Rodnaya rech'

320 pp., 8.5 x 11
Paperback
ISBN: 9781626166394 (1626166390)

April 2019
LC: 2018014462

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Rodnaya rech'

An Introductory Course for Heritage Learners of Russian

Irina Dubinina and Olesya Kisselev

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.

With a textbook designed for in-class work and an electronic workbook containing all homework activities and texts for reading comprehension, 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.

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 L2 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 Kiselev 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, Department of Linguistics and Language Science Center, University of Maryland, College Park

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Chapter 0: (Introduction)
Phonetics
Voiced and voiceless consonants
Word stress: stressed and unstressed vowels
Morphology
Writing unstressed vowels
Spelling of prefixes
Spelling of suffixes
Spelling of unstressed vowels in a root
Grammar. Parts of Speech
Nouns
Gender
Number

Chapter 1: (How to describe people)
:
:
: (Parts of speech: adjectives and adverbs)
(Adjectival endings)
(Nuances of adjectival endings)
(Superlative degree of adjectives)

Chapter 2: (How to talk about daily routine)
:
:
(Verbs)
o (Infinitive)
o (Reflexive verbs)
o - (Spelling of the particle - in reflexive verbs)
(Tense)
o (Past tense)
o (Present tense and future tense)
o (Endings of conjugated verbs)
o (Consonant mutation)
(Tricky verbs)
o - - (Verbs with the -OBA- suffix)
o , (Verbs of the type )

Chapter 3: , , (How to describe past and future events)
:
:
(Verbal aspect)
o (Imperfective/perfective forms of verbs)
( ) (Functions of verbal aspect)
(Verbal aspect and tense)
o (Verbal aspect and adverbs)
(Tricky aspectual pairs)

Chapter 4: (How to talk about family and friends)
:
:
(Grammatical case)
(Genitive case)
o (Important nuances)
(Adjectives and possessive pronouns in the genitive case)
(Personal pronouns)
(Functions of the genitive case)
o : (Posession: expressing the idea of 'having')
o : ? (Expressing belonging: whose)
o ( ) (Attributive function)
o - (Insufficient amount of something, lack of something, or absence of something or somebody)

Chapter 5: e, (How to describe a community where I live)
:
:
(Nouns in plural genitive case)
(Adjectives in plural genitive)
(Important details)
(Fill vowel)
(Exceptions)
: ë (Additional function of the genitive case: counting)

Chapter 6: ë (How to talk about university studies)
:
:
(Accusative of nouns and adjectives: singular)
(Functions of the accusative case)
o 1: (Function 1: direct object)
o 2: (Function 2: direction and directionality)
o 3: (Function 3: accusative case with prepositions)
(Accusative of nouns and adjectives: plural)

Chapter 7: , (How to talk about trips and travel)
:
(Verbs of motion)
(Directionality)
o : (Conveyance: on foot vs. via transportation)
o (Prefixed verbs of motion)
o (Generalized meaning of verbs of motion)
:
(Conjugation of Verbs of Motion)
(Direction and directionality)
(Review of accusative singular)
, (Verbs of positioning, self-positioning and location)
(Review of accusative plural)

Chapter 8: , (How to talk about feelings and emotions)
:
:

o

,
,
- -

Chapter 9: , (How to talk about where people live)
:
:

o

Chapter 10: (How to talk about people's interests)
:
:
.
o

o . to be.

Chapter 11: (Review)

o
o : ,
o
o
o

o

Index