1. The Aspect in Russian MediaBook: Material Designs and Learner Styles
Laura A. Janda
University of North Carolina

2. Overview Purpose of the project Target audiences Collaborators Funding
Demonstration
Beta-Testing
Future plans

3. Encoding TIME
“Jeg gir stort sett faen i rom, men jeg har problemer med tid”.
--Erlend Loe

4. Purpose of the Project
To facilitate learning how perfective and imperfective aspect encode time in Russian
Challenges:
Aspect in Russian is typologically unusual: it is distinguished in all forms and tenses and imperfective is the unmarked member
A metaphorical model highlights parallels between the properties of matter in space and the properties of events in time, but doesn’t work in book format

5. Purpose of the Project, cont’d.
Objective:
To provide a virtual space for students to conduct experiments and connect what they know about the physical properties of matter to the temporal properties of events

6. Target Audiences Students in traditional Russian courses
Alumni of military and government programs who are required to maintain their Russian
Instructors
Independent learners

7. Collaborators
Institute for Science Learning at UNC- Chapel Hill (
Designer, programmers, educational materials specialist
Slavic and East European Language Resource Center (
Workshops, professional network, student assistants

8. Funding
National Science Foundation Educational Materials Development Grant 2004 $75K
Creation of about 1/10 of total project, plus creation of templates for total project

9. Demonstration http://isl.unc.edu/russian/ainr Introduction
Chapter 2: Matter Matters
Module 1: Properties of Matter
Shape
Convertibility

10. Beta-Testing
March 2005 beta-testing with more than 300 students at 19 institutions:
15 colleges/universities (includes control groups)
2 high schools
West Point and US Naval Academy
Pre-test, use of materials, post-test, survey, focus group, back-end data collection

11. Future Plans Analyze data from beta-testing phase
Apply for National Science Foundation National Dissemination grant ($0.5M June 2005)
Complete full project