Kraski A1 international - The course

Kraski is a multimedia communicative course for the self-study of Russian at beginners’ level. Through the use of videos and images, students are presented with several language and communicative-type exercises. These can be corrected automatically.

The project was originally designed for Italian speakers but the current version has been adapted for English speakers and thus can be used by students internationally.

Given the flexible nature of Kraski, it is difficult to estimate the time needed to complete the course in self-study mode. If all the exercises are completed in sequence then the course should last for around 60 hours.

Kraski is designed primarily with university students in mind but it could also be used by secondary students or by any English speakers who wish to begin studying Russian. From the studies already done on the use of Kraski, it would seem that the user is able to interact well with the course and follow the course satisfactorily.

The aim of the course is the development of the fundamental communicative functions. To this end, particular emphasis is given to the skills of reading and listening and the development of oral communication skills is encouraged.

The communicative skills that Kraski aims to improve have been selected according to the guidelines proposed by the Council of Europe for the level A1: the student learns the basic expressions which are used most frequently, introducing oneself and others and asking for and receiving simple information regarding familiar topics.

Kraski is divided into four topic units which become increasingly more difficult as regards linguistic ability and communicative competence. Each unit presents three situations through the use of a video clip, each of these is followed by six exercises designed to consolidate vocabulary and morphological knowledge. The thread linking each of these twelve videos is the presence of the two main characters: an Italian student who is studying in Moscow and her Russian teacher who assists her as she learns about the Russian language and culture. Other characters include other ‘foreigners’ who are also studying Russian at Moscow State University. In order to make the situation as authentic as possible, these students are, in fact, real foreign students studying Russian.

At the end of every topic unit, we find the section Talking about…which contains different speaking activities which act as a sort of self-evaluation of the progress made and help to improve communicative ability.

Kraski is an interactive multimedia course designed for self-study which uses text, audio and video. The self-study user is also helped by the presence of several aids which can be consulted at any time:

Cyrillic alphabet, the alphabet includes sounds and images to facilitate comprehension and includes interactive exercises to help students memorize the letters.

The sounds, here the principal phonetic and spelling rules are presented in a clear and easy manner thanks to an indispensable audio support and the examples which are easily recognisable and translatable. As well as a series of exercises which are based on the aural and visual recognition of the sounds, in this section the student can improve his pronunciation by recording his voice and comparing it with an example.

Grammar Cards, here the user can find all the grammar cards contained in the various exercises.

Vocabulary Cards, here the user can find all the vocabulary cards used in the exercises.

Dictionary, here the user can find all the words used in the course.

As stated before, the methodological aspects and the contents of the course were chosen by the authors in order to emphasize the communicative aspects and are in line with the criteria proposed by the Council of Europe for the level A1 (beginners’ level). The student learns to understand and to use basic expressions, to satisfy basic needs, to introduce himself and others, to give personal information as well as information about his family, friends and possessions. Moreover, he learns expressions used to greet people and polite expressions used when visiting someone’s house. He also learns how to thank people or say sorry as well as common phrases to do with time.

Each topic unit presents the following lexical content:

1. personal: the student learns to introduce himself, to give personal information such as nationality or the country of origin, to talk about family members and to learn about the inside of a flat or apartment and ask for information about it.

2. academic: the student learns expressions which are typically used in this context and the vocabulary relating to computers and other appliances. He also learns how to talk about his own level of language competence and how to ask for information and respond on the telephone.

3. society & politics: the student learns how to ask and give information regarding the structure of the Russian parliament, Russian society and the new social classes: he will be able to express his own opinion about various types of television programme.

4. tourism & culture: the student learns how to ask for and give information regarding the use of various modes of transport (bus, Underground, taxi, train, aeroplane); he also learns expressions about the weather.

Kraski is a course based on situational communication and is organized in four thematic units, starting with the easiest unit and finishing with the most difficult. Thus, it is advisable to complete the units in the order they appear.

Furthermore, in order to benefit fully from the course, it is recommended that the units dealing with the Cyrillic alphabet and Russian phonetics are studied before starting the thematic units.

The twelve videos are given as models which simulate realistic situations in order to give examples of common conversations which help the student to learn and memorize basic vocabulary and expressions.

Self- study is made possible thanks to the facility which means that the videos can be watched with or without subtitles in Russian and English. It is recommended, however, that the videos are used, at least once, without the subtitles and translation, in order to allow the student to concentrate on a general understanding of the message. The student may also view each video script along with its translation separately from the video by clicking on the link under the video screen.

Each video is followed by a series of six exercises which use the same grammar and vocabulary presented in the film. In this way, the student is helped to learn the expressions used in the dialogues. For each video, there are two oral comprehension exercises followed by two vocabulary and two grammar exercises. The types of activities used are the following:

oral comprehension with multiple choice exercises

reading comprehension with multiple choice exercises

oral comprehension with true/false exercises

reading comprehension with true/false exercises

matching text with pictures

matching sound clips with pictures

matching morphological elements

putting sounds into the correct order

selecting words from a list with multiple choices

In some of the grammar exercises, students are expected to complete words with Cyrillic letters. In these exercises, the user can use the Russian keyboard if it is correctly installed on his computer. If not, then by clicking on the keyboard symbol on the toolbar, the user can use the Russian keyboard function which inserts each letter that is clicked on without the need to drag characters or install other software.

Kraski is an interactive multimedia course with an automatic correction facility. If the user is unsure of an answer then he may consult the grammar and/or vocabulary cards before changing his response. However, once automatic correction facility has been activated, it is no longer possible to modify the answers. Most of the answers given also include an audio clip.

In order to facilitate evaluation, the course includes:

automatic correction facility (click on the tool bar) with mistakes shown in red

automatic solution facility (click on the tool bar) with correct answers shown in green

a percentage score (accessed from the main menu)

There are a number of teaching tools which are included with the course. These are the grammar cards, the vocabulary cards and the word lists which help the autonomous learner to understand the dialogues and to complete the exercises.

In some of the exercises, the user is helped by the use of the grammar cards, the grammar is largely used in a practical context. As the course is designed to improve communicative competence, the grammar explanations are given solely as an aid to the learner within the context of the course and are presented schematically.

If an exercise includes unknown vocabulary (vocabulary not included in the video dialogue) then a hypertext link allows the user to consult a multimedia vocabulary card which includes images and sounds.

Each video includes a word list with all the vocabulary needed to understand both the dialogues and the relevant exercises. Here, the words are shown in the form in which they are used in the course (usually in the present tense or in the imperative form).

Talking about….. is a “laboratory” for the development of speaking skills which is found at the end of each unit. Here the student can practise the pronunciation of words and phrases. Through the comprehension and repetition of messages, the student will identify which expressions to use in which context and will thus better understand the dynamics of communication.

Talking about… offers two types of activities: the user can listen to the original lines spoken by the two characters from the video and then choose to dub one of the characters using his own voice. After this “dubbing” the user can re-listen to the whole dialogue including his own voice.

The other activity consists of listening to and recording expressions which become gradually more complex and challenging. In this way, the user can compare his version with that of the original and thus improve his pronunciation.