Golosa is a site providing good supplemental materials and Internet links for the Russian textbook Golosa (Voices). The presented materials include authentic and adopted texts for reading and reading comprehension exercises based on the information found on Russian sites.
Type of Material:
You can find authentic and adapted texts with and without reading exercises; communicative assignments; some listening comprehension materials, such as the song ?When your girl is sick" by the popular Russian rock group Kino.
Recommended Uses:
The site can be used to improve students? reading comprehension skills and introduce them to some practical aspects of Russian life. Such assignments as Job application, Renting a St. Petersburg apartment,College acceptance, and many others would help students learn how to deal with Russian realities.
Technical Requirements:
In order to read Russian text, one needs installed KOI8-R or Cyrillic (Windows) fonts in his computer and his browser. aspects.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The goal of this site is to provide some additional materials available on the Internet for the textbook Golosa. The assignments would increase students? vocabulary and improve their reading comprehension skills.
Target Student Population:
This site is made for beginning level Russian students. However, intermediate level students and instructors would find it a valuable source of information about Russia and Russian everyday life.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Familiarity with the material presented in the textbook Golosa or some other beginning level textbook.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The site Golosa consists of material relevant to the content of the textbook Golosa. There are 20 lessons: 10 lessons for Book 1, and 10 lessons for Book 2. There are such topics as Languages, Family, Store, University, Schedule, etc. Each lesson has links to communicative assignments and/or reading exercises. In addition, each lesson has links to Russian sites, where students can read authentic materials which are more challenging than adopted ones. For example, Lesson 4 from Book 1, ?University? has a link to the communicative assignment ?Russian Universities? by Annelie Chapman, with a link to the adapted text with questions ?The letter from American University?, and links to homepages of Russian universities such as Moscow State University, Kazan State University, and others. Some lessons provide the links to information that can be very useful for foreigners visiting Russia. For example, Lesson 3 from Book 2 provides a link to a Russian site which has information on making long distance calls from Russia. Thus, the site Golosa gives students the opportunity to improve their language skills and to familiarize themselves with Russian everyday realities. The site is not overwhelming in terms of link numbers. Each lesson is provided with 3-7 links on average.
Concerns:
Several punctuation errors were found, such as ?Iia eii??ii ii?o ii-i?i?oee? from O?ie 3 (Lesson 3), exercise ?Eoi ??ou eoi?? (Who is who?). The word ?eii??ii? (of course) is a parenthetic word and must be used with comas before and after it. A couple of misspells, such as ?ei?a-ieaoau? instead of ?ei?aa-ieaoau? from Lesson 4, ?Ie?uii ec oiea???eo?oa ??A? (The letter from the American university) is found. However,
there is a very insignificant number of such mistakes and misspellings. In general, the information presented on this site is accurate.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The site offers the materials that can be used as supplemental activities outside the classroom for motivated students. Students studying Russian independently might want to use this site as well. Several materials, such as Communicative assignments by Annelie Chapman, can be easily integrated into language classrooms.
Concerns:
The site lacks variability. The main concern is the deficit of links to the sites containing sound files. The focus of almost all activities is on development of reading comprehension skills whereas listening skills could be developed as well through Russian Internet sites. There are plenty of Russian music sites on the Internet. Another concern is that communicative and reading assignments are mostly of the same type. Variation in assignments might be more motivating for students.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The site structure is very simple. Basically, it is just the main page with the links to different Internet sites and activity files. The site does not require technical support. The colors are not overwhelming. The fonts are easy to read.
Concerns:
Too many links have dead ends. Such links as Universities of Russia) from Book 1 Lesson 4, The movie club Agama from Book 2 Lesson 6, Radio 101 program schedule from Book 1 Lesson 5 and many others need to be updated. The site design is too simplistic. No images are included.
Creative Commons:
Search by ISBN?
It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have
entered as an ISBN number?
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
