INTENSIVE LANGUAGE PROGRAM

[June 13-August 15, 2008]

Students who have previously studied Russian take placement tests on arrival to determine their level. All students take exit tests to measure their progress. Classes normally meet four hours per day, five days per week. Daily work outside of class usually requires four to eight hours, and students are encouraged to spend four to five hours per week in co-curricular activities of their choice. Middlebury College awards four units of undergraduate academic credit for successful completion of each of the following nine-week courses. (One unit equals three semester hours of credit.)

All courses in the nine-week program provide proficiency-oriented instruction in listening, reading, speaking, writing, and grammar, with an emphasis on contemporary Russian culture in its historical context. Classroom activities emphasize careful pronunciation. All language skill levels (noted in course descriptions below) are determined on an advisory basis in accordance with the proficiency guidelines of the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

The following undergraduate courses (subject to revision) will be offered by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian in the summer of 2008.

LEVEL 1. INTRODUCTORY RUSSIAN

RU 3102-3105 (equivalent to 1st – 2nd semesters)

For students with very little or no previous classroom instruction in Russian. Starting from scratch, with a weekend “survival Russian” course before taking the language pledge, students learn the alphabet and learn to read and understand spoken Russian, learn to write and speak Russian in basic and predictable contexts (ordering a meal in a restaurant, asking directions on the street). Students master the basic grammatical structures of the language and acquire a beginning vocabulary, practiced in weekly compositions. Students completing this course typically have novice high or intermediate low language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Golosa Volume 1, 4th ed., & Volume 2, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall.

LEVEL 2. ADVANCED INTRODUCTORY RUSSIAN

RU 3198-3201 (equivalent to 2nd – 3rd semesters)

For students with approximately 100 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian; students placing into this course have usually had one year of college Russian (at three hours per week). Students typically complete this course with intermediate low to intermediate mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Golosa Volume 2, 3rd ed.; V puti, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall.

LEVEL 3. BASIC INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN

RU 3202-3205 (equivalent to 3rd – 4th semesters)

For students with approximately 150 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class, students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and improve their mastery of this foundation of the language while acquiring an active vocabulary of approximately 1,500 words. Students typically complete this course with intermediate mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbook: V puti, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall.

LEVEL 4. INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN

RU 3298-3301 (equivalent to 4th – 5th semesters)

For students with approximately 200 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and improve their mastery of this foundation of the language while acquiring an active vocabulary of approximately 1,700 words. We expect students to complete this course with intermediate mid to intermediate high language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Grammatika v kontekste, McGraw-Hill; Cinema for Russian Conversation, Focus Publishing (Pullins).

LEVEL 5. ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN

RU 3302-3305 (equivalent to 5th – 6th semesters)

For students with 300 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and focus their attention on more challenging structures of the language such as participles, comparative forms, and verbs of motion. At the end of the summer most students have an active vocabulary approaching 2,000 words. Readings for the class include poetry, short stories, and a contemporary Russian novel, as well as newspaper articles. During half the summer program significant time is devoted to watching television news reports and reading news items from the periodic press. Students typically complete this course with intermediate high language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Grammatika v kontekste, McGraw-Hill, plus a coursepack of supplementary materials, including readings and exercises to various video materials.

LEVEL 6. ADVANCED RUSSIAN I

RU 3398-3401 (equivalent to 6th – 7th semesters)

For students with at least 350 hours of prior formal instruction in Russian, or fewer hours of formal instruction but a semester or more in Russia. In this class, students already have a firm grasp of the grammatical problems in Russian, such as participles, verbal adverbs, quantitative expressions (measurements and other numeric expressions), and verbs of motion. Students work hard on expanding their vocabulary in this course, building up semantic fields in various topic areas such as health and illness, the city, and so forth (active vocabulary of 2,250 words). In this course, students watch Russian films, read short stories, poetry, and newspaper articles, and complete oral assignments including the preparation and delivery of short presentations. We expect students to complete this course with intermediate high to advanced low language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Focus on Russian and Let’s Talk About Life, Wiley & Sons; Glazunova, Grammatika russkogo iazyka v uprazhneniiakh i kommentariakh; plus a coursepack of supplementary materials, including readings and exercises to various video materials.

LEVEL 7. ADVANCED RUSSIAN II

RU 3402-3405 (equivalent to 7th – 8th semesters)

For students with at least 400 hours of prior formal instruction in Russian, or fewer hours of formal instruction but a semester or more in Russia. In this class, students tackle the more complicated grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and significantly increase their vocabulary by studying Russian idioms and synonyms. The course focuses a good deal of attention on the development of students’ lexical competence (active vocabulary of 2,500 words) by acquainting them with prototypical models of the word formation and derivation processes of contemporary standard Russian. Much of the class’s work is devoted to the detailed analysis of a few famous Russian films, including Autumn Marathon, The Mirror, Burnt by the Sun, Brother-2, and The Diamond Hand, as well as the reading of contemporary poems, short stories, and excerpts of longer prose works. Students give short presentations on the writers whose works they read. Students typically complete this course with advanced low to advanced mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Rosssiia i Amerika: Dialog kul’tur (Shchepina), Vyrazhenie ustupitel’noi semantiki v russkom iazyke (Yatsenko), Leksika i slovoobrazovanie (Kozhevnikov & Kozhevnikova), all published in Russia; coursepack of readings and grammar exercises.