language maintenance over the summer?

[Susan Bauckus]

I'm sorry to cause umbrage. and I don't think that watching movies or
listening to pop music is a bad thing for beginning students, although I
have doubts about audiobooks and literary works except for exemplary people
who like to climb high mountains. we all know that people who learn
languages well are largely self-taught, but when and w/ what materials does
that kind autonomous learning start, and do materials and activities differ
from one stage to the next? how much language do most students get from
music and movies, even w/ subtitles – without support they'd get in the
classroom – after one year of study? Movies and music are fun and
motivating and offer other rewards, and that alone may justify them, but
it's not clear to me whether many people learn much language that way after
one year of study. I don't mean to ask what people can learn in principle
if they apply themselves to a universe of materials in a superhuman
fashion. after all, we don't expect that kind of effort of our students in
the classroom, where they have us to help them -- we don't teach a second
year class to first year students. Once again, I don't know the answer to
this but am curious. 

I think it would be very interesting to hear from someone who is studying
by herself.




> [Original Message]
> From: Emily Saunders <emilka at MAC.COM>
> To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
> Date: 4/5/2008 1:56:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] language maintenance over the summer?
>
> It has been my experience that in order to get a student to actually  
> (more than just one time) do anything over the summer that at all has  
> a whiff of academia to it (regardless of any end of semester good  
> intentions), it needs to be fun.  I, too, in my early Russian language  
> studies years, bought those lovely simplified books with Russian on  
> the one side and English on the other, and never got through more than  
> one, maybe two pages of it.  Why?  Because it was hard and frustrating  
> and because honestly I wasn't too worried about finding out how the  
> stories ended.  And, I suppose, heresy of heresies, because I'm not a  
> big fan of Chekhov and those books seem crammed full of his stuff with  
> a few short stories by Gogol and Tolstoy thrown in for good measure.   
> 19th century literature, even simplified, and 1st year ability just  
> make for a little too much hard work to be a fun afternoon's  
> exercise.  Unless it has been assigned as homework, the likelihood  
> that the student will actually do it is fairly slim.
>
> In the rather unsubtle course I took on using the communicative  
> approach a few years back it was bashed into our heads that students  
> need exposure, exposure, exposure to the language -- hopefully mostly  
> comprehensible inputs, but in general exposure -- before being asked  
> to actively produce.  What better exposure than listening to music or  
> watching a movie with English language subtitles.  Music in particular  
> fits in with daily life in a way that no other activity does.  You can  
> put a CD on in the car or while you're doing the dishes.  If you hear  
> the same innocuous pop song over and over and over again, phrases like  
> from the, may ye all forgive me, Kirkorov "wonder" hit:  "Ty moja  
> ban'ka, ya tvoj ban'sh'ik," will eventually sink in.  And the best  
> part is that you weren't even noticing it as it happened, and because  
> it is music (and not an audio book) you do not have to understand  
> every single word in order to enjoy it.  There's a Thompson Twins  
> single from the '80's that still baffles me -- "Hold me now, hold me  
> in your lovin' arms" and then "warm my heart"? "one fine hour"? "wan  
> tripe fart"?  Still can't really guess at it, but that didn't keep me  
> from listening to it growing up.  And with listening to music you get  
> a two fer:  students get more exposure to the target language AND some  
> acquaintance with a bit of low-brow Russian pop-culture, which will  
> buy them some social currency when they go over for an exchange and  
> get to mix with people their own age.
>
> At any rate, I should say that from my own personal experience  
> studying Russian in the late '80's early '90's, listening to Akvarium,  
> Kino, and Mashina Vremeni was invaluable to me in keeping up my  
> Russian over summers and then later in bonding with Russian roommates  
> when I went on an ACC exchange.  So, while I guess I am taking a wee  
> bit of umbrage at the notion that suggesting students listen to music  
> and watch movies (WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES) is at all  
> "counterproductive," in general I mean these suggestions to be  
> helpful.  They were methods that worked well for me.
>
> That being said, I'd be interested in any other suggestions that have  
> worked well for others.  I will be teaching a community ed beginning  
> Russian class this spring, and have been putting together a few "what  
> you can do outside of class" recommendations since we'll be meeting  
> only once a week.  Specific URLs or book titles are extremely welcome.
>
> Regards,
>
> Emily Saunders
>
> On Apr 5, 2008, at 1:01 PM, Susan Bauckus wrote:
>
> > Audio books, radio, movies, and all those authentic materials are  
> > enriching
> > and fun, but students who've had only one year of study and who are  
> > willing
> > to pursue these activities probably don't need to have it suggested  
> > to them
> > because they are likely to be very ambitious to take on such an  
> > enormous
> > challenge. For some students, including very good ones, it's  
> > daunting and I
> > wonder if it may be counterproductive. A challenge for us is to  
> > figure out
> > how to help beginning students when they want to work on maintenance  
> > by
> > themselves. I don't know the answer to that question and doubt  
> > there's a
> > single answer, but I'm not convinced that telling 1st year students  
> > to do
> > the same thing that advanced students would do is much of an answer  
> > either.
> >
> > Or is it? Has anyone had experience with students who have followed
> > suggestions made on this thread or elsewhere, and what has happened? I
> > would love to know more about this.
> > Thanks,
> > Susi
> >
> >
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