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.) In this course you write and present a major paper in Russian! You select a city from the Russian speaking world and describe its climate, history and points of interest. You analyze its role in Russian history and diagnose its problems and issues. Finally, you evaluate the quality of life in your city and justify your decision to make it the focus of your project. Your focus on one Russian city helps you gain a deep understanding of its people and issues.

Entry Level Competencies:

The following are required for entry into this course:

• Knowledge of the six cases, what they are used for and how adjectives and nouns agree. It is not assumed that you can use these forms well or easily.
• Knowledge of the basic verb forms, but it is not assumed that you can use them automatically.
• A basic knowledge of Russia, Russian history, culture, and life.

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

• initiate and maintain predictable face-to-face conversations and satisfy limited social demands in your Speaking.
• show good control of basic vocabulary and able to produce most structures accurately in your writing.
• understand short conversations about all survival needs and limited social demands in your listening.
• some authentic written material on subjects within a familiar context.
• pronounce Russian in a way that is understandable to natives used to dealing with foreigners.
• analyze and diagnose key urban issues for major Russian cities, in Russian!

Last Updated: March 27, 2019