Cyrillic Letters Research Articles

Letter-Sound Correspondence Acquisition in First Semester Russian

Although teachers of first year Russian courses know that students often mistake letters of the Cyrillic alphabet for English letters when reading aloud and writing, no studies have documented which letters cause the most frequent misreadings, how long misreading persists, and what implications misreading has for student achievement. This semester-long study attempts to answer these questions by isolating the question of letter-sound correspondence from the larger questions of the students’ interlanguage phonology. The researchers found that ц, ё, ю, й, э consistently gave students difficulty. After 12 weeks (84 hours) of instruction, students had 93% accuracy in matching Cyrillic letters to their primary sound values. While this represents a high degree of accuracy by the end of the first semester, the researchers found that higher accuracy rates earlier in the semester (after 4 weeks [28 hours] of instruction) had a moderate positive correlation with success in the course (as measured by final grade), while high levels of gain in accuracy between the fourth and twelfth weeks of the semester showed moderate negative correlation with success in the course, suggesting that the earlier the students master letter-sound correspondences, the greater their chances for success in studying other features of the language.

Take off in Russian by Nick Ukiah (review)

Reviews Ukiah, Nick. TakeOffin Russian.Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001. X + 246 pp. Glossary. Index. 4 x 75-minute cassettes (CDs also available).f2 1.99: $24.95 (paperback). TAKE OFF IN RUSSIAN is a course designed to take the 'complete beginner to intermediate level in fourteen easy-to-understandunits' and is intended for self-paced independent studyof Russian by a complete novice. The textbook consists of an introduction, fourteen lessons/units, a grammar summary, a vocabularycoveringthe first iooo wordsand a glossaryof grammaticalterms. Each unit contains dialogues and activities (fourteen pages of text and seventeen minutes of recorded material)related to most every-day situations in Russia, such as 'meeting people', 'shopping', 'public transport',etc., and 'language building' (grammar explanations), giving pronunciation practice, language learning technique, tests and revisions. The introduction provides detailed instructions on how to begin 'learning Russian from scratch' and explainshow to use the learningblockswithin each unit. Both the textbook's approach and structurereflect the current concern to create instructionalmaterialswhich allow the learnerto be fullyin control of the learning process. Two featuresof the textbook contributeto this focus on the learner its user-friendly format and careful attention to learning strategies.It also accommodates differentlearningstyles,usingboth inductive and deductiveapproachesto introducingnew material,andprovidesactivities for analyticaland global learnersalike. The structureof the textbook is logical and transparent.Each unit begins with a set of clear objectives. The grammar summary and the glossary of grammaticaltermsat the end of the book are concise and informative. TakeOffin Russianplaces emphasis mainly on the development of two skills speakingand listening and, consequently, readingand writingare treated as supportingskills.In this respectone should note that in view of the apparent absence of tutorial supervision and explanations, the mastering of writing techniques often presentsthe greatestdifficultyin self-taughtcourses. No hints to this effect are found here, however. The hand-written forms of Cyrillic letters given on page ix are difficultto copy and may discourage the learner. Russian pronunciation often presents yet another pitfall in self-taught courses. Here, the first cassette starts with the recording of the Cyrillic alphabet,providingletternames (includingthe tverdyi and mjagkii znaki)instead of theirpronunciation,that may confusethe beginner. The assignments are presented in a logical order, and grammar explanations are clearly written. The author's attempts to introduce the elements of Business Russian are laudable. The recorded material is of an exceptionally high qualityand executed in a very professionalmanner, which differentiates TakeOJf inRussian from other similartextbooksavailableon both the Western and Russian markets,yet one may not always agree with the order in which the materialis introduced.Forexample, Russiannameswith patronymicsfirst 498 SEER, 8o, 3, 2002 appearin unit I .4, but an explanationof how the patronymicsareformedand applied is not given until unit 6.I. On severaloccasions the traditionalorder of introducing cases is disturbed:the genitive plural of the noun is given in unit 4, while the instrumentalsingularof nouns is explained only in unit I o. In the same block one may find the instrumentalof pronouns, as well as the dative, instrumental and prepositional plural of nouns, adjectives and possessives. The heavy concentration of grammar in a single unit may discourageeven the most motivatedlearners. The book's main shortcoming lies in the insufficientamount of language practice it offers, involving an active generation of utterances in Russian. Since the textbook covers reasonably broad material, activities promoting both the development of language structureand conversation skillsare very thinly spread. They tend to illustrate linguistic points rather than build a strongfoundationforlanguageproficiencyat beginners'level. The book's subtitle ('The easiest way to learn Russian') suggeststhat it can help a complete beginner make a leap to the intermediatelevel. It is truethat the definitionof intermediatelevel in language pedagogy is very vague, but if we consider, for example, the definition of the Intermediate Low level in speakingused in theAmerican Council on the Teaching of ForeignLanguages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines (i999), it is hard to see how the available amount of practice in speaking can take the learner as far as the level presupposed. In spite of these minor criticisms, TakeOffinRussianis accessible and wellorganized , particularly useful for students working alone and all those interestedin modern approachesof learningauthenticRussian. UniversityofDurham MARIANNA TAYMANO VA Rubins, Maria. Crossroad ofArts,Crossroad of Cultures. Ecphrasis in Russianand French Poetgy. Palgrave, New York...

Russification and the Lithuanians, 1863–1905

In the half-century after the Polish insurrection of 1863, the Russian government applied many restrictive measures to Lithuanian culture, including the prohibition against printing Lithuanian except in Cyrillic letters. Some have argued that St. Petersburg aimed to wipe out the culture and language of Lithuanians in this period. A close look at the archival sources shows, however, that the Russian authorities were very little concerned with the Lithuanians per se and far more worried about Polish influences in the region. In the end, the Russian government saw Lithuanians only as a pawn in the “age-old struggle” between Poles and Russians. The failure of official Russians to take Lithuanian nationalism seriously meant that the Russian empire was quite unprepared to deal with this popular movement in the early twentieth century.

When nonwords activate semantics better than words

We conducted a strong test of the idea that visual word processing and the activation of a printed word's meaning proceeds at a rate scaled by the temporal evolution of a unique and stable phonological code. Using the lexical decision task, and readers fluent in the two alphabets of Serbo-Croatian, we compared the priming of a target word such as automat by the semantically related word ROBOT and by the nonword ROБOT. Whereas the Serbo-Croatian word ROBOT can support two phonological codes, /robot/ and /rovot/, the nonword ROБOT composed by illegally mixing Roman and Cyrillic letters can support only the phonological code /robot/, that corresponding to the word whose meaning is related to automat's. At a prime duration of 35 ms, the lexical decision on the target automat was facilitated by ROБOT but not by ROBOT. At a prime duration of 125 ms, the word ROBOT was the more effective prime. One consequence of phonology's leading role in visual word recognition is that a nonword can sometimes activate a given word's meaning better than the word itself.

Phonological Ambiguity Impairs Identity Priming in Naming and Lexical Decision

The priming of a visually presented word by itself means that all representations activated by the prime—orthographic, phonological, semantic—are of direct relevance to the processing of the target. The phonological coherence hypothesis (e.g., Van Orden & Goldinger, 1994) suggests, however, that the major constraint on the identity prime's influence is the time needed to achieve a stable phonological code. Serbo-Croatian words such as XAREM (Cyrillic) and ROBOT (Roman) support two phonological codes, one corresponding to the word and one to a nonword. The nonwords XAREM and ROBOT composed from mixed Roman and Cyrillic letters have single phonological codes corresponding to the word readings of XAPEM and ROBOT. With prime-target SOAs ≤ 70 ms, the target was primed by the nonword better than by itself in both naming and lexical decision tasks. At an SOA of 250 ms, the nonword and the identity prime primed equally. Discussion focused on the primacy of phonological codes in visual word recognition.

Computer‐Enhanced Beginning Russian

ABSTRACT: The initial encounter with a foreign language requires a successful integration of oral, aural, and visual stimuli. A student of beginning Russian must learn to recognize the Cyrillic letters in print and cursive forms and to associate these symbols with underlying units of sound. CALL (computer‐aided language learning) provides an effective platform for this complex orchestration. A working prototype for introducing the Russian writing and sound system, the “Russian Dynamic Hand” (RDH) has been available for student use at the LSU Foreign Language Laboratory since September 1988. The project's evolution is discussed from an initial graphics‐centered IBM prototype to a Macintosh version enhanced by an audio component. Central to the development of the second adaptation is the utilization of commercially available innovative computer authoring systems and templates. Future modifications incorporating expanded pronunciation drills and applying alternate technologies are considered.

TRANSFER OF CONTEXTUAL STIMULUS FUNCTION VIA EQUIVALENCE CLASS DEVELOPMENT

In a conditional discrimination, 6 college students arranged six Cyrillic letters into groups of three based upon which of two additional Cyrillic letters (contextual stimuli) was present. All subjects demonstrated symmetry and transitivity within each class of equivalent stimuli. In a second conditional discrimination, two more Cyrillic letters were related to each contextual stimulus. Testing of symmetrical and transitive relations between the original contextual stimulus and the two new ones confirmed the development of two three-member classes of contextual stimuli. Subsequent tests demonstrated that the new contextual stimuli controlled the previously trained sample-comparison relations for all subjects.

Un recueil inédit attribué à Il'ja Zdanevič

Régis Gayraud, An unpublished compilation attributed to Il'ia Zdanevich. One of the numerous unpublished pieces in the archives of Il'ia Zdanevich and one of the rare specimens of the zaum' period of the poet is the lay-out of an anonymous compilation of 16 poems that we are presenting herewith. The page-setting is the customary one of the author and appropriate to the rich and diversified poetical language, made of deformations, shaping and crasis of words borrowed from Russian as well as from Oriental languages, such as Turkish, Georgian or Arab, but also of sounds deprived of meaning. The Oriental character of the poems, the theme of which might be a mock-heroic voyage in a desert with oases of blood and wine is reflected also in the graphism. In order to convey certain sonorities, Zdanevich intermingles Cyrillic and Arabic scripts without hesitation or shapes Cyrillic Letters into Arabic ones. In these poems, the zaum' is more descriptive than the one employed by the author in his "dra", and seems less directed towards the reader-listener's subcon-sciousness. This compilation might be ascribed to the end of the "rayonnist" period of the poet and would precede his first zaum' plays.

Transliteration of Cyrillic letters

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THE RUSSIAN TRANSCRIPTION OF CHINESE NAMES

The Communist revolution in China has led to the appearance in this country of increasing numbers of Chinese books in Russian translation. The Chinese names in Cyrillic transcription have presented many librarians and students with a new problem, that of identifying the Cyrillic form of a name with the customary Wade‐Giles transcription. The average cataloguer, the first to meet the problem, has two obvious lines of action, and neither is satisfactory. He can save up the names until he has a chance to consult an expert in Chinese. Apart altogether from the delay, the expert, confronted with a few isolated names, might simply reply that he could do nothing without the Chinese characters, and it is only rarely that Soviet books supply them. Alternatively, he can transliterate the Cyrillic letters according to the system in use in his library and leave the matter there for fear of making bad worse. As long as the writers are not well known, he may feel only faintly uneasy; but the appearance of Chzhou Ėn‐lai (or Čžou En‐laj) upsets his equanimity. Obviously this must be entered under Chou; and we must have Mao Tse‐tung and not Mao Tsze‐dun, Ch'en Po‐ta and not Chėn' Bo‐da. But what happens when we have another . . . We can hardly write Ch'en unless we know how to represent the remaining elements in the name; yet we are loth to write Ch'en in one name and Chėn' in another.