Name: Donna Turkish Seifer, M.A.

Institution: Lewis & Clark College

Language: Russian

Status: Part and full-time since 1977

Project Type: Summer Fellowship, Software Grants

Project Title: Troika Bridge

Brief Description: I propose to develop review materials to build a bridge from first year (101-102) to second-year Russian (201) based on the textbook, "Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian Language, Life and Culture," by Marita Nummikoski, pub. John Wiley & Sons, 1996, adopted at LC in 1997.

The "Troika" program consists of a well organized and nicely illustrated Textbook, a Workbook and Laboratory Manual with Audiotape for the student. It includes an Annotated Instructor's Edition of the Text, an Instructor's Answer Key to Workbook Exercises and a Bank of Chapter Tests. None of this material is currently supported by electronic technologies by the publisher. I have been trying to contact the author, but was just told that she is in Russia at present collecting material for another book. I still hope to communicate with her in the nearest future about this project.

Having taught first year college Russian since 1974, and after teaching this material for 3 years now, I have concluded that the Troika 18-chapter program is more than can be covered in our LC first year course of 2-semesters/14-weeks/3-days-a-week of 60-minute contact hours. Even when selectively omitting and expediting certain topics and sections, a gap of about 4 chapters at the end of the book remains. This leads to the problem of students being able to make a successful transition from first year to the beginning course of second year Russian, whether at LC or elsewhere.

There is, and has been for some time, a dearth of good "second-year" Russian textbooks in the US and Canada. This is a problem for many of my colleagues at many institutions, and there is no funtional "sequel" to the Troika program available.

I propose that this deficit can be overcome, if we at LC develop materials to build a bridge from 102 to 201, whereby the most advanced aspects of grammar and cultural content of the Troika program are reserved for 201 (the last 4 ?5 chapters) after an expedited review of the fundamentals of first-year Russian grammar, vocabulary and cultural topics covered in 101/2.

This April my colleague Tatiana Osipovich and I resolved to go forward with the Troika program to completion in 201 and to supplement when appropriate. I offered to develop transition materials for Russian 201 based on the Troika program and Tatiana encouraged me to pursue grant support for this.

Outcome:
1. To prepare electronic revision exercises on grammar, vocabulary & cultural topics studied in "Troika" in Russian 101/2: o Chs. 1-3 (Noun gender, Adjective agreement; Verb conjugation I & II; Family & Professions) o Chs. 4-5 (Personal & Possessive pronouns, Nominative plural, Prepositional singular; Russian Geography) o Chs. 6-7 (Time expressions, Prepositional plural; Work & study schedules, daily activities.) o Chs. 8-9 (Accusative case, Past tense; Literature, art, music, sports, leisure time.) o Chs. 10-11 (Genitive case, Numerals; Education, Money & shopping.) o Ch. 12 (Verbal Aspect; Future tense; Verbs of Motion; Popular Culture) o Ch. 13. (Dative Case; Holidays & gifts) o Chs. 16-17 (Instrumental Case; Food).

2. To prepare topical materials to supplement the chapter content on chapters 14 ?18, which will be new to the students in 201. Emphasis will be on the thematic and cultural content. - Ch. 14: Climate, Weather, Nature & the Seasons - Ch. 15: Traveling o Ch. 16: Dining out. - Ch. 17: Love & Marriage - Ch. 18: Sickness & Health.

• I assume that these will all need a "home," so I will create a home page called "Troika Bridge" in Claris Homepage or Dreamweaver to house them.
  
• Some of these exercises can be created with the "Makers" pages, e.g.Glossmaker, Clozemaker, Mat chmaker , Placemakers, etc. Others can be made in Premiere or Final Cut Pro with Quicktime using my own video materials produced in Russia at various times, in Photoshop with my own or my partner?s photographs. To the extent that I might want to use audio components from the Troika system, I will try to have this fall under "fair use" of the materials, which we have already adopted. It may also be possible to tape Russian TV news or radio broadcasts, but copyright issues must be explored.
  
• I will catalog and coordinate related materials already in the ILC, so as to use or reference these wherever appropriate and avoid redundancy.
  
• I participated in both the Technology and Language Teaching" Workshop May 3-4, and the LC Faculty Technology Institute May 8-12, 2000. I have had an introduction to Premiere, to capture video for either still or sequence purposes. I have appointments next week with Chris Benham to learn how to work with Final Pro Cut in the LC digital video-editing suite. Although much of this electronic technology is new, I am relying on the IT support staff to help me "get up to speed" in certain programs.
  
• In addition, I studied video production and editing 20 years ago and have produced many of my own short and medium length video sequences for teaching elements of Russian language & culture, as well as in film research. So, I am not particularly technology-shy. I also just acquired a Power Mac 9500 (using system 8.5) at home, so I expect to be able to accomplish a good deal at home, once I get going in earnest.

Brief Time Line:

Summer 2000

• June: Catalog related materials in ILC; Draft Homepage for the Troika Bridge; Draft 2 or 3 Revision Exercises; Practice with "Makers" pages (online); Practice Digitizing video at LC with IT support.
  
• July: Develop Homepage; Develop first Revision Exercises; PSU colleagues (Sandra Rosengrant 200 level, Galina Kogan 100 level) use-test, give feedback; Incorporate feedback & refine. Draft 2 or 3 more Revision Exercises. Request feedback from colleagues.
  
• Aug: Continue above. Complete Troika Bridge Homepage. Draft 1 or 2 Cultural Topic Exercise to supplement chs. 14-18. Request feedback from PSU colleagues. Incorporate feedback & refine. Coordinate sequence of Troika Bridge materials, orient colleagues to use testing. Create student feedback device.
  
• Sept-Dec. Use-test in Russian 201 at LC in fall semester and possibly at PSU; Collect feedback and refine. Use-test selectively with Russian 102 in spring semester.

Amount Requested & Breakdown

$3,000 as summer fellowship carrying into fall.
$ 100 Cost of Russian language kit(s) software as needed.
$ ??? Possibly other software not yet defined.