Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Pavel Samsonov]

> I think Paul Samsonov, of A&M Univ./Texas, had a good point about the
current
> pedagogy not supporting memorization of poetry for a foreign language
class.
> If good pedagogy supported some memorization and this became standard
again
> for teachers to expect that of their students, then students would accept
it
> as normal and be more accepting of this directive. Same for reading, if
more
> was required, then students would do it.

Thank you for your input Kristina! You have hit some "touchy" issues.

Before coming up with the syllabus, we have to identify what students
studying Russian really need.

Do they need knowledge of the Russian culture and literature (or
acquaintance with it?). In this canse most of the class can be more
effectively taught in English and only some small parts would envolve
Russian for the cultural and linguistic flavor.
Do they need high oral proficiency and interpreter skills?

In this case a serious and intensive course should be offered with intense
memorization enhancement techniques, with a well-balanced combination of
grammar, communication and trasnlation. In this case an entirely
"student-centered" approach may not be enough. A serious course designed to
produce a proficient Russian speaker and even translator is too daunting a
task.

In my practice with military students who have completed the DLI, I realized
that most of them were thankful to their demanding Russian teachers for
their rigorous teaching. The requirements were high, the teaching was almost
entirely teacher-controlled but the results were impressive.

In a normal school or university setting a rigorous Russian program may seem
a bit unrealistic.

Personally I would be happy to teach 10-15 people for a couple of years on a
daily basis using whatever methods I know. By the end of the day these
students would be really proficient in Russian. But is there a demand for
such a course?

On the political arena we can notice a change of attitudes to Russia. When
it was an "evil empire" (when translated into Russian it sounds 100 times
more sinister -  "imperija zla" - empire of the evil ruled by the evil),
Russian in the USA thrived on federal support. Ironically, Russia has not
been removed from the position of #1 enemy of the West, and the
newly-proposed missile defense system has nothing to do with the "terrorist
threat" (are there any sober-minded people who would think that the USA
could be attacked by missiles launched by a bunch of terrorists?).
Unfortunately, though Russia has stepped down as superpower it has not
become a friendly country, which is not only USA's fault. There are too
influential forces in Russia whose only RAISON D'ETRE is Russia's oppostion
to the West.

So, on the one hand potential Russian students are not attracted by Russian
courses because Russian has seized to be "the defense language", on the
other hand, Russia is still an unfriendly country not offering many business
opportunities to a US graduate.

With compliments,

Pavel (Paul) Samsonov
EDAD, College of Education,
Texas A&M University
tel. (409) 862-7771 (lab)
      (409) 862-9152 (home)
fax (409) 862-4347
e-mail p0s5658 at acs.tamu.edu

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