This course has both language and literature components. See Course Objectives section for information about our goals and class procedures. About class preparation:

 

 

-carefully read the assigned text and be ready to answer questions about its content;

-be ready to analyze the assigned text;

-translate unfamiliar words using the dictionary and/or provided glossary;

-formulate your own questions and thoughts about the text;

-learn the target vocabulary;

-mark difficult words and passages and be ready to ask questions and/or participate in discussions about their renditions into English;

-learn/review the assigned grammar and do the exercises;

-and be ready to write a quiz and participate in the discussion.

 

 

Reading: Reading Russian texts is an important part of mastering the language. In this class we will continuously develop your reading skill as well as your mastery of Russian pronunciation and intonation. To enhance your reading ability, each of the assigned texts is accompanied by an audio file. While preparing the assigned text you are required to

 

1. listen to the assigned text attempting to arrive at a general understanding;

2. read the texts aloud following the recording at least twice;

3. mark the accents;

4. make sure that you know how to pronounce each of our target words;

5. be ready to read the texts in class and/or on an exam.

Your reading skill will be graded: 1) it will be a part of your class participation grade; 2) reading of the assigned texts will be included in the oral part of your final exam.

 

 

It is important to know how to use Russian-English, English-Russian andRussian-Russian dictionaries. During the semester we will continuously reinforce this skill while translating the assigned texts and doing special translation exercises. In the course of the semester each student will be responsible for compiling a vocabulary list for 2 of the assigned texts. The vocabulary list will be e-mailed to me and posted on the site before the given text is assigned to the class. Your grade for this assignment will be counted as class performance. While compiling a vocabulary list, use the infinitive form of verbs, Masculine Singular for Adjectivesand Nominative case Singular for nouns. Make sure that you do not repeat words from the previous vocabulary lists. Please use a consistent format while compiling vocabulary lists! It will make my job of entering this vocabulary into flashcard much easier. The required format: Russian word/phrase - English word/phrase (space-space) between them. Do not use semi-columns, just comas please!