Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Kenneth Brostrom]

>Yes, this is definitely a problem. The woman who supervised first and
>second year Russian here at the University of Oregon (now, alas, deceased)
>assigned a slim book, English Grammar for Students of Russian, to remedy
>this problem. It really is a pity that Latin isn't a required subject in
>grammar schools (as opposed to vocational high schools) any more, for if
>you have two years of Latin, you may not know Latin, but you do know
>grammar of Indo-European languages. -Martha Sherwood-
>

We have used this book (English Grammar for Students of Russian) in our
first-year Russian course for several years now (it has variants for
French, Spanish, German, Latin, Italian, and Japanese).  The results have
been quite good.  But it's necessary to make it a required textbook, to
integrate it into the syllabus, and to quiz students on it.  Otherwise the
students who need it most won't bother to study it.  This little book's
greatest virtue is that it can eliminate the need to discuss elementary
grammatical terms (e.g., subject, objects, predicates, the parts of speech,
etc.), leaving more class time for work with Russian.  It's available from
the Olivia and Hill Press in Ann Arbor, MI.

Kenneth Brostrom
Assoc. Prof. of Russian
Dept. of German and Slavic Studies
443 Manoogian Hall
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Telephone: (313) 577-6238
FAX (313) 577-3266
E-mail: kenneth.brostrom at wayne.edu

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