a conversation course in Russian

[Sasha Spektor]

Dear Lee,
thank you for this fantastic and thorough advice.  The more I think about
it, the more I come to the same opinion -- both course should be
coordinated, not separate entities.

All best,
Sasha.



On Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 8:16 PM, Roby, Lee <eroby at friendsbalt.org> wrote:

> 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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