Elena Liskova

Course Description:

This course is the first semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed primarily through workbook and computer-based home assignments.  We will cover all of Volumes One and Two of the textbooks, Units One through Unit Fourteen in the textbooks, spending about one week on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functional and competitive in the language.

Readings:

Textbook: • Davidson, Gor, and Lekic.  Russian: Stage One: Live from Russia! 2nd ed., vols. 1 and 2, (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. 2008 and 2009). These packaged sets comprise two basic textbooks, two workbooks, two audio CDs, and two DVDs. Available at the University Co-op.

Recommended:            • Russian/English Dictionary

• Gerhart, G., The Russian’s World, Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

• Garza, T., Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation for Teachers  and Students, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt and ACTR Publications, 1993.

Grading:

There are five components of your final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

1.  Testing:  30%

Unit tests: 15%

Final exam: 15%

2.  Homework:  15% 

3.  Participation:  15% 

4.  Portfolio:  20%

5.  Oral Presentation:  20%

This course is the sixth semester of Russian language instruction, the natural successor to Russian 324 offered in the fall. It is a practical advanced all-round language course, based on the communicative-functional approach to language. We have two goals. The first is to develop functional linguistic proficiency in the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The second is to develop practical linguo-cultural competence, encompassing both high and popular culture. The textbook, a systematic review of Russian grammar, serves as a skeleton for the course structure. It will be supplemented by various authentic materials in different media developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Special attention will be paid to the contemporary mass media not only as linguistic material, but also as a point of access to Russian culture in its various forms. The course is conducted in Russian. At the end of the course most students should have achieved a proficiency level of 2 on the ILR scale (comparable to Advanced on the ACTFL scale).

Prerequisites: Two years (four semesters) of formal study or the equivalent: a proficiency level of 1 on the ILR scale (equivalent to Intermediate-low or Intermediate‑mid on the ACTFL scale).

Course Content: This course is the fifth semester of Russian language instruction. It is a practical advanced all-round language course, based on the communicative-functional approach to language. We have two goals. The first is to develop functional linguistic proficiency in the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The second is to develop practical linguo-cultural competence, encompassing both high and popular culture. The textbook, a systematic review of Russian grammar, serves as a skeleton for the course structure. It will be supplemented by various authentic materials in different media developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Special attention will be paid to the contemporary mass media not only as linguistic material, but also as a point of access to Russian culture in its various forms. The course is conducted in Russian. At the end of the year (after this course and its successor Russian 325), most students should have achieved a proficiency level of 2 on the ILR scale (comparable to Advanced on the ACTFL scale).

Textbook:           

• Benjamin Rifkin, Grammatika v kontekste. Russian grammar in literary contexts. McGraw-Hill, 1996. ISBN-10: 007-052831-4.

Recommended reference sources (not required):

Katzner, Kenneth. English-Russian, Russian-English Dictionary. 2nd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, 1994). ISBN: 978-0-471-01707-3.

Wade, Terence. A Comprehensive Russian Grammar. 3rd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). ISBN: 978-1-4051-3639-6.

Gerhart, Genevra. The Russian's World. 3rd ed. (Slavica Publishers, 2001). ISBN: 978-0-893-57293-8.

Grading. The components of the course grade and their relative weights are:

• Unit exams: 40%
• Daily homework assignments: 20%
• Class participation: 20%
• Cultural project: composition and oral presentation: 10%
• Oral proficiency exams (mid-term and end-of-semester): 10%

There is no final in the course. Plus/minus grading will apply.

Please contact the instructor if you have any questions.