START 2/e: Site License ONLY

Table of Contents   

Description

START explains the fundamental concepts of Russian pronunciation and writing to first year English-speaking students. Pronunciation by native speakers is given with reference to English sounds and word hard and soft consonants, voiced and voiceless consonants, regressive assimilation, and the reduction of unstressed vowels.

Market

The START program is designed to be used with any first year Russian textbook.

Ancillary Material

DOWNLOAD:  Self-quizzes and their answer key.  These are provided free of charge.

CD-ROM: compatible for Macintosh and PCs ISBN: 1-58510-199-0 • © 2005 • $19.95

Technical requirements: mp3 player, QuickTime plug in, Windows 2000 or better, Macintosh OS 9 or 10

Audio files: The numbered audio files correspond to the numbered sections of the lessons in the manual that have an audio file for you to listen to. Listening to the audio files will help you master the fundamentals of Russian pronunciation. As you listen, you'll hear a male and female pronounce each sound. The two native speakers may, at times, seem to pronounce the sounds differently. Be assured that in such instances where the pronunciations seem to differ, in fact both pronunciations are within the range of normative Russian pronunciation.

Video files: The video files correspond only to the even-numbered lessons of the book. These video files can be played on both Windows and Macintosh computers with the QuickTime plug-in. The video files depict the writing of the cursive letters of the Russian alphabet in various combinations (each letter in word-initial, mid-word, and word-final position with a variety of other letters before and after it). There are video files for most, but not all, of the writing samples in this manual.

Site License: Must be purchased if using the CD in a classroom or language lab setting.  Please email orders@pullins.com for details on how to purchase.  ISBN  1-58510-202-4 • $50.00 per academic year.

About the Author

Benjamin Rifkin is Professor of Russian and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs at the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. He was until recently Professor of Russian, Director of the Russian Language Program and Chair of the Slavic Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rifkin is an ACTFL-Certified OPI Trainer in Russian and served as director of the Middlebury Russian School from 1999-2003 and as President of AATSEEL from 2003-2004.