In this course, you practice your Russian, applying what you have learned thus far. You move up on the proficiency scale by expanding your vocabulary, practicing key grammatical functions, and demonstrating ever higher levels of 'automaticity' as you use the language. (Automaticity is a term used in Second Language Acquisition theory to describe how quickly and easily you use the language.) We begin the course by working on phonetics. If you sound Russian, people will respond to you positively. In order to do that, you review the alphabet with an eye towards the sounds each letter represents. Then, we work on part of a poem by Pushkin. Once you have completed the poem, we move on to a short story by Anton Chekhov. We complete the course by reading Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in its entirety.

Entry Level Competencies:

The following are required for entry into this course:

• Russian 202 assumes that you have worked with all six cases and with verbs in the past, present and future. It does not assume that you use these with ease or complete accuracy.
• Russian 202 assumes that you have acquired a fairly good control of basic vocabulary.
• Russian 202 hopes that you are willing to start taking charge of your own language learning.
• Russian 202 hopes that you are excited about exploring Russian culture and learn a little about Russian theater, in general, and Chekhov and particular.

If you complete this course and do well, you will be able to:

• pronounce Russian like Russian!
• read Russian with greater ease
• understand spoken Russian with ease
• use Russian in a wide range of social situations
• evaluate theatrical productions in both Russian and English

Last Updated: March 27, 2019