E-Textbooks are now available to purchase or rent through VitalSource.com! Please visit VitalSource for more information on pricing and availability.
As of January 1, 2021, Smart Sparrow Companion Websites are no longer available for any of our textbook programs. New companion websites are coming soon, and will be hosted by Lingco. When it becomes available, instructors may sample the new companion websites by visiting GUPTextbooks.com/companionwebsites. The full websites will be available for fall 2021 course adoption.
Until the new companion websites become available, eBook Workbooks with exercises from the Smart Sparrow Electronic Workbook are available for purchase on the GUP website and VitalSource.com, as are Workbook Answer Keys. They will both be sold in eBook format only.
Rodnaya rech', an introductory textbook for heritage learners, addresses the unique needs of students who have at least intermediate-level listening and speaking skills on the ACTFL scale but who have underdeveloped or nonexistent literacy skills. With an emphasis on conceptual understanding of vocabulary and grammar, Rodnaya rech' builds students' literacy skills and teaches them to strategically use the linguistic intuition they have gained as heritage speakers while strengthening all four skill areas.
Essential to learning with Rodnaya rech' is the workbook, which includes all of the homework activities and texts for reading comprehension (sold separately). These practice activities allow students to practice what they are learning in the textbook.
With this textbook designed for in-class work and the accompanying workbook, Rodnaya rech' can be used as the main course material either in an intensive one-semester class or at a more measured pace over two semesters. This book is flexible enough to be used in specialized heritage or in mixed classes. It can also support independent study and learning in less formal settings, such as community schools.
For Teachers:
Exam copies of the textbook are available free of charge to instructors and can be ordered on this page. To request a print sample, please use the "print" exam copy button. To request a digital sample, instructors should log onto VitalSource.com, select "Faculty Sampling" in the upper right-hand corner, and select the desired products.
Irina Y. Dubinina is associate professor of Russian at Brandeis University, where she also directs the Russian language program. She has extensive experience teaching Russian as a second and heritage language.
Olesya Kisselev is an assistant professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at University of Texas at San Antonio. She has many years of experience teaching Russian as a second and heritage language.
Reviews
"Until very recently, bilingual (heritage) speakers were invisible in language classrooms; language teachers were not sure what to do with them and tried to avoid or ignore them. This textbook offers a fresh approach to teaching these speakers. Building on their strengths in listening and speaking, it provides a unique framework for language instruction for bilinguals, with two separate but complementary goals in mind: learning to use the language in the real world on a day-to-day basis and appreciating the complex structure that underlies it.
Dubinina and Kisselev are at the top of their game: applying modern, innovative teaching methods, bringing to the fore the rich culture behind modern spoken Russian, and engaging their students in a sophisticated dialogue. This textbook will be a gold standard for future textbooks designed for heritage speakers of different languages."—
Maria Polinsky, professor, Department of Linguistics and Language Science Center, University of Maryland, College Park
Table of Contents
Родная речь
Rodnaya Rech’
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
- Phonetics
- Syllables
- Vowels
- Consonants: Hard-soft pairs
- The hard sign and the soft sign
- Voiced and voiceless consonants
- Word stress: Stressed and unstressed vowels
- Morphology: The composition of a word
- Morphological principle of spelling
- Writing unstressed vowels
- Spelling of prefixes
- Spelling of suffixes
- Spelling of unstressed vowels in the root
- Vowels and consonants of the root that cannot be checked
- Grammar: Parts of speech
- Adverbs
- Nouns
- Gender - Nuances of adjectival endings
- Number - Exceptions
- Summary
Chapter 1: How to describe people
- In focus: Word meaning
- In focus: Form and structure
- Parts of speech: Adjectives and adverbs
- Noun-adjective agreement
- Adjectival endings
- Nuances of adjectival endings
- Superlative degree of adjectives
- Summary
Chapter 2: How to talk about daily routine
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Verbs
- The Infinitive
- Reflexive verbs
- Spelling of the particle –СЯ in reflexive verbs
- Verb tense
- Past tense
- Present tense and future tense
- Endings of conjugated verbs
- Consonant mutation
- Tricky verbs
- Verbs with the -ОВА- suffix
- Verbs of the type ДАВАТЬ
- Irregular verbs
- Summary
Chapter 3: How to describe past, present, and future events
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Verbal aspect
- Imperfective and perfective forms of verbs
- Functions of verbal aspect
- Verbal aspect and tense
- Verbal aspect and adverbs
- Tricky aspectual pairs
- Summary
Chapter 4: How to talk about family and friends
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Grammatical case
- Genitive case of nouns
- Important nuances
- Adjectives and possessive pronouns in the genitive case
- Personal pronouns in the genitive case
- Functions of the genitive case
- Possession: Expressing the idea of ‘having’
- Expressing belonging: Whose?
- Attributive function
- Insufficient amount of something, lack of something or absence of something or somebody
- Summary
Chapter 5: How to describe a community where I live
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Plural nouns in the genitive case
- Plural adjectives in the genitive case
- Important details on the form of the plural genitive
- The fill vowel
- Exceptions
- Additional function of the genitive case: counting
- Summary
Chapter 6: How to talk about academic studies
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Accusative of nouns and adjectives: Singular
- Personal pronouns in the accusative case
- Functions of the accusative case
- Function 1: Direct object
- Function 2: Direction and directionality
- Function 3: Accusative case with prepositions
- Accusative of nouns and adjectives: Plural
- Summary
Chapter 7: How to talk about trips and travel
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Verbs of motion
- Directionality
- Conveyance: On foot vs. via transportation
- Prefixed verbs of motion
- Generalized meaning of verbs of motion
- Central focus: The form of words
- Conjugation of verbs of motion
- Direction/destination and directionality
- Review of the accusative singular
- Verbs of positioning, self-positioning and location
- Review of the accusative plural
- Summary
Chapter 8: How to talk about feelings and emotions
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Dative case of nouns
- Singular adjectives and possessive pronouns in the dative case
- Personal pronouns in the dative case
- Describing emotional states
- Plural nouns, adjectives and possessive pronouns in the dative case
- Verbs requiring the dative case
- Different endings—different meanings—different cases
- Summary
Chapter 9: How to talk about where people live
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Prepositional case of nouns
- Functions of the prepositional case
- Personal pronouns in the prepositional case
- Adjectives and possessive pronouns in the prepositional case
- Expressions of time in Russian
- Summary
Chapter 10: How to talk about people’s interests
- Central focus: The meaning of words
- Central focus: The form of words
- Instrumental case of nouns
- Functions of the instrumental case
- Adjectives and possessive pronouns in the instrumental case
- Personal pronouns in the instrumental case
- Verbs requiring the instrumental case
- The verb ‘to be’ in the instrumental case
- Summary
Chapter 11: Tying it all together
- Categories of gender and number
- Categories of case
- Subject and object
- Talking about places: Location, direction, point of departure
- Spatial prepositions
- Expressions of time
- Temporal prepositions
- Categories of verbal tense and aspect
- Competition of aspect
- Verb government of cases
- Co-occurance of words
- Parting words