language maintenance over the summer?

[Emily Saunders]

The best method I've found for language maintenance is to pick  
activities that are language-related and that are entertaining in and  
of themselves.

1)  Music is one of the main things that comes to mind.  I'd advise  
students to get ahold of cds or downloaded copies of Russian groups  
that match their musical tastes.  And if they're not sure what those  
are, listen to some Russian radio online.  There are many stations,  
but my husband and I regularly stream http//:www.radiovbc.ru which is  
a pop station out of Vladivostok.  There is no way that 1st year  
students will understand all of the between songs commentary, but as a  
background to have around it'll keep them listening to the music and  
intonation of the language and here and there they'll pick up a few  
words they recognize.  Kino is a bit dated, but is one of the easier  
Russian rock groups for beginning students to understand the lyrics of  
-- Tsoi tends to sing at a measured pace with long-ish gaps between  
words.

2)  Movies are another -- and I have personally found that watching a  
movie WITH subtitles does much to improve ones comprehension of the  
target language.  Since we typically read a bit faster than actors  
pronounce their lines, you get the advantage of anticipation of what  
is going to be said and so the brain can occasionally fill in the gap  
with an aha! that's what they said.  I got that word!  A very  
satisfying feeling.  Also Ironia Sud'by is available on Netflix and is  
one of the easier movies to understand for beginning students.  I  
figure I got about a third of it when I was a beginning 2nd year  
student.  Plus it's just a classic!

3)  Read Russian translations of English language books that you  
already know or are reasonably familiar with.  Some of the first books  
I read from cover to cover in Russian were Agatha Christie novels.   
Because they were translations the syntax tended to mirror the  
original English which made for easier reading, and because they were  
mysteries, I wanted to get to the end and find out whodunit.  Also  
once when I was traveling in Bulgaria, I left my one and only piece of  
English reading material on a train.  I searched around, but failed to  
locate a market with foreign literature, but desperately wanted  
something to read.  I do not speak Bulgarian, but I found a copy of  
one of my favorite books (from childhood, actually) - Anne of Green  
Gables in Bulgarian.  Because I knew the contents of the book so well  
already, I was able to make sense of a lot of the Bulgarian with the  
help of my knowledge of Russian plus a pocket dictionary.  The point  
being that translations may seem like not real reading, but they can  
provide a certain degree of effective practice in the target language.

My two (three?) cents, for what they're worth!

Regards,

Emily Saunders

On Apr 2, 2008, at 8:24 AM, Anne Fisher wrote:

> 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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