Students and Types of Instruction

Students

The UCLA Russian Flagship welcomes applications from students whose level of proficiency in speaking, reading and listening is 2/2+ (ILR) / Advanced/Advanced Plus (ACTFL). Program participants include both heritage students ¹, i.e., students who grew up in Russian-speaking families in the United States, and students who have studied Russian as a foreign or second language. Our experience is that at this high level of proficiency, students from both groups work very well together.

Types of Instruction

We believe that for heritage and other learners at high levels of proficiency, a combination of content-based and task-based/experiential instruction is most appropriate.

Content-based instruction is based on the use of authentic texts that native speakers in a Russian-speaking country would encounter daily.

Task-based/experiential instruction focuses on the uses of the language in the student's professional field.

 

Note

1. A Russian-specific definition of heritage speakers/learners is: “At the beginning of the 21st century in the United States, Russian heritage learners are the children of the third, fourth and later waves of immigration whose level of competency in Russian is directly tied to the amount of education they received in the former Soviet Union.” Reference: Kagan, O., & Dillon, K. (2006). Russian Heritage Learners: So What Happens Now? Slavic and East European Journal, (50th Anniversary Issue) 50(1), 83-96. (back)

Published: Friday, September 05, 2008