Discusses the teaching strategies used in the University of Colorado Russian Project in which Russian is taught using "Pravda" or other Russian newspapers from the very first day of class. Argues that this approach must emphasize syntax (functional grammar) as opposed to case or formal grammar. (SED)

Argues that the development of an explicit reading approach focusing on the comprehension of Russian expository prose is long overdue. Recommends and discusses "The Contextual Approach to Russian" by Plank and Daugherty as a textbook which outlines a pragmatic strategy for reading and comprehending Russian expository prose. (SED)

Discusses the similarities between the approaches of Plank, Daugherty, McKenna, Ingram, and others to the teaching of beginning Russian and that of the natural approach advocated by Krashen. Discusses some of the ways these approaches can be applied to teaching Russian at the intermediate level. (SED)

This course blueprint was first drawn up in 1968 and was later coordinated by the Department of Russian at Birmingham University. Problems of self-instructional courses, details of a particular Russian course and why it had to be changed, and possible improvements for similar course are given. (SC)

The final project report on development of an advanced Russian language listening and reading proficiency test is presented. It summarizes activities in the second year of the project, including dissemination of summer 1985 test validation results to participating higher education institutions, item analyses, completion of the final test edition,…

Papers from the Proceedings of the 17th meeting of the AIMAV (Association internationale pour le developpement de la communication interculturelle) are collected in this volume. Conference papers appear either in English, in French, or in Russian. For purposes of this abstract, all titles below have been translated into English. The…

Situation comedy (sitcom) dialogs that are included in PLATO lessons for first year Russian students are described. These comprehension exercises make use of both the touch panel and the audio capabilities of PLATO. The sitcom dialogs were written by a native speaker of Russian and are based on the vocabulary in the textbook plus a small number of…

This paper describes the techniques used in a successful, intensive course in introductory Russian. The objectives of the course are to develop good pronunciation and oral communication skills, good listening comprehension skills, some fluency in reading, and some elementary skill in writing. The course relies upon the development of a community…

Languages for special purposes is the subject of this special issue. Seven articles are provided: "Special Courses in Russian" (Rasio Dunatov); "Learning to Read German: A Search for Relevant Models (Karl Fink); "The Comprehension of English for Science and Technology Arguments and Definitions" (John Lackstrom); "The Teaching of Pronunciation"…