Modern Russian 1

Clayton L. Dawson, Charles E. Bidwell, Assya A. Humesky

За особеностите на екземпляра

Състояние:: Много добро
Забележка:: Здрава и чиста книга, без следи от употреба, незначително овехтял външен вид.
Език:: Английски и Руски
Наличност:: 1 бр.

За изданието

Издателство:: Georgetown University Press
Град на издаване:: Washington, DC, United States
Година:: 1977 г.
Език:: Английски и Руски
Страници:: 480
Корици:: Меки
Категория:: Чуждоезиково обучение
Тегло (гр.):: 973
Ширина (мм):: 190
Височина (мм):: 265
Дебелина (мм):: 24
ISBN:: 0878401695

Курс по руски език за говорещи английски. * ABOUT Modern Russian In February 1960 the University of Michigan sponsored a conference of scholars to "develop criteria for a two-year college sequence of specialized materials for learning the Russian language." In its proposal to the U.S. Office of Education for funds to support the conference, the University of Michigan stated its view that "The urgency of our national need to improve and increase the study of the Russian language in our schools and colleges and the comparative dearth and inadequacy of existing materials for this purpose dictate the collaboration of the U.S. Office of Education with the Russian language specialists ... in the production of a complete two-year college level course in Russian." The proposal advised that "pertinent decisions regarding personnel, institutional sponsorship, and methodology for the production of such a course should be made only on a broadly established basis of consensus among a widely representative group of scholars and specialists in this field." The twenty-seven scholars and specialists listed on the page opposite collaborated at the conference to achieve that consensus, and designated nine persons, similarly listed, as an Advisory Committee to the project. Recommendations arising from the February 1960 conference and from the Advisory Committee resulted in the naming and empowering of the Working Committee: Dr. Clayton L. Dawson, Professor and Chairman of the Slavic Department at Syracuse University (project coordinator); Dr. Charles E. Bidwell, Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh; and Dr. Assya Humesky, Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature, University of Michigan. Syracuse University undertook to house and administer the entire project, and assumed responsibility for the preparation of the new materials. Both the University of Michigan conference and the University of Syracuse project to produce the two-year course were supported by the U.S. Office of Education, under authority of Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. The University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, and Syracuse University cooperated by granting leaves of absence to Drs. Humesky, Bidwell, and Dawson respectively. Along with these universities, The American University, the Foreign Service Institute, Georgetown University, Indiana University, St. John's University, the State University College at New Paltz, New York, and the University of Washington participated in the field testing of materials prior to publication, providing helpful suggestions and encouragement. Generous help was provided in typing, advising, and recording by a large group of native Russians teaching in the Slavic Department of Syracuse University. Professors Robert L. Baker of Indiana University and Tatiana Cizevska of the University of Illinois contributed timely information on culture and current usage out of their recent experience in the Soviet Union. Finally, special critical evaluations and recommendations were provided by Professors Baker, Richard Burgi of Princeton University, Kurt Klein of the University of Illinois, and Laurence Thompson of the University of Washington. Modern Russian, together with the recordings and the teacher's manual prepared to accompany it, unique in both content and techniques in the Russian field, is the fruition of this cooperative group effort. ** Introduction: Using Modern Russian The materials of Modern Russian, like those of its prototype, the Modern Language Association's Modem Spanish, provide a new kind of language course based on audio-lingual principles and aimed at speaking proficiency within the framework of the traditional language program. Modern Russian consists of two volumes of eighteen lessons each, designed for a two-year course meeting from three to five hours a week. Stressing the fundamental structural features of the contemporary spoken language, the thirty-six lessons present a total vocabulary of some 2700 items. Magnetic tape recordings, available to accompany the written materials, are an integral part of the two-year program. In addition, long-playing disk recordings of basic portions of the lessons are obtainable for home study. Audio-lingual principles assume that fluency in a foreign language is acquired less by intellectual analysis than by intensive practice. Awareness of structure is acquired not by memorizing rules and paradigms but by imitation and repetition of basic language patterns and by performance of drills carefully constructed to capitalize on the learner's natural inclination to analogize from material already learned. Language learning thus properly begins with listening and repeating and only later proceeds to reading and writing. These first two stages are of primary importance if the student is to gain even a minimum control of spoken Russian; for this reason we recommend strongly that most material be presented and practiced with books closed, both in class and in the laboratory. A lesson consists of the following parts designed to be used as suggested: Preparation for Conversation. Anticipating the Conversation to follow, this part presents the basic elements of the Conversation in the order of their appearance, together with parallel English equivalents and, where needed, with phonetic transcription. This material provides a basis for understanding and assimilating the Conversation. Supplementary related words and phrases are also given here. Conversations. Simulating situations of contemporary Soviet life, these introduce the basic lexical and structural items of the lesson in dialogue form and in colloquial Russian. The first four lessons contain a single Conversation each; the remaining lessons each contain a pair of Conversations. Notes explain points of cultural difference and of usage and style. For the first five lessons a parallel English equivalent of each Conversation is provided. A phonetic transcription of the Russian is also given as an aid to proper pronunciation in learning the materials; this is presented consistently in the first ten lessons, but only to clarify special problems thereafter. The Conversations, basic to each lesson, are best assimilated to the point of complete memorization. These are recorded on the tapes—and on the records as well—for individual repeated listening and imitation. They are presented in four stages: (1) the entire dialogue at natural speed without pauses; (2) the individual sentences, broken down from the end, with pauses for student repetition; (3) complete utterances, again with pauses for student repetition; and (4) the entire dialogue once again at natural speed without pauses. Basic Sentence Patterns. These are sets of patterned sentences, deriving from the Conversations and illustrating the major structural points of the lesson with the use of new and review vocabulary. They are to be mastered through repeated practice. The Basic Sentence Patterns are paralleled by English equivalents. Pronunciation Practice. To instill habits of correct pronunciation, every lesson provides pronunciation drills, frequently contrastive ones. Additional pronunciation drills, not appearing in the text, are given in the Teacher's Manual and on the tapes. Lessons 6 through 11 each present an Intonation Practice treating the fundamental patterns of simple sentences. Structure and Drills. These form the grammatical heart of the course, generally treating four or five major structural points per lesson. Each structural point is developed in five to twelve different drills, with an average of ten responses. The student imitates the models given (generally there are two, the first with an English equivalent), by responding orally to sentences, questions, and/or cues in Russian provided by the teacher. The drills are widely varied: repetition, substitution, question-answer, subject reversal, transformation, structure replacement, integration, expansion, and progressive substitution. All drills are fully recorded on the tapes with appropriate pauses for student responses, followed by the confirming responses. To make the procedure clear, the desired responses for the first two lessons are printed in full. A discussion of a structural point generally follows the drills in which it has been developed. Reading and Writing. Essentially a recapitulation of the lexical and structural items in the lesson and a review of past items, this part is a reworking of the Conversation materials and provides practice in reading. The portions presented in handwritten form invite practice in dictation or copying (easily self-corrected), as well as in reading a cursive script. Translation of the readings is not recommended; comprehension can best be checked by questions in Russian as provided in the Teacher's Manual. Experience suggests that presentation of dialogues is most effective when delivered at a normal conversational speed in natural word groupings (not as words in isolation), with a natural intonation. Class choral repetition is helpful in presenting new Conversations in order to bring the class into active participation, and choral recitation of the parts of the dialogue by designated groups of the class provides a useful check on memorizing the Conversations. Memorizing the Conversations, though not indispensable, does result in higher achievement in the structural drills. Intensive drill on the Preparation for Conversation and class practice on the Conversation, followed by the use of the tape in the language laboratory and/or the records at home, can make memorizing the Conversation a relatively simple task. Practice in writing—whether mere copying or writing out drill responses specifically assigned for that purpose—should not be neglected, despite the strong oral emphasis of Modern Russian. The writing of selected drills tends to reinforce mastery of the structure and to check on progress being made. Normally a lesson will take five meetings to cover, though clearly the longer the time spent on a lesson, the more complete the mastery of it is likely to be. The first four lessons are shorter and may therefore be covered in four sessions each. Where classes meet only three hours a week, drills which cannot be covered in class may be assigned for performance in a language laboratory. A course of three class hours a week has been successfully given by Syracuse University with these materials on just such a basis.