The Soviet Union (USSR) is an immense multinational and multilingual country. At the time of the Revolution (1917) there were 150 national languages spoken in the USSR and 180 recognized linguistic groups, however, 70% of the total population of the USSR was illiterate and the literacy rate of the Middle Asia varied from 1% to 5%. After 1917, mass…

Teachers of courses on Russian for business and economics face the difficult task of bridging the objective and subjective needs of students. The need to have large and varied amounts of representative material to introduce unfamiliar concepts and new terminology is a challenge for course designers. Courses should expose students to three…

A handbook compiled for use in a one-day workshop on oral proficiency testing for teachers of Russian gives an overview of oral proficiency assessment principles and the available techniques. One section explains the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Educational Testing Service (ACTFL/ETS) Oral Proficiency Interview process and…

The distinction between core and peripheral grammar made in government-binding theory sheds light on some questions concerning the acquisition of the inflectional morphology of different languages. The schedule for acquisition of the inflectional system may be determined not by the learning of particular affixes but by whether inflection is a core…

There have been several recent works dealing with the Russian "root system." Most of these works operate on the claim that vocabulary-building in advanced Russian classes may be accelerated by a mastery of the systems of derivational morphology. Townsend's "Russian Word Formation," Gribble's "Russian Root List," and…

This paper suggests methods for teaching the Russian verbs that govern what are loosely termed "objects" in oblique cases. The case government of such verbs is not necessarily an individual irregularity. Definite patterns emerge, both morphological and semantic, to facilitate grouping these verbs into classes. Russian verbs requiring genitive…

This paper discusses inclusion of the Russian language in European language resource development. It is suggested that European initiatives to develop language resources can not afford to ignore Russian, and that there is much work to do to resolve differences in resources on the two sides of the former Iron Curtain. A 1995 project, undertaken by…

Role-playing and simulation are recommended as effective methods of introducing business content into Russian language courses. The advantages of role-playing, which make it a flexible and effective tool throughout the foreign language curriculum, are discussed. Use of role-play in introductory courses is addressed, but focus is primarily on use…

A preliminary report on a long-term empirical investigation of advanced language acquisition in a study-abroad environment is presented. The project is based on an American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) longitudinal study of the gains in Russian language competence demonstrated by American students in semester-long language programs in…

Two studies compared the effectiveness of the bilingual-dichotic method with conventional diotic methods for teaching Russian vocabulary to English-speakers. Subjects were 101 college students. In the bilingual-dichotic method, the foreign word is presented to the right ear and simultaneously, the equivalent native word is presented to the left…

An analysis of the evolution of reflexive verbs focuses on reflexive to middle voice development in two-form middle systems, which include Russian, Old Norse, Turkish, and Hungarian. The diachronic processes associated with these systems are examined. The changes in the languages over time represent a gradual change in the semantics of the…

The history and rationale for entry and exit tests devised to meet Pennsylvania's standards for certifying foreign language teachers are outlined and discussed. The involvement of the Educational Testing Service in developing and validating tests in a variety of subject areas is described, and the need for institutional rather than standardized…

This paper reports interim fundings of two studies focusing on student responses to learning strategy instruction in first year Japanese, Russian, and Spanish foreign language classrooms. Data were collected from four groups of students: 15 high school students of Japanese, 13 college students of Japanese, 31 high school students of Russian, and…

Although spoken language was the subject of attention among Soviet linguists for a short period in the 1920s, it has not attracted much attention since then. The main concern of Soviet linguists has been the forms of written language. Only at the end of the 1960s did linguists begin to record spontaneous speech on tape and study its forms. The…

In Utah, the statewide distance education network (EdNet) enables students from five rural and suburban high schools to learn Russian and earn college credits. Courses in Russian are offered through a partnership involving the Cache County School District, Utah State University, and the Utah State Office of Education. Classes are taught on one…