Two Dumb Questions
Melissa Smith
mtsmith02 at YSU.EDU
Sun May 27 18:52:15 UTC 2012
Far from dumb questions!
The concept of "second-year Russian" depends very much on what the
first year consisted of, and what the students' future path of study
can be expected to me. In the "olden" days (before 1984,
approximately), there were two or three first-year texts, and only one
second year "Making Progress With Russian," by Davis and Oprendek.
Beginning in the mid 1980's, the concept of "proficiency" entered
language teaching, and I believe that "Golosa" can be considered a
pioneer in this field. However, the authors originally considered the
two volumes to be SEMESTER-length, and therefore the grammatical
concepts formerly assumed to be basic to first year, got spread over
two books, but programs with fewer than 6 (?) contact hours, or with
weaker students, felt the need to use these books over two years.
Similar experiences with subsequent texts: Nachalo, Troika, Russian
Stage One-Two.
A bona fide second year text appeared in "V puti." There are a number
of materials that can be used at the second-third year level, but none
is ideal. I have at various points used: Cinema for Russian
Conversation, Political Russian, The Twelve Chairs Intermediate
Russian. Since I teach at a university that considers ONE year of
foreign language to be the requirement and therefore never have more
than 2-5 students, I tend to orient the materials to the given
population.
Fortunately, I'm retiring! I welcome the further discussion on this
issue.
Best wishes,
Melissa Smith
On 5/27/12 11:17 AM, Fusso, Susanne wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I have two unrelated and possibly naive questions. You can reply to
me offlist at sfusso at wesleyan.edu.
>
> 1. What have you found to be the best textbooks for second- and
third-year Russian? For second year, I'm particularly interested in
texts that provide solid explanations of and drills for basic grammar
and syntax. I'm not so interested in bells and whistles.
>
> 2. Is there a listing anywhere of recent Ph.D.'s in Slavic studies
(encompassing not just literature but other disciplines)? I cannot
find anything on the ASEEES or AATSEEL websites, and the only recourse
seems to be a laborious search through Dissertation Abstracts, which
I'm not sure is capturing everything.
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Susanne
>
> Susanne Fusso
> Professor of Russian Language and Literature
> Wesleyan University
> 262 High Street
> Middletown, CT 06459
> 860-685-3123
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
> options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
------------------------------------
Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3461
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
options, and more. Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
More information about the SEELANG
mailing list