Information for Students
Dear Student:
Welcome to our digital textbook, which is specifically designed for you, today’s student who appreciates easy and quick access to learning resources, user-friendly format, flexibility of use on various digital and electronic devices (computer, tablet, or smart phone), interactivity, and self-paced learning.
Our textbook provides you with opportunities for active learning experiences in the Ukrainian language, which for you is either a new language or one in which you have only basic proficiency.
Our textbook takes you on a journey to contemporary Ukraine, its language, and its culture. Through learning the basics of the language, you will also familiarize yourself with Ukraine’s everyday culture.
Every unit is a trip into a particular cultural topic, including personal information, family, place of living, travelling, appearance, shopping, sports, seasons and weather, holidays and celebrations, food and diet, health and medicine, and work and leisure, to name a few.
Every trip is divided into meetings, which are primarily designed for face-to-face classes with your instructor and student peers (but could be completed on your own or used as review sessions), and online stations, which you can complete independently.
Note: This approach to language learning is called the blended-learning model, which is a combination of in-class, face-to-face instruction and interaction with online self-paced, individual learning.
In our textbook, the trips are carefully planned. Since a particular trip is sequentially organized, it is crucial that you complete the meetings and the stations in the suggested order. For instance, you are on a road, on your trip 3. We strongly suggest that in order to prepare for trip 3, first prepare for your trip and complete 2.6 (which we call a transfer from one trip to the next, in this case, a transfer from trip 2 to trip 3). Then begin your ‘travels’ with meeting 3.1, continue with online station 3.2, follow up with meeting 3.3, then proceed with station 3.4, then meet in 3.5 and follow up with 3.6, which provides you with an overview of your trip 3 and prepares and takes you into the next trip 4.
Here is how we recommend you follow your journey of multiple trips:
Figure: An organization of two trips (an example for Units 2 & 3): face-to-face meetings (in class or self-study) and online stations (self-study)
As mentioned above, you will be introduced to a number of cultural topics. During each trip, in your meetings, and in your stations, you will not only learn about these topics, but will also learn the various functional elements of the language, including how to address people, ask for and give advice, ask for directions, carry a conversation on the phone, talk about food and films, discuss feelings, express surprise, and many more (see here).
After completing all 26 trips, you will be able to:
- Communicate with others: [trips 1-13] introduce yourself and meet others; talk about where you are from, where you live, what courses you are taking, and what you like to do; discuss daily routines, weekend plans, holidays, appearance, food; and [trips 14-26] talk about interests and professions, discuss leisure activities, shopping, eating out, discuss films, sports, and travels
- Be able to ask simple questions and engage in simple conversations
- Be able to: [trips 1-13] produce simple greetings, ask for and give directions, describe appearance; order food in a restaurant, buy groceries, make arrangements with friends over the phone; write a greeting card; and [trips 14-26] order food in a restaurant, buy groceries, inquire about interests and preferences of others, discuss trips and vacation, give advice, make arrangements with friends over the phone, compare things (groceries, films, and other items), and write film reviews
- Be able to write simple texts in Ukrainian (in ‘cursive’ J )
- Be able to understand simple audio and video texts such as TV ads and songs.
In our textbook, you will also find a number of helpful and useful resources that will accompany you in your travels:
Glossary – is your mini-dictionary of key vocabulary found in the textbook.
Grammatical Reference – we suggest that you review this resource as needed. This reference is presented in a format that we hope will be easy to use. Please note that this brief reference covers mostly those grammatical points which are presented in the textbook.
Verbal Conjugations – you will find this resource helpful when using various verbs and in different forms. All verbs used in the textbook are listed in alphabetical order. Here we provide you with helpful information on verbs and their various forms in past, present, and future tenses, as well as other forms you will learn on your language journey.
Where to Find – is an index that allows you to search the needed information from the entire textbook. The use of this tool provides you an opportunity to quickly and efficiently find the place where specific Functions of language, Vocabulary sets, or Grammar points are presented and discussed. This index will direct you to a specific trip, meeting or stations in which a particular function, vocabulary, or grammatical point is found.
This feature is used in an instructed learning scenario, when your instructor creates a specific class in which you participate as a student. In this scenario, when completing the online lesson, you will need to log in so that your instructor can track your progress and assign your grades.
In an instructed learning scenario, you will most likely work on the meeting lessons in class and face-to-face with your instructor and your peers. All these meetings present you with overall objectives – what will you learn and what will you be able to do upon completing them. Your instructor will lead you through the meetings, in which you will practice what you’ve learnt during the self-study online and also new material that your instructor will present. Most importantly, in class you will have plenty of opportunities to practice the language by communicating with your peers. These meetings are designed for you to practice the language, to use the language, to make mistakes and thus to succeed! We want you to be active and engaged learners!
In addition, please note that many of the in-class lessons contain audio recordings, which your instructor may choose to play in class (but perhaps not all). It is strongly advisable that you listen to these recordings following your class, as an additional practice or review. Please remember that you can print the scripts of these audio recordings if this suits your learning style.
The online self-study lessons are designed for you to practice what you have learnt in class, and also to help you learn something new in order to prepare for your next face-to-face class. Please remember that these are not simply ‘homework’ assignments in a traditional sense. These online stations are self-study lessons and need to be completed regularly if you want your learning journey to go smoothly and productively. And yes, your journey will be very rewarding if you approach your study in an organized and consistent manner (review the section on Organization in the textbook).
Your work with the online lessons should be trouble-free. These lessons are presented to you in a user-friendly format, and after a couple of lessons, you will be very comfortable learning in them and completing them in a timely manner. All online lessons first present you with overall objectives – what will you learn and what will you be able to do upon completing them. All are divided into sets of Directions, which lead you through the self-study lesson. Under each set of Directions, learners will be able to learn new material and practice the language in a variety of formats: Cards – normally present learners with new vocabulary items; Scatter – normally allow you to practice new vocabulary by matching corresponding forms; Learn – will ask you to type specific forms; Speller – may be most challenging as it asks you to type what you hear. Beginning with trip 3, you will also participate in online forums, in which you are asked to share brief comments on a particular topic of the trip. During the initial six trips, you will be specifically asked to practice writing in cursive under Handwriting. And, when transferring to a new trip (in your online lessons, transfers that end in .6; e.g. 1.6, 2.6….14.6), you are asked to complete a written assignment in the section What to submit (your instructor will specify this section). Each online lesson ends with a Final stop, which is a short quiz to ensure that you have completed this lesson. You may read more about these online activities in 1.2 under Instructions here.
You will most likely have questions about the Ukrainian keyboard, and we have prepared some helpful information for you in the very first online lesson 1.2 here.
These textbook lessons (ending in x.1, x.3, or x.5) are designed to be ideally used in face-to-face lessons. However, as a self-learner, you can challenge yourself and work at your own pace. All these meetings first present you with overall objectives – what will you learn and what will you be able to do upon completing them. These meetings present new information alongside material that you’ve learnt during the self-study online lessons. Because in this learning scenario you will not have an opportunity to communicate with your instructor or peers, it is crucial that you listen to all the available audio recordings, many of which present the new material, which in a regular classroom would have been presented by an instructor.
We strongly advise you to listen to these recordings as many times as you feel necessary. Please remember that you can print the scripts of these audio recordings if this suits your learning style.
In order to successfully understand the Grammar in Focus, you may follow the exercises offered in meetings, which you may want to supplement by reading the respective sections in the Grammar Reference.