Frane Karabatic

Добро пожаловать! Welcome to Russian 406! This is the first of a three-semester online course designed to introduce you to the language and culture of one of the most influential and important regions of the world today. Russian is spoken by more than 200 million people in the former Soviet Union, and an additional 150 million throughout the world. Now you can speak it, too.

This introductory Russian language course will be conducted entirely online. We will be using a new multi-media curriculum developed at the University of Texas. All course content and materials will be delivered online, and you will not need to purchase additional textbooks. Students will be required to meet as a class, along with the instructor, one hour per week in a virtual classroom.

The pace of Russian 406 is designed to be moderately intensive. Although class meets only once a week, you should expect to do between 12 and 18 hours of work each week, depending on the types and number of activities assigned. Your assignments will require you to work independently a large portion of the time, but you can also expect to work with your classmates for various communication activities, including video recording conversations in Russian.

Our goal is to introduce you to Russian language and culture and, by doing so, help you develop functional proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Additionally, we will be online, so you can expect to start learning to navigate the Russian language realm of the Internet, which is truly an entirely other world, replete its own social media, search engines, and shopping hot-spots.

·       TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

o   Reliable internet connection - A very strong connection is required for weekly class meetings and strongly recommended for other synchronous interactions and video recordings. Do not expect to be able to use a coffee shop’s connection for these.

o   A computer with webcam, microphone and headphones (do a sound check before submitting your recorded activities)

o   Canvas is designed to be compatible with Chrome, so if you are using a web browser other than Chrome, you might not have full functionality in Canvas.  Bottom line, use Chrome as your browser for Canvas.

Please check back for updates.

This course serves as the introduction to the major languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) of the former Yugoslavia.  While the instructor will use Croatian as the language of instruction, use of other language variants will also be promoted, in order to provide historical and cultural insights into the ethnic mix of the area and thus, the students, both new to these languages and the heritage speakers can use the language variant of their choice.

Students will develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills by working in the fields of culture, grammar, lexicon, communicative skills, and linguistic norms.  The students will be able to recognize common knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral patterns of the region, and to utilize such cultural norms.