Presents a tribute to Dan Davidson, American Department of Foreign Language's (ADFL) 1997 honoree as an outstanding educator, focusing on Davidson's work to expand Russian studies nationwide and forge ties between U.S. Russianists and Russia itself over the past decades, beginning with the post-Sputnik era. Davidson was able to go beyond the Iron…

Almost since the moment the Berlin Wall crumbled, American schools' interest in teaching Russian did likewise. But precisely because the numbers of Russian learners fell off sharply, Glastonbury and the few other schools that have stuck with the language are finding their students very much in demand. In this article, the author reports how…

To contribute to a better understanding of second language (L2) sentence processing, the present study examines how L2 learners parse temporarily ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses. Results are reported from both off-line and on-line experiments with three groups of advanced learners of Greek whose native languages (L1s) were Spanish,…

This study compares patterns of consonant-to-consonant timing at word boundaries in English and Russian and investigates the roles of transfer and the emergence of linguistic universals in second language (L2) articulation. Native Russian speakers learning English and native English speakers learning Russian produced phrases in English and Russian…

This paper is concerned with the impact that public and political discourses on the issues of language and ethnicity in Germany have on integration. It suggests that a combined effect of factors such as the traditional concept of "Germanness", peculiarities of Russian Germans' "cultural identity" and certain aspects of German…

This study examined listening comprehension in 82 university students who participated in an American Council of Teachers of Russian language program. Questionnaire data reveal that specific listening activities are not common in college Russian courses, and that students have little confidence in their ability to comprehend what they hear in a…

Russian culture is very much influenced by its huge land area, peculiar topography, and harsh climate. To understand Russian culture one must know how Russians perceive nature. This paper discusses how this concept may be conveyed to U.S. middle school students through poetry. Poems about nature can provide students an opportunity to understand…

Bilingualism and bilingual education in the U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China, and Canada are discussed as a context for examining American attitudes toward and the establishment of bilingual education programs. Russian and minority languages in the Soviet Union are examined, including the early development of Soviet language policy,…

The adult Soviet immigrant student's transition experience in the United States is examined from three perspectives: socio-historical, methodological, and linguistic. Emphasis is placed on the necessary adaptation of existing "survival skill" English as a second language (ESL) activities in order to accommodate the cultural perceptions…

A needs assessment survey was conducted of the Russian-speaking immigrant population in New York City. Program goals were: (1) to identify the public and priviate schools with concentrations of Soviet immigrant students; (2) to survey the programs established in the identified schools and their levels of instruction; (3) to identify the bilingual…

ALTHOUGH CAUTIOUS TRADITIONALISM, TEXT AVAILABILITY, LITERARY VALUE, AND PREFERRED LANGUAGE USAGE APPEAR TO FAVOR USING READING TEXTS BASED ON 19TH-CENTURY CLASSICS IN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE COURSES, AMERICAN STUDENTS, WHO IN THEIR CAREERS WILL NEED TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE CURRENT GENERATION IN RUSSIA, WILL FIND AN EXPOSURE TO MODERN READINGS MORE…

ALTHOUGH MOST EDUCATORS AGREE THAT EXAMINATIONS PERFORM AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION IN APPRAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, SOME CLAIM THAT MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS DEGENERATE INTO A GAME OF "BEAT THE MONKEY," I.E., ANSWERING MORE THAN 25 PERCENT OF THE ITEMS CORRECTLY, THE RATING EVEN A MONKEY COULD BE EXPECTED TO RECEIVE. SAMPLE STUDIES REVEAL THAT THE…

THE MARK TWAIN SUMMER INSTITUTE OFFERED CHALLENGING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, PROVIDED EXCELLENT TEACHERS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP NEW TECHNIQUES, AND OFFERED AN "INTERN-TEACHER" PROGRAM. THE STUDENTS QUALIFIED TO ATTEND WERE ABLE SECONDARY STUDENTS FROM GRADES 9 THROUGH 12. EACH STUDENT WOULD TAKE ONE NON-CREDIT HIGH SCHOOL COURSE.…

INCLUDED IN THIS ANNOTATED SUPPLEMENT FOR GERMAN, NORWEGIAN, POLISH, RUSSIAN, AND SWEDISH MATERIALS ARE (1) MATERIALS PUBLISHED SINCE THE PRINTING OF THE ORIGINAL LIST, (2) REVISIONS IN SOME OF THE ORIGINAL EVALUATIONS, AND (3) ITEMS INADVERTENTLY OMITTED FROM THE ORIGINAL LIST. PRICES, GRADE LEVEL, PROFICIENCY LEVEL, AND BRIEF CRITICAL EVALUATION…

This guide presents a rationale for quality foreign language programs and examines what might constitute a quality foreign language program. The following questions are discussed: reasons for foreign language study, kind of student and type of instruction necessary, objectives and application of FL study. The articulation of the foreign language…