Advanced Russian: From Reading to Speaking

An interactive multimedia language course on DVD

by Slava Paperno, Sophia Lubensky, and Irina Odintsova

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Adopting this title for a course? Your school bookstore can order inexpensive 5-pack sets of the DVD-ROM from our Web site.

Advanced Russian: From Reading to Speaking was designed for English-speaking learners of Russian with at least two years of college-level study of the language. It may also be used by heritage speakers who need practice and review in reading and speaking grammatically and stylistically correct Russian.

The complete package includes an interactive multimedia DVD-ROM for use on Windows® and Macintosh® computers and three video DVDs that can be played in any DVD player. The video DVDs are recommended for in-class viewing while the DVD-ROM may be used for individual study. The video DVDs include only the videos that are central to the course; the DVD-ROM has well over a hundred additional items.

What you will find on the DVD-ROM

A complete listing of the included video and audio recordings (and photographs) may be viewed here.

The vocabulary of all these materials is covered by the onscreen dictionary on the disc. All video recordings are accompanied by complete transcripts, displayed side by side with the video. Transcripts for all audio recordings are also provided. All transcripts are accompanied by detailed linguistic and cultural comments. Most of the materials are followed by communicative assignments based on each text.

This disc includes a unique series of notes and exercises called Guided Reading. These exercises are based on "Nika," a short story by Viktor Pelevin; the complete text of the story is included on the disc.

What you will find on the video DVDs

The video recordings of the twelve central stories, made by professional actors and provided on the interactive DVD-ROM, are also included on the set of three video DVDs called "Russian Short Stories on Your Screen." The video DVDs and the interactive DVD-ROM complement each other: the DVDs offer excellent quality video that may be watched on large-screen TVs and room projectors. They should be highly suitable for classroom demonstrations and library or media-center collections. For artistic impression and practice in listening comprehension, some individual learners may also prefer the superior quality of the images and sound on the video DVDs: the DVD-ROM includes these videos as well, but they are displayed in a small-sized window, leaving plenty of room for the transcripts, glossary, and notes.

Why study a language with an interactive DVD?

After viewing the sample screens and videos and reading this brief description you may still wonder how easy it is going to be for you to use this course and what advantages interactive multimedia may offer for your language study. If so, please peruse the complete Introduction that is included on the disc and provided here for your reference.

Advanced Russian DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM for Windows
ISBN 1-58269-055-3
DVD-ROM for Macintosh
ISBN 1-58269-056-1
Russian Short Stories on Your Screen
Three Video DVDs
ISBN 1-58269-054-5
for any DVD player
The course may be run from the DVD-ROM; no installation is necessary.

If disc space allows, all data may also be copied from the DVD-ROM to the computer's hard drive for slightly faster access.

The application works with Microsoft Windows® XP and Vista® as well as Mac OS® and does not require any additional software. A network installation requires a site license.

The discs are NTSC (the U.S. consumer standard) and are not restricted to any particular region. They can be played in any consumer DVD player.

Media centers and libraries: please note that a network installation requires a site license.

Why order these video DVDs if the same videos are included on the DVD-ROM? Because they can be played in any DVD player and don't require a computer, which may be especially useful if you want to show the videos to the class on a large-screen TV, with image and sound quality of any DVD film. On the other hand, if you are never going to show these videos to a class, you may not want the video DVDs: order only the DVD-ROM; note also that the video DVDs, even though their combined length is nearly five hours, do not include the short clips from various feature films and interviews.

This publication took over four years of research and development. It was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. A great many people helped us to get it done.

Unsolicited reviews

The techniques you describe for learning to read and analyze Russian text without knowing all the words are brilliant. Of course, you've made it so easy to look up every word with just one click, that I'm still always tempted. These techniques are a great analysis of what we do naturally, I think, in our native language by instinct. The other thing that I think it helps with is to liberate one from the natural tendency to translate word for word, and become more in-tune with the syntax so that it would become more natural for the student to create more Russian like phrases.     Bruce Dumes
The new title/release is brilliant. Thanks for your hard work.     Damien Gaul, beta tester
I am impressed! I must say I have myself learnt more than ten languages and have used hundreds of methods and software, but this one is the best! Most software underestimates the user's intelligence, but this one is thrilling.     Cristiano Amaral, the Netherlands

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