Additional Materials |
Day-by-day calendar: Fall Spring
Prerequisites. Slav 5-6 (Intensive
First-Year Russian), Slav 4 (Fourth semester Russian from the Basic
Sequence), or equivalent. Students coming into the Russian sequence from
outside GWU can place into the course by placement exam. |
Meetings and credit. The class meets five
hours per week for five credits per semester. |
Team-teachers. Slav 9-10 is team
taught. Your teachers are Galina Shatalina. E-mail - shagal@gwu.edu.
Phone: 994-0889. Office hours - Monday 2:30-4:00, Wednesday 1:00-3:30, Friday
9:30-11:30. Professor Guslistova
will devote the bulk of the time to traditional classroom activities, such as
a systematic review and expansion of of grammar, practice in reading texts
and dialogs for pronunciation, and practice in day-to-day communication in
role-play situations. This traditional "grammar" section also
includes a great deal of work on listening comprehension using recordings
from Russian television. Professor Shatalina
will concentrate on more communicative activities: your ability to talk at
length about your personal interests, as well as readings and discussions of
topical articles from the press and short stories. You will find that you
will be recycling much of the grammar that you learn in the
"grammar" section in subsequent "conversation" sections. Professor Richard Robin (rrobin@gwu.edu) is responsible for
technical support for the course. If you have difficulties downloading parts
of the on-line textbook or accessing any other assigned online materials,
contact him directly by e-mail. On e-mailing your teachers or Professor Robin: All e-mails should be written in Russian. If you do not know how
to Russianize your e-mail, see www.gwu.edu/~slavic/gw-cyrillic/cyrilize.htm.
If the procedures there do not help, contact Professor Robin
(rrobin@gwu.edu). |
Assumed starting
point.
Upon enrollment students should be able to do the following: Speaking. Handle simple social
conventions, carry on conversations about themselves, their daily lives, and
survival situations such as ordering a meal, getting theater tickets, making
purchases, and giving short instructions. Listening. Understand most
everyday face-to-face conversations and get the gist of simple radio and TV
broadcasts and short presentations on very familiar topics. Reading. Get the main ideas and
some details from short articles in Russian-language newspapers and adapted
short stories. Writing. Write a short letter
to a Russian friend, jot down a telephone message, take notes of what they
heard on the radio/TV or in a short presentation on a familiar topic. Grammar. Can produce the
endings for all six cases for common nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. Can
produce the conjugations of basic verbs, including the appropriate verbs of
going. Familiar with the basic uses of each of the cases and the essentials
of system of verbal aspect. Familiar with adjectival comparatives, verb
imperatives and чтобы constructions. Computer skills. You must be able to read
and write e-mail in Cyrillic. See www.gwu.edu/~slavic/gw-cyrillic/cyrilize.htm. |
Course goals. At the end of Slav
10, students can expect to speak Russian at the Intermediate Mid level on the
ACTFL proficiency scale.
Some will reach Intermediate High. In reading and listening, students can
expect to reach Intermediate High or Advanced. The defining moment of
Intermediate High is the ability to work with paragraphs in reading or
speaking about familiar factual material. For this reason, you will be
working towards building paragraphs in speaking and writing and reading and
listening to paragraphed prose. In many cases you will see discussion topics
from your previous study of Russian. For example, you will spend much time
talking about your family, a well-worn topic from basic Russian. However, in
an elementary Russian course you had to answer simple questions about your
family. In this course, you'll be learning to hold the floor for several
minutes at a time on these topics. |
Grades. The final grade for
the semester is given on the basis of activities undertaken in both sections
of the class. These include: · Attendance (See
below). |
Attendance. Attendance
is mandatory. Absences not cleared with the instructor in advance will be
counted as major test-grade zeroes. If you must be absent because of illness
or any other reason, call your instructors before class at 202-994-7081 and
leave a message on the machine. (Your message will be automatically
time-stamped.) Include your name, the reason for your absence, and a number
where you can be reached. Failure to call in advance leads to a test-grade of
zero entered into your grade sheet, which is sure to devastate your final
mark. For example, an A student with one such unexcused absence is likely to get
a B-. The same A student with two such absences risks a D for the final
grade. In short, we place the highest emphasis on consistent attendance. One final reminder: an
excused absence does not excuse you from missing homework. Make sure you call
either the instructor or another student to find out and complete the
assignment. You must make up any missed tests and quizzes immediately upon
return to class. |
Homework. Homework takes the
form of assignments in listening, reading, compositions, preparation of texts
to be read in class, and oral reports. You should plan to spend up to two
hours of preparation for every hour of class time. |
Tests retakes. In certain cases you
may be permitted to retake major tests on which you have done poorly, particularly
if you score lower than a B-. However, the rules concerning retakes are
fairly rigid. The are summarized here. Click for a full description. · You may retake only major tests (not quizzes or daily
assignments or the final exam) |
Composition rewrites. Grades on compositions
carry the same weight as those for major tests, but the rewrite policy
differs. For each assigned composition you are expected to write a rough
draft, which is graded, and a final version, on which you receive a second
grade. The two grades are then averaged. The final version of the composition
must be turned in before the rough draft for a new composition is turned in.
Otherwise the rewrite grade becomes a zero. |
Required text
materials.
|
Recommended materials.
|
Back to...
Additional Materials |