songs and games in the classroom

[Inna Tigountsova]

Dear John,
I think both of your examples are great, and I use very similar games and a variety of songs in my first-year Russian classes. Students love the vocab games when they all are sitting in a circle, person 1 stands behind person 2, and I show them a card with, say, the word "muzykant." Whoever says it first moves one step further sideways, etc. Songs in Riazanov's films are great even for the first-year, "Esli u vas netu teti" from "The Irony of Fate," for example, introduces them to Gen. sg. My more advanced students loved the songs from "Bremenskie muzykanty."
Hope this helps,

Inna Tigountsova

----- Original Message -----
From: John Langran <john at RUSLAN.CO.UK>
Date: Monday, March 31, 2008 3:39 pm
Subject: [SEELANGS] songs and games in the classroom
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU


> Dear colleagues
>  
>  A couple of further queries for the adaptation of my Ruslan course 
> for the
>  US market. I would be grateful if those teaching beginners Russian 
> have time
>  to respond.
>  
>  1.
>  Do you like using language games that involve students moving around 
> the
>  classroom talking to each other in Russian? I have been encouraged to 
> drop
>  these from my US edition, as your classrooms are perhaps more "rigid" 
> than
>  ours in the UK. But I am not sure of this advice, and I want to check 
> it.
>  Example of such a game for beginners in the first few lessons of a beginners
>  course.
>  They already know - Izvinite! Ya-  Vy - Da - Net, and a few other necessary
>  words.
>  - students choose a profession - either inzhener, muzikant or zhurnalist.
>  They don't tell anyone who they are.
>  - they then have to get up from their seats and regroup in 3 groups, 
> all the
>  engineers together, etc, using Russian only. Teacher stays on hand to 
> help
>  with vocab etc as needed.
>  
>  2.
>  Will there be any resistance from teachers to the idea of fun songs for
>  learners using popular Russian tunes with new words? There is an 
> example of
>  such a song to the tune of "Iz-za ostrova na strezhen" at
>  http://www.ruslan.co.uk/songs/Iz_aeroporta_v_centr.wmv - only low quality,
>  the song is being recorded properly next week. It has been suggested 
> that
>  some teachers will see this as a mockery, but I think that the memorable
>  context is a good aid to learning. There are likely to be 4 or 5 such 
> items
>  in the new book.
>  
>  Thanks for any feedback
>  
>  John Langran
>  www.ruslan.co.uk
>  
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