Lecture (LEC)

• Above class open to graduates only

The two semester sequence R491-492 enables graduate students to gain sufficient reading knowledge of Russian in order to satisfy the research language requirement in many IU graduate programs. In the first semester R491, we work through most (but not all) of the fundamental grammar of Russian, acquiring a passive vocabulary of 500 words along the way. This is not a traditional four-skills course, but concentrates on reading and understanding of grammar, with just enough attention to pronouncing Russian so as to make the vocabulary feel real to the students. (While aimed at graduate students, the course can also accommodate undergraduates who wish to become acquainted with Russian.) Requirements: a take-home midterm and final involving Russian-to-English translations, and there are daily graded homework assignments, also primarily R-to-E translation, to make sure students keep up with the brisk pace of the course. In the second course R492, we spend half of the semester completing the survey of the grammar and vocabulary building (with a midterm), after which each student works on an individual reading/translation project in his/her field of interest, meeting once a week with the instructor to go over the work. This project replaces any final exam. Textbook for the sequence: Reading Modern Russian, by Jules Levin et al. Keywords: Russian, reading knowledge, research, grammar, vocabulary