Challenges of Teaching LCTLs

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If you were to give three bits of advice to a novice teacher of Russian what would they be?

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Reflections - What kind of advice does Larysa offer to novice Russian teachers? How helpful do you think it is? How does it compare to the kind of advice Selim gives? To the advice you would give?

Larysa describes how she structures student participation in a grammar activity, asking those students whose Russian she considers to be more advanced to answer first and then moving to less proficient students so that they have a chance to hear the correct answer several times before they must produce it.

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Reflections - Do you feel that such a strategy helps to promote learning? Why or why not? Have you used similar strategies in your teaching? Please explain.

Larysa asks her heritage language students to conjugate particular verbs of motion in Russian.

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Reflections - When might it be appropriate to expect heritage language and domestic to complete certain tasks during your instruction? How do you decide this?

Larysa explains a complicated semantic feature of nouns in Russian and goes on to compare how two students, a heritage language student and a domestic student, differ in the writing and speaking abilities.

L: Students are doing tennis, e:h, in this episode, and uh, they come up with all distribution, with distribution pattern of verb ((Russian)), u::h, and they try to use the verb, the, the nouns, um, um, tennis ball and I had to explain the difference between, because in Russian we have ((Russian)), the noun, with diminutive suffix which shows that the object is small and ((Russian)), a ball which is just for example for football had to know this difference, because, for example, for billiard, they call that thing also ((Russian)), but we call that thing in using a different uh, word, it, it (reminds the long shot). So I had to, to stop and to explain the semantic differences of these nouns and uh, the Russian student, did it say 27:08? 27:08 and uh, the Russian student uh whose name, whose name is Eilich is writing down the um, um, words, ( ) words, which belong to tennis on the blackboard and by the way, if you compare the way S::Sam did, and the way how Eilich is doing that, Sam’s nouns are very neatly organized in compared to Eilich’s nouns. Eilich’s, uh, Eilich writes just writing and drawing at the same time, just different funny faces, for some reason, so I don’t know, he never explained to me that but he majors in psychology, probably it has some ((laughing)) sense or point, I don’t know.

KJ: You think that um, he has better speaking skills, Eilich, has better speaking skills than writing skills?

L: Uh, yeah. He, his uh, uh, speaking skills I kind of think that are much better than writing, but they’re more developed than writing, because u:m, he came t:::o the States when he was ten, so he had lived for ten years in Russia and I note that he listened to Russian music all the time, because ( ) when he came to class because I usually u::h, come five minutes early and he, when I come, he is in class. And h:e, he is listening to something and I usually ask what are you listening to uh, what he, he was listening to and he says Oh, this is this, or that Russian group, do you know this, do you know that, so uh, he listens to Russian, he watches Russian but definitely he doesn’t write much Russian, he doesn’t need to do that, but still on his tests, um, he got As, As with minuses, and As for his tests. He’s much better than another Russian student, Keisha ( ), uh, his speaking skills are almost like, uh, Will’s skills, that American who has been studying Russia for ten years and he writes (2) worse, much worse than Will does, by the way, because he doesn’t, I mean, he doesn’t know that he needs to memorize much because Russian is no longer his mother tongue, unfortunately, and by the way his wr—his English is not the best, and I notice that many students cannot write properly in English, they make so many mistakes, grammatical mistakes and semantic mistakes, unfortunately. (1) But they didn’t like when I corrected their English because, you know, they, they were sure that their English, uh, was much better than mine, and uh, they were sort of uh, upset or even, I, I felt they I hurt their feelings when I corrected their English.

Reflections - Larysa describes the different language abilities of her students, both heritage and domestic, and notes that they are quite variable; often depending on their personal histories and/or motivation for studying Russian. Have you noticed similar differences in your students? If so, what were they and how did you adjust your teaching to meet their unique linguistic and/or educational needs?

While students are listening to segments of a video about different types of sports, Larysa stops to ask and answer questions about the semantic differences of particular nouns.

T: что он в руке или в ноге держит? Кий [[what is he holding in his hand or a foot? A cue.]] Вот это кий. А как это будет по-английски? Кто мне поможет? [[So how do you say it in English? Who can help me?]]

S: Cue. Cue.

T: Say it again.

S: cue, c u like the letter q. c u e

T: okay cue. А что это? [[ok cue. And what’s this?]]

S: Мячик. [[a small ball]]

T: Бильярдный шар. Шар, Бильярдный шар. Шар. Шар напиши.Бильярдный шар. [a billiard ball. Ball, a billiard ball. Ball, write it down. A billiard ball.]

S: почему не сетка [[why not the net?]]

S: сетка? [[net?]]

T: А что это? Бильярдный, стол. Бильярд and you add the suffix -ный and make the adjective, ok? Бильярд бильярдный шар, бильярдный стол [[and what’s this? Billiard table. Billiard then add siffix niy and make the adjective, ok? Billiard, billiard ball, billiard table]]

S: Как мячик и шар мяч и шар отличаются. [[what’s the difference between these three words (myachik, shar, myach) that can all be translated as ball?]]

T: если билярд это шар, если теннис футбол, это мяч. [[If it’s billiard, it’s a billiard ball, if it’s tennis, or soccer, it’s a ball.]]

Reflections - A student asks why three different Russian words can be translated as the English word ‘ball’. Do you find that your students ask similar questions about the language you teach? If they do, how do you address their questions? Do you find these sorts of questions enrich your teaching or distract you (and other students) from covering the required curriculum?

Larysa describes how she struggles with covering the required vocabulary in a particular lesson and providing students with opportunities to use the vocabulary in longer utterances or full sentences.

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Reflections - Have you experienced similar difficulties with covering the required curriculum while at the same time also trying to create opportunities for your students to use the language in more meaningful ways? If so, how do you balance this challenge?

While students are listening to segments of a video about different types of sports, Larysa stops to ask students for the English translation of the word 'starting block' (swimming).

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Reflections - Notice how Larysa struggles to come up with the English vocabulary to explain the difference between the Russian word for 'starting block' (swimming) and cabinet or night stand. Do you find you struggle with English vocabulary or phrases while teaching? Like Larysa, do you seek out student assistance when this happens? How does this make you feel? Do you feel it is an appropriate strategy in the language classroom?

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