language maintenance over the summer?

[Susan Bauckus]

I don’t wish to discourage people from reading literary texts, but the ones
available to students at that level are often dreary. When I had to read
those, I started to suspect that Russian literature was not all it was
cracked up to be. A nice set of texts for students on many levels are the
news items on the BBC Russian service at www.bbcrussian.com. People who
prefer something more stately than the newspaper format of the home page
can choose the "bez grafiki" option, which presents the texts in a single
row without columns or pictures. 

While dense, the texts are blessedly short – a headline and 1-2 sentences –
and complete. The topics are often familiar to American students, and
frequently include a fair number of familiar toponyms, names of well-known
figures, cognates, and frequently occurring vocabulary that are all likely
to help people along. I've never found any reading material that my
beginning students like as much as these, and they get a sense of
accomplishment from finishing them. Students can look up words by pasting
them into www.rambler.ru/dict, which will identify verbs in any form and
nouns in any case. Reading a few of these stories a day might be worthwhile
or at least part of a maintenance program. The BBC has pages in a few other
Slavic languages as well (Ukrainian, Macedonian, and Serbian).

If time permits you might be able to work these stories into your classes
so that your students gain some practice working w/ them before the term
ends. 

Susie Bauckus



> [Original Message]
> From: Laura Kline <klinela at COMCAST.NET>
> To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
> Date: 4/2/2008 3:19:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] language maintenance over the summer?
>
> The Zlatoust series has some adaptations of literary works at a variety of
> levels, including beginning. Russia Online
(http://www.russia-on-line.com/)
> carries them. They are around $6 each.
> Best,
> Laura Kline
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Anne Fisher
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 11:25 AM
> To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] language maintenance over the summer?
>
> Dear Seelangers,
>
> My first-year Russian students are already asking how they can  
> maintain their language over the summer. I'd like to suggest  
> something for them to read, but obviously they will need texts  
> specially prepared for beginning students of a foreign language.
>
> I'd like to find material with an accompanying glossary, or material  
> that is extremely simple, so that students don't have to work  
> intensively with their own dictionaries. Does anyone have any  
> suggestions?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Annie
>
> ____________________
>
> "Reading is inescapably a social act."
> - From John Clifford's introduction to a collection of articles  on  
> Louise Rosenblatt's seminal Literature as Exploration.
> ____________________
>
> Anne O. Fisher
> Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
> Williams College
> Department of German and Russian
> 995 Main Street, Weston Hall
> Williamstown, MA  01267
> anne.fisher AT williams.edu
> office: 413.597.4723
> fax: 413.597.3028
> _____________________
>

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