Course Design: First-Year Russian for Adults (RUS 101)

COURSE GOAL STATEMENT

In this course students will develop Russian listening, speaking, reading and writing skills with a focus on communicative functions, situations, and topics. This course directs students toward cultural awareness, self-regulated learning, and prepares them to enter RUS 102.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

SWBAT ask and answer questions about topics of daily life at the novice level.

SWBAT express greetings, apologies, likes/dislikes and preferences in a culturally appropriate way.

SWBAT read basic texts, including authentic texts and cursive script to identify the general topic and some basic information, and write short texts in print and cursive script.

SWBAT show understanding of 500 high frequency words.

SWBAT use, but not with automaticity, four of the six Russian cases.

SWBAT describe worldwide communities of Russian users in the target language.

SWBAT compare and contrast some of their cultural practices to those of the target culture.

SWBAT evaluate their learning process and apply language learning strategies.

RATIONALE

The SLOs aim to meet the overall goal statement and target various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, as well as interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes. As this is a course focused on communicative functions, it is important for students to be able to ask and answer questions, which at the general language classes novice level are appropriately situations and topics from daily life, including university studies, food, shopping, and the weather. Communicating also includes being able to greet, apologize, and express preferences, which SLO 2 covers. “Expressing” is done using all four language skills - listening to give the appropriate response and reading a text message, for example, to write a reply. Students will be asked to reflect on some cultural similarities and differences between their culture(s) and the target culture(s). 

While the first SLO mostly targets listening and speaking skills and the second all four skills, the third SLO targets mostly reading and writing skills, but still with a focus on communication. The reason why print and cursive scripts are identified as one of the main outcomes is because cursive script is encountered in many authentic situations (handwritten Russian is usually only done in cursive). In order for students to analyze even simple posts from social media on topics related to university life, for example, they need to know cursive. It is also essential to know for those students who would like to study in Russia. The problem is that Russian cursive script is very difficult to comprehend without explicit instruction. The solution is that it is much easier to learn through writing it out.

SLO 4 reflects the utmost importance of learning vocabulary at the novice level. As Schmitt, quoted by Brown and Lee (2015) states, “research shows that intentional vocabulary focus accounts for significant gains in acquisition” (p. 480). However, this course follows the latest research by situating vocabulary in context as much as possible. 

SLO 5 is specifically dedicated to the Russian case system because it is considered one of the most difficult elements to learn in the language. While there are 6 cases total, only four will be covered in this course so that students have enough time to fully understand and practice them. They will learn the rest in the next course sequence, RUS102. The cases are ordered from easiest to understand (for an English learner), to more difficult. They also match the communicative functions that will be studied in that unit. For example, students can describe someone or something using the nominative case only, but they need the prepositional and accusative cases to talk about where and what they study (see Scope and Sequence chart for details).

Pragmatic and sociocultural skills are an important part of the course, and they are also included in SLOs 6 and 7. SLO 7 summarizes topics that will be covered in class, such as formal/informal addressing, openness/reservedness, naming conventions, the metric system, and so on. As mentioned in the introduction, Russian is spoken all over the world. My belief that it is important for students to see the big picture of this early on in their studies by learning about where communities of Russian speakers are located is reflected in SLO 6. I feel it is appropriate for novice learners to use a map to describe these communities in a few sentences. If students continue to learn Russian, they will most likely encounter these communities in greater depth in future courses.

The last SLO targets self-regulated learning, which is an important part of learning. The hope is that all SLOs are outcomes that students will be able to use outside of class, in the “real world”.

An Analysis of an Authentic Russian Poem for Young Heritage Learners

Target Learners

As the title of this paper implies, the target language of students for whom this analysis was conducted is Russian. The learners are of elementary age (between 5-11 yrs old). They are heritage learners of Russian, and they reside in the United States, so their dominant language is English. Most of them have an intermediate-to-advanced comprehension of spoken Russian and some speaking skills; they are beginner readers, in both of their languages.

The setting is private instruction in person and/or on Zoom; there are between 2-5 students per group. The main purpose of the course and the reason parents sign their children up, is to learn to read in Russian. However, the sub-goals naturally include improving speaking skills and exploring writing and culture. Students are not pressured to use the target language (TL), but it has been noted that they naturally begin to use more and more TL because it is modeled by the teacher. The teacher adopts a translanguaging stance to speaking - English is used whenever necessary.

The goal of the course is to combine a language-based approach, literature as content, and personal enrichment. In her textbook for teachers of English Gillian Lazar (1993) states the following about the language-based approach: “Detailed analysis of the language of a literary text will help students to make meaningful interpretations or informed evaluations of it. At the same time, students will increase their general awareness and understanding of English” (p. 23). This can be applied to students of Russian, even young ones, with some adjustments. As one of the goals of this course is to explore Russian culture, literature is also studied as content. According to Lazar, “texts are selected for their importance as part of a literary canon or tradition” (p. 24).

Homework serves two purposes - to increase input and interaction with the language (as lessons are only one hour long, two times a week) and for personal enrichment. Lazar explains that when literature is used for personal enrichment, “Material is chosen on the basis of whether it is appropriate to students’ interests and will stimulate a high level of personal involvement” (p. 24). In this course, the homework assigned is usually an interactive online game that extends the language skills learned in the previous lesson. From experience, students enjoy playing the games, which usually mitigates any disinterest they might have toward a topic or language element that is being studied. 

The Theme 

The unit analyzed in this paper is on the theme of friendship. The topic is relevant to children, there is plenty of literature in Russian about friendship, and it is also easy to find novice proficiency-level literature on this topic. As a note, it is never easy finding true novice-level authentic literature in Russian. Even children’s literature is full of words that would not be considered novice level for foreign language learners. However, the students in this course are heritage learners, so most have been exposed to many of the words that foreign language learners have not yet learned. Also, this unit is planned for the second half of the first year or even the beginning of the second year of learning to read in Russian. By this time, those heritage students who had low proficiency in comprehension and speaking have quickly reached the level needed in this unit. All of the students have learned all the letters of the alphabet and are able to read simple words at a slow pace. 

Materials in the Unit

1. A poem called ‘I now have a Friend’ (Татьяна Агибалова: Друг, n.d.). 

2. A short story by Grigoriy Oster (Котёнок по имени Гав — сказка Остера, n.d.), which can be translated as ‘A Kitten by the Name of Woof’. 

3. A song by Sergey Mikhalkov in written format, not audio (Песенка друзей — Сергей Михалков, n.d.), which translates to ‘The Song of the Friends’, or ‘The Friends’ Song’.

4. The same song in video format, on YouTube (Мишуткина страна - Видео для малышей, 2018). 

This paper is focused on the detailed analysis of the first material - the poem. For the purpose of this paper, the following is one possible translation of the poem. The translation will not be used with students. By the time this unit is taught, students should have enough background knowledge to read and understand the poem without relying on an English translation. Careful scaffolding will also be used to ensure student interest and success with the material.

I now have a Friend

I have a Friend now

Loyal and faithful.

Without him, I'm like without hands,

To be frank.

We walk in the yard,

We merrily play

Back to school in September

We will walk together.

Any secret, to my Friend

I will tell without fear.

I bring him cutlets,

Hidden under my shirt.

“Eat my little Friend*, 

What else are you up to?

You are still a puppy

But you already know how to be a friend.”

*Here "Friend" is a variation of the word used in previous instances, and it is also a name given to dogs; a possible English equivalent is “Buddy”

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Poem

Strengths: Literary Aspects

The poem ‘У меня теперь есть друг’ is relevant to children and easy enough for novice learners. Literary aspects like rhyme, the double meaning of a word, an unexpected ending, and a simile can be explored. The length is also manageable: it is possible to get through it in a one-hour lesson. 

Strengths: Cultural Aspects

Students can explore Russian culture, like common pet names and food. For example, the poem mentions “cutlet”, which is a very popular meat in Eastern Europe. Students can also explore capitalization conventions and how they differ from English. In Russian, only the first word of the title is capitalized. In the title of this poem, “Friend” is also capitalized because it is referring to the puppy’s name. 

Strengths: Language Learning Aspects

Students can study high-frequency vocabulary that they might encounter later on, or have already encountered, like animal types. As mentioned in the cultural aspects section, capitalization conventions can be covered, and a discussion of why “Friend” is capitalized.

Weaknesses: Literary Aspects

One challenge to using the poem is that, if similes are to be studied, there is only one simile. 

Weaknesses: Cultural Aspects

Similarly, if cultural food items are to be studied, there is only one food item.

Weaknesses: Language Learning Aspects

A major weakness of this poem is that it is difficult to find an online source that includes helpful images with the poem. A teacher would have to either purchase a book with a collection of poems and make sure that images are included with this poem, or make a document and find or create images.

Possible Classroom Activities with the Poem

Pre-activities

To create student interest in the topic, a short discussion about the theme can be used, in the TL. This might help students elicit emotions and become personally invested in the topic. Tomlinson (2003) suggests creating “readiness” activities that invoke sensory imaging, inner speech, and/or the establishment of affective and cognitive connections. In this activity, the teacher asks students two consecutive questions: “Who can be our friend?”.  “Can animals be our friends?”. The teacher participates by asking follow-up questions.

Materials: none

Time: 5 minutes

Draw your best friend. The purpose of this activity is to extend student interest and scaffold their comprehension of who the friend is in the poem. After reading the poem, students will be surprised that the friend is actually a puppy; at the beginning and the middle of the poem, the author mentions "human" friendship characteristics, but at the end, it is clear that the friend is not a human.

Materials: notebook, something to draw with

Time: 5 minutes

An online vocabulary game in which students sort words with pictures into two categories: types of animals and typical names of animals. Then the class will discuss: “Which of these pet names would you use to name your pet? Which sounds like the most interesting and why?” The purpose of this activity is to guide student comprehension; to help students with cultural background and pre-teach common pet names, which will help them comprehend that the last "Friend" is the name of the author's puppy.

Materials: link to game

Time: 5 minutes

While-reading Activities

The teacher reads the title of the poem and says: "As you read the poem, think about why “Friend” is capitalized in this poem. In English, does every word in the title have to be capitalized? In Russian, only the first word of the title is capitalized. Usually, only names begin with a capital letter, so think about why the word “Friend” is capitalized.” The purpose of this activity is to keep students interested, give them a mystery to solve, and to help them connect the drawing of their friend to a mental image of the friend from the poem. Tomlinson suggests creating while-reading activities that will help learners process the text in an experiential way, instead of having to dive right into studying vocabulary or grammar. Bell (2013) also suggests using the title as a way to “speculate” about the story.

Materials: Poem, either from the online reference cited, or adapted by the teacher into a document with images.

Time: 15 minutes

After students read the poem for the first time, they play another online vocabulary game. This will scaffold understanding of other important vocabulary words Ss might not know, like “cutlet, loyal, and faithful”. 

Materials: Link to game

Time: 5 minutes

The teacher carefully chooses certain words from the poem that have rhyming pairs in the text. While displaying the text, the teacher reads one word at a time (and highlights it) and asks one student at a time to find the rhyming word. 

Possible variation: Using formative assessment, if the teacher determines this is too difficult for a student, the teacher reads two lines for them. This should help the student aurally determine the rhyming word. The student will then be able to look for the rhyming word in the two lines the teacher read.

Materials: The poem

Time: 5 minutes

Students then read the poem a second time. This time, they should be able to read with more fluency because they will know more vocabulary words and they have already practiced reading once.

Materials: The poem

Time: 10 minutes

Post-Interaction Activities

As a post-reading activity, Lazar (1993) suggests having a discussion based on the theme or subject of the poem. In this activity, the teacher asks students to return to the drawing of their friend and discuss the unexpected ending. The teacher asks students: 

“Who is the friend in this poem? Is it a human, or an animal?” 

Students are prompted to notice that in the title of this poem, ‘Friend’ is also capitalized because it is actually referring to the puppy’s name.

“Look at your drawing: Does your friend look like the friend in this poem? Describe your friend”. 

“What did the boy in this poem do with his friend? What do you do with your friend?”.

Materials: Students’ drawing of their friend from the beginning of the lesson

Time: 10 minutes

Conclusion

Finding authentic novice-level reading material in Russian is a challenge. However, with scaffolding of carefully chosen texts, it is possible to incorporate authentic material in a reading course for young heritage learners. I have attempted to choose an interesting theme for these learners, find appropriate texts, and create research-based activities. However, the actual results of this analysis will be clear only after putting them into practice. It is my hope that this unit will be a successful one, and that there will only be minor changes required to make it even better.

REFERENCES

Bell, T. (2013). Innovative approaches to teaching literature in the world language classroom. MultiTasks, MultiSkills, MultiConnections, 127-139.

Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2003). Developing materials for language teaching. Continuum.

Котёнок по имени Гав — сказка Остера. (n.d.). Мишкины книжки. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://mishka-knizhka.ru/skazki-dlay-detey/russkie-skazochniki/rasskazy-ostera/kotjonok-po-imeni-gav/  

Мишуткина страна - Видео для малышей. (2018, November 12). МЫ ЕДЕМ, ЕДЕМ, ЕДЕМ В ДАЛЕКИЕ КРАЯ | ПЕСЕНКА ДРУЗЕЙ [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38FNUohIhT0  

Песенка друзей — Сергей Михалков. (n.d.). Мишкины книжки. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://mishka-knizhka.ru/stihi-dlya-detej/detskie-klassiki/stihi-mihalkova/pesenka-druzej/  

Татьяна Агибалова: Друг. (n.d.). Все для детей. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://allforchildren.ru/poetry/animals690.php