Additional
Final Review Time is Scheduledthis Friday, December 6, from 7:30 am to 11:30 am
LL103
Homework will be accepted up to and including the last day of class December
10th
Final is December 12th, our classroom, from 6:40pm till 8:40pm(you will have till
9pm to complete the final)
Final is closed books, closed notes, open mind
Two new
courses (Spring 2003):
- Computational Linguistics of Slavic
Languages [the syllabus]
- History of Slavic Languages (Russian,
Polish, and Serbo-Croatian in Comparison) [the syllabus]
--------------------------------------------
[SAMPLE FINAL EXAM] [ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS]
[SAMPLE
MIDTERM EXAM] [ARIZONA
RUSSIAN EVENTS]
-----------------------------------------
ASU
Listing: RUS 311, 3 credit
hours,
Time: TuTh
Place: LL 262
Instructors:
Tatyana Dhaliwal, e-mail: Athena__73@Softhome.net
Home page: http://www.stihi.ru/author.html?Athena
Danko Sipka, e-mail: danko.sipka@asu.edu
Home page: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dsipka
Please feel free to e-mail us any time you
have any questions before, in the course of or after the course
[Click here for a short printable version of
the syllabus]
If you have any comments, questions or
suggestions, please write them below and press the Send button:
Course participants
must have attained 1+ proficiency level to enroll; the course is open to anyone
at this proficiency level (whether or not Russian one and two hundred level
courses are completed).
This
level of proficiency corresponds to the high intermediate level as defined by
the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). This assumes
the following skills:
|
Listening: |
Sufficient comprehension to
understand short conversations about all survival needs and limited social
demands. Developing flexibility evident in understanding into a range of
circumstances beyond immediate survival needs. Shows spontaneity in
understanding by speed, although consistency of understanding uneven. Limited
vocabulary range necessitates repetition for understanding. Understands more
common time forms and most question forms, some word order patterns, but
miscommunication still occurs with more complex patterns. Cannot sustain
understanding of coherent structures in longer utterances or in unfamiliar
situations. Understanding of descriptions and the giving of precise
information is limited. Aware of basic cohesive features; e.g., pronouns,
verb inflections, but many are unreliably understood, especially if less
immediate in reference. Understanding is largely limited to a series of
short, discrete utterances. Still has to ask for utterances to be repeated.
Some ability to understand the facts. |
|
|
Sufficient comprehension to
understand simple discourse in printed form for informative social purposes. Can
read material such as announcements of public events, simple prose containing
biographical information or narration of events, and straightforward
newspaper headlines. Can guess at unfamiliar vocabulary if highly
contextualized, but with difficulty in unfamiliar contexts. Can get some main
ideas and locate routine information of professional significance in more
complex texts. Can follow essential points of written discussion at an
elementary level on topics in his/her special professional field. In commonly
taught languages, the individual may not control the structure well. For
example, basic grammatical relations are often misinterpreted, and temporal
reference may rely primarily on lexical items as time indicators. Has some
difficulty with the cohesive factors in discourse, such as matching pronouns
with referents. May have to read materials several times for understanding. |
|
Speaking: |
Can initiate and maintain
predictable face-to-face conversations and satisfy limited social demands.
He/she may, however, have little understanding of the social conventions of
conversation. The interlocutor is generally required to strain and employ
real-world knowledge to understand even some simple speech. The speaker at
this level may hesitate and may have to change subjects due to lack of
language resources. Range and control of the language are limited. Speech
largely consists of a series of short, discrete utterances. Examples: The
individual is able to satisfy most travel and accommodation needs and a
limited range of social demands beyond exchange of skeletal biographic
information. Speaking ability may extend beyond immediate survival needs.
Accuracy in basic grammatical relations is evident, although not consistent.
May exhibit the more common forms of verb tenses, for example, but may make
frequent errors in formation and selection. While some structures are
established, errors occur in more complex patterns. The individual typically
cannot sustain coherent structures in longer utterances or unfamiliar situations.
Ability to describe and give precise information is limited. Person, space,
and time references are often used incorrectly. Pronunciation is
understandable to natives used to dealing with foreigners. Can combine most
significant sounds with reasonable comprehensibility, but has difficulty in
producing certain sounds in certain positions or in certain combinations.
Speech will usually be labored. Frequently has to repeat utterances to be
understood by the general public. |
|
Writing: |
Sufficient control of writing
system to meet most survival needs and limited social demands. Can create
sentences and short paragraphs related to most survival needs (food, lodging,
transportation, immediate surroundings and situations) and limited social
demands. Can express fairly accurate present and future time. Can produce
some past verb forms but not always accurately or with correct usage. Can
relate personal history, discuss topics such as
daily life, preferences, and very familiar material. Shows good control of elementary
vocabulary and some control of basic syntactic patterns, but major errors
still occur when expressing more complex thoughts. Dictionary usage may still
yield incorrect vocabulary or forms, although the individual can use a
dictionary to advantage to express simple ideas. Generally cannot use basic
cohesive elements of discourse to advantage (such as relative constructions,
object pronouns, connectors, etc.). Can take notes in some detail on familiar
topics, and respond to personal questions using elementary vocabulary and
common structures. Can write simple letters, summaries of biographical data
and work experience with fair accuracy. Writing, though faulty, is
comprehensible to native speakers used to dealing with foreigners. |
This level
of proficiency, as defined for the purposes of this course, stipulates
acquisition of all regular and frequent irregular grammatical patterns, the
1,500-unit lexical minimum (with at least 500 units used in speech production),
and an array of common pragmatic patterns.
This
course, together with Russian 312, is a part of the level two Russian program. Upon completion of both these courses students are
expected to acquire level 2 (limited working proficiency) language skills as
defined by the US Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). This level of
proficiency corresponds to the advanced level as defined by the American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). This assumes the
following skills:
|
Listening: |
Sufficient comprehension to
understand conversations on routine social demands and limited job
requirements. Able to understand face-to-face speech in a standard dialect,
delivered at a normal rate with some repetition and rewording, by a native
speaker not used to dealing with
foreigners, about everyday topics, common personal and family
news, well-known current events, and
routine office matters through descriptions
and narration about current, past, and future events; can follow
essential points of discussion or
speech at an elementary level on topics in his/her special professional field. Only
understands occasional words and phrases of statements made in unfavorable
conditions; for example, through loudspeakers outdoors. Understands
factual content. Native language causes less interference in listening
comprehension. Able to understand facts; i.e., the lines but not between or
beyond the lines. |
|
|
Sufficient comprehension to read
simple, authentic written material in a form equivalent to usual printing or
typescript on subjects within a familiar context. Able to read with some
misunderstandings straightforward, familiar, factual material, but in general
insufficiently experienced with the language to draw inferences directly from
the linguistic aspects of the text. Can locate and understand the main ideas
and details in material written for the general reader. However, persons who
have professional knowledge of a subject may be able to summarize or perform
sorting and locating tasks with written texts that are well beyond their
general proficiency level. The individual can read uncomplicated, but
authentic, prose on familiar subjects that are normally presented in a
predictable sequence which aids the reader in understanding. Texts may include
descriptions and narrations in contexts such as news items describing
frequently occurring events, simple biographical information, social notices,
formulaic business letters, and simple technical material written for the
general reader. Generally the prose that can be read by the individual is
predominantly in straightforward/high-frequency sentence patterns. The
individual does not have a broad active vocabulary (that is, which he/she
recognizes immediately on sight), but is able to use contextual and
real-world cues to understand the text. Characteristically, however, the
individual is quite slow in performing such a process. He/she is typically
able to answer factual questions about authentic texts of the types described
above. |
|
Speaking: |
Able to satisfy routine social
demands and limited work requirements. Can handle routine work-related
interactions that are limited in scope. In more complex and sophisticated
work-related tasks, language usage generally disturbs the native speaker. Can
handle with confidence, but not with facility, most normal, high-frequency
social conversational situations including extensive, but casual
conversations about current events, as well as work, family, and
autobiographical information. The individual can get the gist of most
everyday conversations but has some difficulty understanding native speakers
in situations that require specialized or sophisticated knowledge. The
individual's utterances are minimally cohesive. Linguistic structure is
usually not very elaborate and not thoroughly controlled; errors are
frequent. Vocabulary use is appropriate for high-frequency utterances, but
unusual or imprecise elsewhere. |
|
Writing: |
Able to write routine social
correspondence and prepare documentary materials required for most limited
work requirements. Has writing vocabulary sufficient to express himself/herself simply with some circumlocutions. Can
write simply about a very limited number of current events or daily
situations. Still makes common errors in spelling and punctuation but shows
some control of the most common formats and punctuation conventions. Good
control of morphology of language (in inflected languages) and of the most
frequently used syntactic structures. Elementary constructions are usually
handled quite accurately and writing is understandable to a native reader not
used to reading the writing of foreigners. Uses a limited number of cohesive
devices. |
Take a
look at the IRL scale, the justification behind it, and an elaborate description
of the levels:
On the
Defense Language Institute scale of foreign language complexity, which ranges
from 1 (simplest) to 4 (most difficult), the value of Russian is 3, with only
languages such as Arabic, Korean, Japanese and Chinese being more difficult.
Ample individual work will be needed to reach the desired level during a
two-month course.
This
level of proficiency, as defined for the purposes of this course, assumes acquisition
of all regular and frequent irregular grammatical patterns, the 3000-unit
lexical minimum (with at least 1000 units used in speech production), and an
array of common pragmatic patterns.
The
course will principally use the communicative contrastive approach. Unlike the
one and two hundred courses, which needed to introduce the
core grammar of Russian, this course will only touch upon several finer points
of grammar while reviewing problem areas of the core grammar. In
general, the course will be focused on building reading and listening
heuristics as well as techniques of efficient conversation and correspondence.
Elements of grammar-and-text methodology will be mediated by simplified
decision-making schemata and heuristics. Special emphasis will be put on the
cross-cultural differences. See the
explanation of how schemata and heuristics have been used in teaching
morphology at http://main.amu.edu.pl/~sipkadan/fdslsam.htm
The
coursework consists of the following: a) classes centered around
real-life texts with ample role-playing exercises, b) homework assignments, c)
individual on-line work. This course will put a much higher emphasis on the
active participation on the part of the students than did the one and two
hundred level courses.
Prof.
Sipka, a Slavic linguist, will teach the first thirty minutes of the course
covering relevant points in grammar, the lexicon, intentional phrases,
intercultural competence, as well as the norms of spelling and pronunciation.
The remainder of the course will be taught by Ms. Dhaliwal, a native speaker of
Russian, who will engage in composition and conversation sessions putting thus
the knowledge of language at work.
This
course stipulates ample individual work (homework assignments, engaging in
on-line interactive training sessions, work with learning objects provided by
instructors, etc.)
In the odd
weeks of the course the quiz will consist of a composition assignment while in
the even weeks the role playing assignment will be used as the quiz result.
Best five (out of eight) compositions and five best (out of eight) role-playing
tasks will be used to calculate the quiz grade. The midterm exam will cover the
first half of the course, the final exam will cover
the second half.
The
course will encourage cooperative rather than competitive relations among
students in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Students
will be graded on the A (excellent) to E (fail) scale depending on proficiency
level reached, as defined by the ACTFL.
Click here to
see the description of these levels at the SIL pages.
|
Grade |
Level |
Percentage of the required
skills |
|
A |
Advanced plus |
90 % and above |
|
B |
Advanced |
80 % and above |
|
C |
Advanced high to Advanced |
60 % and above |
|
D |
Intermediate high |
40 % and above |
|
E |
Anything lower |
39 % and below |
The
coursework will contribute toward the final grade approximately as follows:
|
Attendance and participation: |
30
% |
|
Homework: |
20
% |
|
Quizzes: |
20
% |
|
Midterm exam: |
10
% |
|
Final exam: |
20
% |
Real-life texts
will be used from selected newspapers and other sources. Students are also expected
to use selected on-line resources in their grammar and lexicon acquisition
effort (see the Links). Russian. A
Practical Grammar with Exercises by Pulkina and Zakhava-Nekrasova will be
used for in-class grammatical drills. The textbook Russian as We Speak
by Khavronina will be used to review Level 1+ skills.
Q=Quiz,
ME=Midterm Exam, FE=Final Exam, T –Text, S – Scenario
Click
on the topic to get the course materials
|
Week |
Topic |
Grammar |
Texts and scenarios |
Q/E |
|
1-2 |
General, Learning Strategies,
Problem areas |
T: Printed and radio weather forecasts,
News for tourists; S: Talking about weather and climate, Choosing where to go
on vacation, renting a car & more |
Q:Thu |
|
|
3-4 |
Social life
1: Going out, movies, theaters, bars, restaurants, shopping |
The Genitive |
T: Theater program, Menu,
Newspaper review of night life in |
Q:Thu |
|
5-6 |
Introduction,
Social life 2: Home, family, friends; Diseases and their treatment |
The Dative, The Accusative |
T: House plan; My family,
Matrimonial offers from newspapers, Real estate catalogs; S: Renting a flat,
Gossiping about one’s neighbors, Visiting a doctor & more |
Q:Thu |
|
7-8 |
The Instrumental, The
Prepositional |
T: Articles about crime and
legal processes, common forms; S: Interrogation; Legal process, Getting
things done with authorities & more |
Q:Thu |
|
|
9-10 |
The Pronoun |
T: Printed and radio news,
including war reports S: Campaigning, Conducting an interview, Issuing
commands |
ME:Thu |
|
|
11-12 |
The Adjective, The Numerals |
T: Business news, both printed
and radio, Banking ads; S. Conducting a business transaction, opening a bank
account & more |
Q:Thu |
|
|
13-14 |
Verbs, Forms |
T: Sports section of a
newspaper, live coverages, interviews with musicians; S. Talking about
one’s hobbies, Chatting about favorite music & more |
Q:Thu |
|
|
15-16 |
Verbs, Aspect |
T: Texts about main holidays and
customs, Interviews with writers, Excerpts from the key works of literature;
S: Explaining American customs & more |
FE:Thu |
E. Links to Course and Post-Course Materials
Major Russian monolingual
dictionaries
!!!Major Russian dictionaries
and full inflection!!!
Russian
cursive script and more
On-line Russian reference grammar by Robert Beard
On-line Russian grammar exercises by Robert Beard
Russian
Web tutor by George Mitrevski
Russian
exercises for Golosa texbook by Richard Robin
Q: How do I Russify my keyboard?
Windows 98/2000
Do the following.
Choose: Start->Settings->Control Panel->Keyboard.
Click
on the Language tab.
Click on the Add
button.
Choose Russian
Press OK
Choose the sequence
which will toggle between the keyboard layouts (e.g., Left Shift-Ctrl)
Press OK
Windows XP
Start->Control
Panel->(if you are not in the category view,
press the “Switch to Category View” button->Date, Time,
Language, and Regional Options->Add Other Languages->Press the Language
tab-> Press the Details Button -> Add -> Choose Russian-> Press OK
-> Choose the Keys settings
Macintosh OS 9
& X
Click here
and everything will be explained to you
Q: Where can I
find a spelling checker for Russian
On-line spelling checker @ http://www.informatic.ru/orfo_online.aspx
Microsoft Proofing Tools @ http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/ofUseOffice2002ProofingTools.aspx
Unispell @ http://www.smartlinkcorp.com/mac/proof/prod1/index.shtml
(Mac) &
http://www.smartlinkcorp.com/w95/proof/orfobas/index.shtml
(PC)
Spellink @ http://www.allvirtualware.com/rusoft/spelling.htm
Fingertipsoft
@ http://www.fingertipsoft.com/proofing/index.html
Orfo @ http://www.allvirtualware.com/rusoft/orfo.htm
Also, take a look
at: http://www.macintosh.ru/ and http://www.microsoft.com/rus/
Q: When do I
use свой,своя,свое rather than мой,своя,свое?
You use свой any time the performer of an action is the same person the
object affected by that action belongs to. For example:
Коля взял
карандаш Юры.
=
Он взял его
карандаш. ‘He took his (i.e., somebody
else’s pencil, Performer is Kolya, possessor of the pencil is Yura., you
do not use svoy)
Коля взял
карандаш
Коли. =
Он взял свой
карандаш. ‘He took his (i.e., his own pencil, Performer
is Kolya, possessor of the pencil is Kolya. – the same person => you
use svoy)
Two weeks of our
course will be devoted to the pronouns. If you do not get it now, you will get
it then.
Q: When do I
use the perfective and when the imperfective verbal aspect
This is a tough
cookie. Do not expect quick and dirty fixes. Two weeks of this course will be
devoted to the verbal aspect and we will cover this grammatical issue in depth.
As for now, think of the imperfective aspect as of the English progressive (or
continuous tenses). For example, in if you say in English:
At this very
moment I ___ that book.
you cannot use the Simple Present Tense
because you are portraying an ongoing, unfolding action which takes place right
now. You have to use the Progressive Present Tense. Thus:
At this very
moment, I am reading that book. (not *At this very
moment I read that book)
Same
thing in Russian. If
you have an unfolding event, you have to use the imperfective aspect, as in:
Я
теперь/сейчас
читаю эту
книгу. (not * Я
теперь/сейчас
прочитаю эту
книгу)
Q: How do I
travel to
Attend the lecture
by Prof. Batalden or contact REESC.
Please join us on Wednesday,
September 4 at
Q: How do I put my Russian at work here in the
Here is a reception for you.
You
are invited to a Pacific Rim Bankers Outreach event for Russian Executives.
The Reception is at We are honored to be one of the recipients of the new
administration Trade Promotion Activity grants focusing on Please RSVP at 480 727-1470. The directions are provided below. Directions to Dr. Thor’s House: If you go from the East or North of the Get off at the At the exit, go west (right) to the 3rd stop light That is At 48th Street go South (left) to the first stop light That is At That is Thor’s house is halfway down on the left-hand
side.
Q: How can I learn about other Slavic languages?
Go to this
lecture
Serbian Lexicography Today
(in Serbian consecutively interpreted into English).
Click here for full description