Language "categories" (was: undergraduate >Honors in Russian)

[Benjamin Rifkin]

The classification system I described in my previous posting was
developed by the United States government. It is based on language
distance from English and categorizes languages by difficulty for
learners who are native speakers of English with no knowledge of a
related language. Thus, Russian is category 3 (in terms of hours
required to attain various levels of proficiency) for Americans who are
not fluent speakers of Ukrainian.

More information about this system is in an article I have written
about to be published in the next issue of the Modern Language Journal
(to be published this month I believe):  A Ceiling Effect in
Traditional Classroom Foreign Language Instruction:  Data from Russian.

Sincerely,

Ben Rifkin

On Mar 1, 2005, at 12:38 PM, Deborah Hoffman wrote:

> Perhaps this could be posted to the list as well?  I
> am also curious as to whether this categorization
> was developed specifically for native English
> speakers, since it has long been my working assumption
> that there are no "inherently more difficult"
> languages.  Still, I have noticed that even those with
> extensive Russian training (myself included) really
> have to strive for academic-level writing in Russian,
> much more so than our French or Spanish-speaking
> counterparts do.
>
> Personally, I would have loved the opportunity to
> write an undergraduate honors thesis in Russian, but
> I suspect I would have been the only one (or one of
> two) in my graduating class to be so thrilled, and
> probably would have required either more intensive
> language training than was available in my program, or
> an extra year (if not two) on my own acquiring that
> facility.
>
> Deborah Hoffman
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> Deborah Hoffman
> Graduate Assistant
> Kent State University
> Modern and Classical Language Studies
>
>> Date:    Mon, 28 Feb 2005 16:16:45 -0500
>> From:    David Powelstock <pstock at BRANDEIS.EDU>
>> Subject: Language "categories" (was: undergraduate
>> Honors in Russian)
>>
>> Might someone be so kind as to direct me to a web
>> resource that
>> describes
>> the "category" system, according to which Russian
>  is
>  a >"category 3"
>> language?  (Sounds like the hurricane system,
>  except
>> here it measures
>> mental, rather than physical destruction.)
>> Cheers,
>>
>> David Powelstock
>
>
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******'
Benjamin Rifkin
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professor and Chair, Slavic Dept.  (Slavic)
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-1623; fax (608) 265-2814
polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic

Director, Center for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA)
210 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706 USA
(608) 262-3379; fax (608) 890-0267
www.wisc.edu/creeca

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