a conversation course in Russian

[Roby, Lee]

Hi Sasha,
 
This is Lee Roby writing in response to your question sent to SEELANGS regarding a conversation course as a supplement to the second year course.  I now teach at Friends School in Baltimore, but taught for a number of years conversation courses for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years at Indiana University (Bloomington) both during the academic year and during the intensive summer program (SWSEESL), and so I can tell you what worked well and less well for us there.  
 
1.  Using a different text (set of materials) for the conversation class worked less well. Students had a difficult time with the scope of material thrust at them.  Between the regular course and the conversation course, there were too many new words when the courses were not coordinated, and the consequence was that the students felt overwhelmed and were actually less proficient overall as a result.  When we coordinated the two courses, the students felt that the conversation class provided them with a lot of practice and reinforcement using the language (vocabulary and structures) that they were flying through in the other course, and it really  helped to cement their usage of the language.  It was a much more effective approach.  So in this model, my job was to look through the standard text (coordinate with the "grammar" teacher) and think up new, interesting communicative activities that would reinforce the material.  In some cases, the 'grammar" teacher would not be ab!
 le to do all of the communicative activities given in the unit, and so I would pick up some of the those; in other cases, I would think them up (or steal good ideas from other good texts that I had used in the past!). 
 
2.  During the academic year, when the conversation course was not coordinated with the "grammar" class and would meet only once or twice a week, it was also difficult for there to be a sense of cohesion or flow, or even a sense of commitment from the students to do more than fill the chair (somehow there is sometimes a sense that students shouldn't have to prepare by reading or writing or preparing a presentational task for a conversation class ahead of time -- this is augmented when class meets only once a week).  When you have a "stand alone curriculum" this problem is more difficult to manage.  When the class reinforces their daily activities, there is a greater natural sense of purpose, cohesion and buy-in.
 
3. At the second-year level, in particular, a coordinated conversation section can really help students to develop proficiency using the millions of forms and concepts that are getting thrown at them.  It is, unfortunately, easy with Russian to keep expanding students' conceptual base at the second year level without having time to  really automatize most of the forms since the scope of what we "need to cover" is so large. This is especially true at the point when students now have all the cases, but have still not automatized their endings, are not comfortable  yet making spontaneous aspectual choices, and have a plethora of verbs of motion, but stumble when they have to use them.  The conversation course was designed to get them using such language in meaningful contexts. 
 
4.  Some specific ideas:
 
I focused on situational dialogues (esp. initially at level 1), and then developing skills of description (often using pictures), and narration (often using video). 
 
In working on description with pictures, I often used an info. gap model  (1.  One student has a picture and is describing it to another (who can't see it) but who has to draw it -- especially good for practicing with a variety of prepositions of location; 2.  Students bring in picures of people they know and swap with a partner.  They each try to create a biography and context for the picture that they share with their partner. The partner then tells "the real story").  Even without pictures, an info. gap model is a great way to keep students interested in using basic language structures.
 
If the standard course is a course that has an accompanying video (like Stage One: Live from Russia), lots of work with narration can be done.  Initially it was good to work on present tense narration.  Students become proficient in present tense verb conjugation, standard case usage (and endings), learning sequencing phrases (at first, then, finally, etc.) and linking words such as "because" and "therefore," converting direct speech to indirect speech.  After aspect is introduced we would work a lot on converting present tense narration to past tense narration and then on future in predicting what might come next.  This was a really effective activity.  After verbs of motion are introduced, we would go back to past segments (because they already knew the vocab. for these) and we focused on narrating the motion (again, first in the present tense and then in the past).  After comparitives are introduced, we  would watch the 1996 video (Live from Moscow!)  and compare it with !
 the 2008 update (Live from Russia!) (also rich material to discuss changes in Russia over the last 15 years).
 
Good luck!  I hope some of this info. helps.
 
Best, Lee

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Sasha Spektor
Sent: Sun 5/27/2012 3:09 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] a conversation course in Russian


Dear Seenoevilangovtsy,

I'm preparing a conversation course in Russian that would complement the second year Russian course and would like to ask for your advise.   What textbook(s) would be most useful in preparing such a course?

Please reply on or off the list at xrenovo at gmail.com

Thank you,
Sasha.
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