FSI. Russian: An Active Introduction

Fourth Revision. — FSI, 1973. — xxix, 138 pages.The Active Introduction is one of the modules in an array of materials used in Russian training at the Foreign Service Institute. It is essentially a catalog of sentences which can be combined (with alteration as necessary) to form different communication sequences in dialog form relating to typical daily activities (comings and goings, appointments, meetings, errands etc.).The central goal in developing the material was to make possible the formation of natural sequences, free from the constraints imposed by accommodation to a predetermined schedule of grammar points and a list of words to be covered. The words and grammar features occurring in the sentences, therefore, derive from the choice of what is to be communicated rather than an inventory of preselected items to be covered.In any given sentence, some of the grammatical patterns partially exemplified in it are expanded--others are considered for the moment as isolated items to be learned in that context only.