Time estimates are for students who had no previous foreign language experience before taking first-year Russian and who did not speak Russian at home.
Module 01 is a somewhat atypical module; most instructors will probably want to start with module 02. Module 01 was designed for a semester where classes started on a Thursday, and the instructor preferred to teach the first eleven letters of the Russian alphablet all at once instead of following the order of the textbook. It complements chapters 1-3 of Beginner's Russian. In it the student will review:
Letters А - Й
Pronunciation of letters
Reading of those letters in cursive
Pronunciation of words with these letters
Matching printed forms to cursive forms
For this lesson students will not need to have a Russian keyboard installed on their computers, although for future lessons they will.
Average time for non-heritage speaker to complete: 27 minutes
Musical reward: «Ночной хулиган» by Дима Билан
2016-03-04: updated to new domain name
2015-07-29: updated to JWPlayer 6.8 (HTML5 with fall back to Flash)
Developer's notes: for next revision add some listening-print and listening-cursive exercises.
Module 03 complements chapter 2 of Beginner's Russian. In it the student will review:
Practice typing
Discuss differences of tricky letters В Б, Ш Щ, Л П.
Prepositional singular
1st, 2nd, 3rd singular of работать
1st, 2nd, 3rd singular of говорить
1st, 2nd, 3rd singular of жить
1st, 2nd, 3rd singular of учиться
Pronunciation 0-10
Listening recognition of those numbers
Listening excercises and cloze texts with blogs from page 37
Approximate time: 60 minutes
Musical reward: Моя страна by Олег Газманов
2016-09-17: updated to new domain name, JW Player 6.8, HTML5.
Developer's notes: replace Моя страна by Олег Газманов with a different song to avoid overlap with textbook website. ote: The last four cloze texts need to be replaced before releasing for national distribution.
Note: the last four cloze texts need to be replaced before releasing for national distribution.
Module 05a complements chapter 4 of Beginner's Russian. It is an abbreviated version of module 05 that avoids the accusative and conjugation of изучать. In it the student will review:
Topics of study
Spelling tests of topics
Prepositional singular
Pronunciation of 11-20
Spelling of 11-20
Spelling of days of week
Listening exercises
Pronunciaton 1-20
Pronunciation 20-50
Approximate time: 48 minutes
Musical reward: «Если у вас нету тёти» from the movie «Ирония судьбы»
Module 08 complements chapter 5 of Beginner's Russian. In it the student will review:
how to say ‘Arizona State University,’ and
days of the week in the nominative and accusative; and
numbers 10-100; and
difference between что and какой; and
conjugation of the verbs заниматься, писать, любить and смотреть.
Approximate time: 36 minutes
Musical reward: «Просвистела» by ДДТ
2016-09-17: updated to new domain name, JWPlayer 6.8 (HTML5 with fall back to Flash).
Developer's notes: This module needs to be supplemented. It duplicates some of the previous module, and we need to add some broader integration exercises. Probably the conjugations of this module need to be included in 06. Listening exercises need to be added to both. A more careful division between the modules needs to be added.
Additionally, for national distribution one should consider adding how to discuss the university of the user. This could be accomplished by adding scripting connected with the name of the instructor which references the instructor's home university, although this might be a problem for those instructors who simultaneously teach at two universities. That could be solved by having the instructor's give slightly different names (e.g. one with and one without a middle initial) for their various cohorts.
Module 14 complements chapter 9 of Beginner's Russian. The student will:
go over the differences between imperfective verbs and perfective verbs in the past tense; and
practice using imperfective and perfective verbs in context; and
review cases with «У меня» and «У меня нет» constructions; and
practice using the four cases with various nouns; and
review to contrast the forms of the verb хотеть and ходить.
Approximate time: 15 minutes
Musical reward: «Яйца» by Дискотека Авария
2016-09-17: updated to new domain name, JWPlayer 6.8 (HTML5 with fall back to Flash).
Developer's notes: Needs additions. Add present conjugations of есть пить. Exercises. Add listening/reading exercises for possible meanings of imperfective/perfective of those verbs.
Module 24 complements chapter 16 of Beginner's Russian. In it the student will review:
how to talk about time by the hours of the clock; and
a quick review of adverbs of frequency; and
review imperfective and perfective using вставать/встать, ложиться/лечь, спать.
Approximate time: 39 minutes.
Musical reward: «Бьёт по глазам» by Total
2016-03-25: Updated for new URL
Developer's notes: The module is still a bit short. Next update should include more content, perhaps a review sequence about describing people. 2015-10-20: updated to JWPlayer 6.8 (HTML5 with fall back to Flash).
Module 25 complements chapter 17 of Beginner's Russian. The module introduces instrumental plural in advance of its sequence in the regular textbook. In it the student will cover:
the verb заниматься in the sense of ‘to do homework’; and
the verb заниматься in the sense of ‘to work out’; and
the instrumental singular of nouns; and
the instrumental with с in the sense of ‘with’; and
the verb заниматься in the sense of ‘to study’; and
the instrumental plural of nouns; and
the verb заниматься in the sense of ‘to do sports’; and
the verb заниматься in the sense of ‘to do business.’
Approximate time: 45 minutes.
Musical reward: «За твою любовь» by Алексей Воробьёв
2016-01-04: updated to new URL. 2015-10-30: updated to JWPlayer 6.8 (HTML5 with fall back to Flash)