with Benjamin Rifkin's "Grammatika v Kontekste."
Suggestions and
> questions are welcome.
>
>
>
>