Online Project Presentation By: Annie Graebner 24 May 2010

Goals Goal: To give the learner a very basic understanding of the Russian language. More specifically, learner should be able to read and type Russian, conjugate some Russian verbs, and have a basic foundation for future learning. Some basic vocabulary and phrases will also be covered.

Weekly Objectives Week 1: Learn the Cyrillic alphabet & sounds Week 2: Begin understanding of Russian pronouns – be able to use them correctly by the end of the week Week 3: Start to conjugate regular Russian verbs in 1st and 3rd person singular (present tense) Week 4: Conjugate regular Russian verbs – all persons (still limited to present tense)

Method 9 sessions over four weeks, 1-2 hours per session Communication via and logged Gchat Materials from websites, as well as teacher-created materials Assessment: Informal quizzes, activity monitoring, comprehension inquiries & discussions, interactive review

Activities/Tasks Used Bilingual Stories/Sentences Sentence production by student using known Russian Soliciting guesses from student based on known information Mnemonics Student-initiated Activities Homework Other

Difficulties Pronunciation – impossible to correct/practice Time – due to timezone difference, scheduling was difficult Duration of Project  Can't teach much in only four weeks  But, covered more than traditional classes in same period

Concluding Observations With a highly-motivated student, many difficulties can be overcome and a great deal can be taught/learned in only four weeks. There were times when I was amazed that the student remembered something I'd mentioned in passing, or when he took initiative to create new phrases, comments, etc. using the Russian alphabet. He would also often self-correct when he made a mistake, before even the few seconds it took me to type out a correction of the error.

Thank you!