Course Description
Instruction in grammar, development of reading comprehension, and practice in composition for speakers of Russian who have had little or no formal instruction in reading or writing the language.
Athena Title
RUSS HERITAGE SPEAK
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in RUSS 1001, RUSS 1002 or RUSS 2001 or RUSS 2002 or RUSS 3001
Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The goal of this course is to provide for the special needs of heritage speakers of Russian, who have some significant degree of proficiency in speaking and oral comprehension, but who have been educated primarily or exclusively in an English-speaking environment. Expected learning outcomes: Students will be able to read, write, and speak Russian at least at the level of students who have completed RUSS 3001. They will be able to read unadapted texts in Russian and write short compositions with an acceptable level of mastery of the grammar and orthography. They will increase their vocabulary and reduce the number of errors in their speech.
Topical Outline
The following is a representative topical outline. Actual topics may vary, depending on the needs of students in the course. 1. Alphabet, handwriting, and spelling rules. Reading: Short biographies of Russian cultural figures 2. Grammatical terminology. Gender and case of nouns, plural forms. Russian and non-Russian names, speech etiquette. Reading: Selected Russian fairy tales. 3. Theme: Childhood. Overview of verbs and aspect. Reading: Excerpts from selected short stories and other short non- fiction texts. 4. Theme: Education in Russian, comparison of the Russian and American educational systems. First-declension nouns, first- conjugation verbs. Reading: Short story related to theme, short non-fiction texts. 5. Theme: Russian and American society, friendship in Russian and American culture. Second-declension nouns, second- conjugation verbs. Reading: Short story related to theme, short non-fiction texts. 6. Theme: Work and business, writing business letters and resumés. Third-declension nouns, numbers, word-formation. Reading: Short story related to theme, short non-fiction texts. 7. Theme: The media. Declension of personal names, time expressions, verbs of motion. Reading: Short story related to theme, short non-fiction texts. 8. Theme: Russian history and geography. Participles and gerunds. Reading: Short story related to theme, short non- fiction texts.
General Education Core
CORE IV: World Languages and Global CultureSyllabus