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Russian 102-103-104-105 Professor
Karen Evans-Romaine This course is very intensive and we expect you to work very hard. However, students who put in the effort make great gains in their language skills. Get your books and coursepacks as soon as possible (if you do not have them already), in order to be prepared for the first class on Monday (see below). Course Goals This course is intended for students with no previous formal instruction in Russian. This course should provide you with the elements of language needed to read at the intermediate mid level and to speak, write, and understand at the intermediate low level according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. In other words, by the end of the course students can typically read simple texts on a variety of basic subjects, such as short reports or announcements meant for a wide audience. Students can typically write short texts needed for daily life, including telephone messages, notes, and brief letters. Students should typically be able to make and respond to simple statements and maintain conversation on a basic level, enough, for example, to introduce themselves, make purchases, order a meal, and ask for directions.
The grade for the course will be determined according to the following formula: Participation 5.0% Class Participation: For every class session (of which there are 4 or 5 a day) for which you are absent without a legitimate excuse (such as illness), your class participation grade will be reduced by 3%. For instance, if you miss three hours of class, your class participation grade will be 91%. For every class session for which you are late, your class participation grade will be reduced by 1%. Attendance Policy: This is a performance class. Accordingly, in addition to these penalties, students who miss class without a medical excuse will be penalized one point from the final course average for each hour of class they have missed. For instance, if a student misses one entire day (5 class sessions), and that student's final course average is 93, the student will get a grade of 88 (93 - 5 = 88). Activities Outside Class: As part of your homework assignments,
you will be expected to attend weekly showings of Russian films (with
subtitles) on Tuesdays at 6:30 pm, after dinner. You will be given homework
assignments to do on each of these films, and discussion of the films
will be part of Wednesday conversation classes. Homework Exercises will be graded according to the following scale: 5 points Submitted on time and completed with good effort No late homework will be accepted without a legitimate excuse (such as illness). The lowest 3 grades for homework will be eliminated in the grading process. The semester grade for homework will be the percentage of total homework points earned (of the total homework points possible). Homework Expectations: You can expect to spend 6-8 hours of time on homework every day, including audio and other work on the web in the computer lab. In the weekly syllabus, the phrase "go over" means that you should review the material and be prepared to discuss it or present it in class; you may wish to write down notes, but writing is not required and nothing in writing will be collected in class for this assignment. The word "write" will be used whenever written work will be collected in class. Written Tests will consist of vocabulary (providing the English or Russian equivalents of words and phrases from chapter-end lists); listening and sometimes reading comprehension tasks; fill-in-the-blank and translation passages based on grammar, vocabulary and syntax from the given units; one-sentence responses to questions in Russian; and brief compositions (or composed dialogues) based on the material from lessons covered for each test. Oral Quizzes: Oral quizzes will consist of a phonetics component (reciting an assigned dialogue with a partner from memory) and a communication component (composing and performing an assigned situation with a partner). Dialogues and situations will generally be from the basic text, Golosa. Later in the course, oral quizzes could also include recitation of a short assigned poem from memory. More information will be distributed in advanced of the first oral exam. Exit Tests: All students are REQUIRED to participate in the "All-School" exit testing, which is a part of your language course experience. Note that students whose final grade for the course is between two grades will have their grade determined by the progress they show on the "All-School" exit tests. Students who fail to take all the exit tests, without a medical excuse, will not get credit for the course. Special Needs: If you have any special learning needs, please discuss them with me or with the representative of the ADA office on the Middlebury Campus. The staff and I are strongly committed to providing excellent instruction to all learners. Attendance Policy: As you can see from the Class Participation and Course Grading Formulas, attendance is very important to your success in learning Russian. For every 16 absences (absences in 16 class sessions, of which we have 4 or 5 a day), whether excused due to illness or not, the final course grade will be reduced by one letter grade (e.g., from C to D or D to F.) Class Schedule: The first hour each day (from 8-9 am) will be
a general session for all introductory students to cover the day's material.
You will be expected to have prepared for that class by reading the
day before. The other three hours of class (from 9-10 am and from 1-3
pm) will be conducted in small groups. These classes will be devoted
to practice of the day's material, conversation practice, and reading
and listening comprehension exercises. Required Textbooks and Materials: Robin/Robin/Henry, Golosa, Book 1. Textbook, Second Edition. Prentice-Hall,
1998. Recommended Books: Katzner, Kenneth. English-Russian, Russian-English Dictionary. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
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