American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

Elementary Ukrainian 1, 2. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction by Assya Humesky; ValBolen; Intermediate Ukrainian 1. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction by Assya Humesky; ValBolen; Intermediate Ukrainian 2. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction by Assya Humesky;George Perfecky; Katherine DowbenkoReview by: Natalie K. MoyleThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1988), pp. 175-177Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/308957 .

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Reviews 175

In contrast to Rugaleva's reading units, which are grouped by broad topics (e.g., urban transportation, leisure time activity, foreign-language learning, the demographic and psycho- logical distinctions between men and women in Soviet society, sport activity and competition) and to McKenna's selections of articles from Soviet newspapers (e.g., the Soviet rationale for boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, human rights in USSR vis-a-vis the West), Nakhi- movsky acquaints readers with sections from a representative issue of Literaturnaja gazeta. The juxtaposition of articles fulsome with praise of all things domestic or socialist with the bleakest description of the hellish West-the United States invariably in the lowest circle-is a shocking eye-opener for any American. Besides addressing specific troublesome points (pre- posed participle and adjectival phrases, series without a conjunction), Nakhimovsky's pre- reading instructions explain the unusual ways Soviet journalistic practice uses quotation marks and how it distorts quotations with ideologically skewed paraphrases. Although these observa- tions are superb, they do not lead to a complete system for approaching the Russian sentence.

In so far as the texts in unit 6 deal with a wide variety of subjects, they may prove somewhat more difficult for the student struggling with masses of unfamiliar vocabulary. The article "Zemnoj ?ar po Ronal'du Rejganu," however, is ideally suited to our students: it reproduces an American cartoonist's English-language map, which forms the basis for the discussion in the article. It seems to me that Nakhimovsky's illustration of a representative issue of Litera- turnaja gazeta is especially well suited as a final reading assignment for by that point students would be better prepared to deal with its more diverse subject matter. It not only gives a fascinating cultural insight into how the other side likes to view itself and us, but also provides students the satisfaction of comprehending a whole publication.

In summary, despite significant differences in the efficacy of the approaches offered here, the reading materials themselves are uniformly attractive. For a course in Russian reading skills, contemporary culture, or even third- or fourth-year Russian, I would consider making the fullest use of them, beginning with unit 5, continuing in any desired order with as many selections from units 1 to 4 and 7 to 9 as time permitted, and concluding with unit 6.

The test booklets for each volume give additional texts on the same subject as the unit texts. It seems an ingenious and altogether fair way of testing both the diligence with which the unit was covered as well as general reading proficiency of the student.

The Rugaleva and McKenna materials have mostly been typed and are quite clearly repro- duced. The Nakhimovsky materials, photocopied from Literaturnaja gazeta are less clear and the test materials for that unit are barely decipherable in places. These problems, however, are isolated exceptions to what overall are extremely useful and attractive materials.

Frank Ingram, Michigan State University

Assya Humesky and Val Bolen. Elementary Ukrainian 1, 2. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction. 2 vols. OSU Slavic Papers, 24, 25. Columbus: Ohio State Univ., 1984. iv, 152 pp. (paper). 9 audio cassettes to accompany texts and two unpaginated instructor's manuals (24A, 24B).

Assya Humesky and Val Bolen. Intermediate Ukrainian 1. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction. OSU Slavic Papers, 26. Columbus: Ohio State Univ., 1984. iv, 150 pp. (paper). 5 audio cassettes to accompany text and unpaginated instructor's manual (26A).

Assya Humesky, George Perfecky, and Katherine Dowbenko. Intermediate Ukrainian 2. Ukrainian Individualized Instruction. OSU Slavic Papers, 27. Columbus: Ohio State Univ., 1984. ii, 298 pp. (paper). 6 audio cassettes to accompany text and unpaginated instructor's manual (27A).

The textbook which the Ukrainian self-study package is intended to supplement is Assya Humesky's Modern Ukrainian. I have always liked this textbook precisely for the reason that

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176 Slavic and East European Journal

some regard it as too difficult: it is loaded with information. For example, it has fuller prepo- sition lists than one normally finds in a beginning text and gives all of the variant spellings of a preposition as soon as it is introduced. There is plentiful cultural information, such as a description of BapeHHKH. It provides differences between Western and Eastern Ukrainian lex- icon and pronunciation. It explains phenomena such as the use of the word palAHCbKH* by Ukrainins living in the Soviet Union and the avoidance of this term in favor of coBeTrcbKHr in the West. There is extensive discussion of phonology and orthography. There is a list of politeness expressions, which every textbook should have, but few do. These are just examples. Packed with information as it is, it has been appropriately divided for use at both the elemen- tary and intermediate levels of the self-study program.

On the other hand, the textbook has some annoying typographical errors. For example, it says Ukrainian has six vowel sounds (which, indeed, it does) and then lists only five. In addi- tion, some of its dialogues and texts are inane-though this is true of most beginning texts, in all languages.

While I have always liked this text for the purposes for which I have used it-as a reference grammar and as a textbook for independent study-it might be problematic in a self-study format. Someone experienced in language-teaching or language-learning will like this book as much as I do. However, I can imagine an inexperienced self-study student getting absolutely lost in the sheer volume of information in the book. An experienced person will know, for example, that the lengthy discussion of the Ukrainian sound system is interesting from the linguistic point of view, that it may prove useful later in trying to determine why a particular pronunciation or spelling problem occurs. That person will also know that practice in pronun- ciation and spelling is more important and effective in language mastery than memorization of sound system features. An inexperienced student, I am afraid, might try to memorize all the phonological information and just be overwhelmed.

The other problem I anticipate is related to the brevity of the book's grammatical explana- tion. This feature is fine for someone familiar with Ukrainian or any other Slavic language; it makes the book a more convenient reference tool. However, someone learning Ukrainian as a first Slavic language would very likely be lost without an instructor.

The four manuals for students produced by OSU are designed to overcome these problems and to turn Humesky's textbook into something that can be used for self-instruction by anyone. Each manual unit has a list of its main objectives and is related to a corresponding textbook chapter. A lesson plan tells students what to read and in which sequence, and which exercises to do. The unit includes additional explanations and exercises, pictures illustrating various grammatical points (or for use in exercises), crossword puzzles, additional vocabulary lists, and answer keys to those exercises which are not to be handed into the self-study instructor.

While I cannot judge the likelihood that the materials will alleviate the weaknesses of the text, I do have reactions to some features of the Self-Study manuals. The lesson plans provide too many small activities. A typical lesson plan has the student going from reading a paragraph or two in the textbook, to reading a paragraph in the manual, to doing a textbook exercise, to listening to an exercise on tape, to doing an exercise in the manual, to listening to a reading on another tape, and then back to the textbook to read another grammar section, and so forth. There were just too many little things to do with too many separate objects. I would perfer bigger chunks of material: reading all of the material on the dative case and doing all of the grammar exercises, say; reading all of the dialogues, the corresponding vocabulary lists, and cultural notes, listening to all of the corresponding material on tape. The lesson plans give one the feeling of 'oro TH AypeHb BepTHMCR.

Otherwise, the manuals are excellent. The cultural notes are very good. They are somewhat like the cultural notes in the textbook and share their virtues, but are more plentiful, much longer and fuller. They include short biographies of literary figures, examples of their poetry or other writings, their photos (including a picture of Lesia Ukrainka as a little girl), as well as photos of their homes and buildings of architectural interest. There are pictures and discussions

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Reviews 177

of activities, in Ukraine and among Ukrainians in the West, maps, and historical information. In short, the manuals have assembled the sort of material that any good teacher accumulates over years of teaching. Some of the pictures, being photoreproductions, are not of the best quality, but who can complain with such a wealth of wonderful material?

The manuals contain abundant drawings, which are used effectively to explain areas prob- lematic for native speakers of English, such as prepositions and motion verbs. In my expe- rience, visualization is the best way to teach these points. The pictures in the manuals might be profitably used not just for self-study, but in a classroom setting. The pictures are also used as the basis for exercises, which ask students to describe what is going on or to answer other questions, thus encouraging students to produce at least semi-spontaneous speech. This approach has been successful in proficiency-oriented testing and instruction.

Finally, I appreciate the emphasis the manuals place on everyday life. Students are made familiar with foods in the refrigerator, the furniture and other objects in a home, in short, the stuff of daily living. This material is as necessary and useful as the politeness expressions mentioned above. Moreover, recent work on proficiency has shown that true language acquisi- tion begins closest to home and closest to self. By providing the vocabulary of daily living, the manuals also provide some basis for this lasting language acquisition.

The Self-Study package also includes a vocabulary supplement, tapes, and instructor's manuals. The vocabulary supplement is a small dictionary for the manuals. The tapes, which have no problems themselves, will be the self-study student's only chance to hear Ukrainian outside of oral tests.

The instructor's manuals contain pretests and tests, written and oral, for each manual/text unit. There are two versions of each item. Answer keys are provided for everything but the oral texts. As a whole, these materials are bound to be extremely useful. One likely source of supervisors for Ukrainian self-study courses will be over-worked faculty taking them on as an overload, out of feelings of patriotic duty, or as a favor to a student or department. They will need all the help they can get. The other likely source will be graduate students, perhaps with little or no teaching experience; for them the ready-made tests and answer sheets will reduce chances of error or misjudgment. Even for someone with the time and knowledge to make one's own tests, the materials offer excellent models.

As a consequence of my experience teaching in a classroom, I cannot help but look at the materials from this point of view. Even if the materials are not widely used for self-study, they have great potential for use in a traditional classroom setting. They do provide a rich source of the very things a good teacher assembles over time. The tests would be as useful here as in the self-study setting. One could make good use of the drawings and photographs for classroom activities. The everyday vocabulary, the biographies, poems, readings, and exercises would be useful as supplemental material. Even the lesson plans to which I objected above could be utilized to check quickly which exercises go with which grammar points or readings. If one needs to discard some of the material for lack of time, the lesson plans can help identify the relatively more important exercises, for they already distinguish those that are required from those that are optional. The self-study package is a rich mine of valuable language-teaching materials.

The self-study package has a number of minor faults, which could easily be corrected in a subsequent edition. As in the textbook, there are a number of annoying typographical errors, including a misspelling of Assya Humesky's name. At the very beginning, the Ukrainian type is so faint as to be barely legible. Considering the quality of later typography, the excellence of the drawings-which must have required an enormous investment of time-and the high quality of the package as a whole, these first sections deserve to be retyped.

Natalie K. Moyle, University of Virginia

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