POLITICAL RUSSIAN is written especially for generalists and practitioners engaged in international relations, foreign trade, or people-to-people exchanges with Russia.  The book is aimed at the development of three basic types of skills: reading, speaking, and listening.  We assume that students starting the book have acquired a "first-year" knowledge of Russian and, therefore, have been exposed to a skeletal grammar and lexicon. That said, we make no assumption about the level of control and expect little more than a novice[1] level of proficiency.

The structure of POLITICAL RUSSIAN is based on the goal of functional proficiency in the three skills, rather than on "covering the grammar," with an added dose of political vocabulary.  Each chapter, therefore, is based on directly applicable topics: official visits, international negotiations, economics and trade, national security and arms control, and so on.

A direct corollary to proficiency-based language learning is the principle of spiraling or concentric circles.  This book is structured around two such concentric circles.  In both circles students are presented with authentic texts, i.e. unadapted Russian which exposes a student to all elements of authentic language: audiotape excerpts of real radio, actual newspaper articles, and realistic speaking situations.

Circle One is aimed at students who have already completed an introductory course and are familiar with but may not have actively mastered the case system and some elements of verb conjugation.  The number and scope of the tasks that students can accomplish are limited because their world of language mastery is still quite small.

Within Circle One students expand the scope of their usable language.  Speaking and reading vocabulary is widened with the injection of carefully measured doses of political terminology.

A complete coverage of Circle One requires about 60 hours of instruction plus homework.  A student who has successfully mastered Circle One should have attained the following proficiency levels:

• Speaking - intermediate high with politics, national security, and economics as areas of particular strength ("hot-house specials" in ACTFL terms[2]). 
• Reading - advanced plus with political hot-house special.
• Listening - intermediate high with political hot-house special.

Reading and listening.  Students are taught strategies to get the facts from short newspaper and radio reports, using context to help build their vocabulary.  Students learn to skim and scan for as much useful information as can be found in longer and more complicated reports that may be just beyond their immediate level.  In addition, emphasis is placed on the use of focusing attention on what can be understood, rather than what cannot be understood.

Speaking tasks are centered around role-play situations in which students are taught to respond in coherent sentence-length utterances on political topics.  Work on speaking in short paragraphs also begins at this level.

Writing is used as a support tool to develop the three primary skills.

Grammatical support for these activities comes in the way of short explanations and exercises designed to give students total control over basic items necessary for sentence structuring and partial control over more complicated items, which are reviewed and expanded in Circle Two with an eye for total control.  Because the grammatical competence of incoming students cannot be predicted, we have included in Circle One a comprehensive review of basic grammar fundamental to communication on the themes introduced, including a systematic review of case distribution.  Grammatical structures which play a significant role in political reportage of facts, such as those governing dates and quantities, receive particular emphasis.

Each lesson of POLITICAL RUSSIAN includes:

1. A pre-reading, taped, audio-comprehension exercise aimed at developing listening comprehension skills.  We suggest that students prepare for each new lesson by listening to the audio comprehension exercise and completing the accompanying exercises.  The listening text prepares the student for the topic and the structures of the lesson.
   
   
2. A main text, which is an excerpt from an article or a full article from a Russian periodical.  There are a number of activities that can accompany the main text.  Instructors interested in teaching close reading or translation can assign written translations into English or grammatical analysis of the text.  Those interested in further work on basic phonetics and intonation can assign phonetic reading based on the accompanying recordings.  All main texts have been updated.
   
   
3. A pattern-oriented glossary and vocabulary exercises.  (In each lesson of Circle One the glossary and the last vocabulary exercise are taped.)  Glossaries become the core of the student's vocabulary.  Building on these basic linguistic patterns the student will be able to operate actively with a wide range of political, military, and socio-economic concepts.
   
   
4. Grammar explanations and exercises, some of which are on tape and are indicated as such.  Grammar is presented in each lesson functionally, as needed, and where possible, through charts, tables, and examples, without prolonged explanations.  Thus, grammar is viewed as a support to communication, and not as an end in itself. 
   
   
5. Speaking exercises designed to activate the main text vocabulary and to teach strategies to structure paragraphs, from quoting sources and expressing opinions in Circle I to agreeing, disagreeing, supporting opinions, etc., in Circle II.  Students make short reports and recreate situations connected with the theme of the lesson.
   
   
6. Comprehensive translation exercises covering all salient lexicon and structures.
   
   
7. Global reading skills exercises.  Because reading of original texts is the most important source of information, the book sets a goal of teaching students to read quickly, skimming and scanning for specific facts or opinions.  This section of the book has been updated and, therefore, includes current periodicals.
   
   
8. Rendering exercises.  Students learn to "gist" into simple but serviceable Russian ideas expressed in complicated English.  In short, students learn to run (successfully) "on empty."

It should be noted that all the materials intended for oral exercises have stress marks.  That is, stresses are marked in the following sections:  audio-comprehension exercises, texts, vocabulary lists, vocabulary exercises, speaking exercises, grammar explanations, charts and tables, and, finally, in selected grammar exercises marked accordingly. 

With the exception of rendering practice Circle Two contains two sets of exercises for each chapter.

POLITICAL RUSSIAN features a wealth of integrated texts and exercises. Nevertheless, this is a modular textbook. Instructors are free to pick and choose from the materials without fear that the structure of the book will topple. Exercises in listening, vocabulary development, and speaking are very closely integrated. However, those teachers who choose a greater emphasis on reading or grammatical structure are free to pursue those goals. Cutbacks in the amount of listening-speaking activities covered should not adversely affect work in reading or grammar.

We believe that students completing both Circle One and Circle Two of POLITICAL RUSSIAN will find themselves linguistically well equipped for work in all endeavors concerning issues of Soviet and Russian politics, history, government, trade, and national security.

Different instructors emphasize different skills. POLITICAL RUSSIAN has enough built-in modularity so that a teacher who chooses to emphasize reading at the expense of listening or grammatical accuracy is free to do so without fear that the structure of the textbook will fall apart.

This third edition reflects the many changes that have occurred since the time of the second edition.  All texts are authentic and are a reflection of expository prose on public issues today.  However, we encourage instructors to supplement texts for Reading exercises in POLITICAL RUSSIAN with their own materials from the Russian media if they so desire.

Finally, each chapter ends with a "rendering" exercise, which challenges students to say as much as they can, drawing on a relatively small vocabulary and relying on circumlocution.  Many view these exercises as far beyond the students' capabilities and choose not to assign them.  However, many teachers will want to see if their students can stretch their language to meet the challenge.

[1] The terms NOVICE, INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED, and SUPERIOR are taken from the proficiency guidelines of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), 6 Executive Boulevard, Upper Level, Yonkers, NY  10701.

[2] A HOT-HOUSE SPECIAL is an area of special interest in which a foreign language speaker shows uncharacteristic fluency and accuracy.  In the classic example, a former navy pilot is unable to order a cup of coffee in the target language, but he has no difficulty describing how to land a fighter plane.