Introduction and acknowledgments

Welcome to “Learning Russian through films”!

This textbook emerged from the materials that we used during our Russian proficiency courses at the University of Groningen. In our language classroom, we use films as a source of authentic language, such as collocations or ‘chunks’. We combine task-based, content- and film-integrated language learning approaches, so that students explore the content and language without an explicit grammar focus. Our teaching practice has been inspired by Marjolijn Verspoor, who introduced FLIL into L2 pedagogy at Groningen. We treat films and video clips not as auxiliary tools but as the cornerstone of the language learning journey. Our students study Russian by watching film fragments and focusing on the vocabulary. They discuss film content and discuss its key themes. They also role-play the film dialogues, trying to imitate the intonation and bring the character to life, like real actors do. We have also included pre- and post-tasks that help students acquire key vocabulary and grasp cultural aspects, essential for understanding film episodes.

The textbook uses such classic Soviet films as ‘Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears’, ‘The Irony of Fate’ and ‘Office Romance’, which visualise everyday life in the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the 1980s. Each chapter opens with an introduction to a particular topic (life/biography,  housing/buildings, style/fashion, gender stereotypes, free time) and includes further reading tips. Students are then asked to read a short introduction of the film in Russian and watch the film on their own, making notes on suggested content-related questions and then compare their answers in class. They then focus on several key scenes from the film: rewatch them, learn vocabulary such exercises as filling in the gaps, completing sentences, finding synonyms and/or antonyms, using flashcards etc. The final task of every chapter encourages the students to apply and personalize their understanding of the presented content as they create vlogs, engage in role-plays, make mind maps, and impersonate characters from the film.

We hope that you will enjoy your language learning journey!

Sincerely,

Dina de Vries-Zhuravleva and Yuliya Kazanova

Acknowledgments

We express our heartfelt gratitude to professor Verspoor for her creative ideas, inspiration and belief that dreams come true!

We would also like to thank Prof. Marije Michel [xxx] for her constant support throughout the project and Dr. Elizaveta Gaufman for her generous help and advice.

Last but not least, we are grateful for the technical support from the University library team.