Some ways to improve writing skills while teaching Russian in a university
The article proposes some ways for improving students writing skills while teaching Russian in Korean universities. One has to admit that existing textbooks cannot be efficiently used in groups which include students with different level of language competence (such situation is currently common in Korean universities). Hence teachers need methods which, being are used together with textbooks, allow to raise learning efficiency in such non-homogeneous environment. One of the proposed ways is the use of private photos which should be prepared by students in advance. Such photos are necessarily related to individual memories of each student, so during exercises students rely on their own personal experiences evoked by the pictures. To describe a situation depicted by the photos, students are asked to write down some sentences. In her turn, a teacher should also suggest some questions connected with a situation which is reflected by a photo. A usual set consists of six questions (as a rule, with inclusion of the most widespread interrogative words: “when”, “where”, “who”, “what”, “how”, “why”). On each question the student should give a full answer in writing. The questions should be closely connected with the grammar studied by the students. Another proposed method is based on use of the short texts of Russian fiction. Since most Korean students are interested in Russian literature, these materials are quite useful. For exercise I usually chose Pushkin’s poem I loved you. This poem is not only a remarkable literary piece, but also possesses peculiar and representative grammar structure. Teacher asks students to count verbs, adjectives, and nouns which are encountered in the text of the poem. Then they should conjugate the verbs and decline the nouns and adjectives, to demonstrate the forms used in the dictionaries. This helps students to understand peculiar features of cases and conjugations. After they have mastered all words in the text, poem is divided into fragments which should be arranged in correct order. As a result students get acquainted with of Pushkin‘s language, and also learn some features of Russian verses. These methods encourage interest among students and can be successful used while teaching groups of students with different level of language skills.