intuitive labels for verb conjugations

[Katya Hirvasaho]

Yes, the student may very well answer correctly that a given verb is either
"-esh" or "-ish" verb, yet, when asked to conjugate it, s/he might produce
"-esh", "-et", the whole paradigm beautifully and still come up with "oni
-iat" in the end. I was arguing rather from the perspective of the end
result of student learning, whether these classifications are of any help
in the actual acquisition of the language.

I would even question whether we are not in fact only needlessly burdening
the student with additional--and possibly useless--information.  It is not
at all certain that there are universally applicable methods or even
concepts, or that these categories exist outside of (the largely) Western
man's insistence on organizing the world into definite and controllable
categories (postmodernist notions).  We know that these grammatical systems
exist only because we are taught to think about Russian in these terms, but
the beginning student does not have such categories in place.  At this day
and age, are they necessary even? We are on the threshold of
revolutionizing language learning entirely.  Most of us complain that
American students are not very good at memorization.  Why continue to force
them when we now have the technological means (Internet, satellite
television and audiovisual materials) to expose students to large amounts
of input of the actual language and culture. It is a fact that all people
listen and read their native language every day vastly more than they
speak.  It seems to me that this should be the premise for foreign language
teaching also.

Katya



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Katya Hirvasaho * Rice University * Houston, Texas