| Brief Description: | Ruslan is a beginner's course in practical, everday Russian, with each lesson reflecting life in Russia as it is today. There are two levels with ten lessons in each. Both tell the story of Lyudmila's friendships with Vadim in Moscow, Ivan from Saransk, and Peter from England, with also a 'typical foreigner' who struggles to understand what is going on around him. The CD-ROMs are based on the course book and recordings published by Ruslan Ltd. in 1995. The authors are experienced teachers of Russian to adults and young people and the course maximises the enjoyment of learning a new language, while giving a thorough grammatical and structural introduction in a communicative context.
Ruslan 1 is a beginner's course with ten lessons in practical, everday Russian, with each lesson reflecting life in Russia as it is today. They tell the story of Lyudmila's friendships with Vadim in Moscow, Ivan from Saransk, and Peter from England, with also a 'typical foreigner' who struggles to understand what is going on around him. Ruslan 2 is an intermediate course that continues on from the previous level in the same vein with ten more lessons - but this time completely in Russian, with no English text or explanations! For more information, the course contents of both Ruslan 1 and 2 are listed here.
The CD-ROM is based on the course book and recordings published by Ruslan Ltd. in 1995. The authors are experienced teachers of Russian to adults and young people and the course maximises the enjoyment of learning a new language, while giving a thorough grammatical and structural introduction in a communicative context.
Here are some of the many features found in Ruslan:
* Alphabet and handwriting introduction
* 52 dialogues with an exciting storyline
* Right-click to translate and left-click to listen
* Vocabularies and background information
* Clear grammar explanations with recorded examples
* 285 interactive exercises with sound and feedback
* Grammar reviews and glossary
* Numbers and money section
* Russian word lists
* Hints for travellers
* Integrated videoclips
* Dictionary
* Full search facility
On the first CD-ROM you will find:
An introduction with suggestions for using the CD-ROM, notes on the Russian language, a program to help you learn the Cyrillic alphabet, and a guide to Russian pronunciation. There is also a summary of Ruslan Russian materials and a selection of clips from the video "Moscow For You!"
Ten lessons with dialogues telling the story of Lyudmila, Vadim, Ivan, and Peter, vocabularies, grammar explanations, facts and information about life in Russia, interactive exercises and practice activities, including listening exercises. In the lessons there is a facility to search for keywords.
A resources section, with a glossary of grammatical terminology, grammar reviews, texts of the listening passages form the lessons, a program to help you learn the number and to talk about Russian money, a selection of useful word lists, detailed hints for travellers to Russia, and a Russian to English dictionary of all the words on the CD-ROM.
Course Structure
The lessons
Each lesson opens with a set of dialogues which follow the story. At the beginning Peter arrives from England, collects his baggage at the airport and finds his hotel. The student can listen to the dialogues, replay phrases and read their translation. The general principle is that you click the left mouse button to hear sound and the right mouse button to obtain a translation. There are also links to the vocabulary and information sections which popup over the screen. In the vocabulary on the second CD-ROM you can hear the individual words spoken by native speakers.
Grammar
The grammar section introduces points of grammar that arise on the dialogue pages. There are extracts from the dialogues and further examples.
Exercises
There are several types of exercise, for example gap-fills, word matching, grouping words by meanings, fitting endings, and selecting appropriate descriptions. Students are given immediate feedback. There are usually between 10 and 20 exercises in each lesson.
Practice
The practice section contains activity pages which extend the exercises. For example, some of the pages contain gap-fills and picture identifications. There are usually between 10 and 20 practice pages in each lesson. In all of the last practice exercises the student listens to a paragraph and answers questions. |
