Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian Language, Life, and Culture [Hardcover]

Marita Nummikoski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0471309451 | ISBN-13: 978-0471309451 | Edition: 1

This communicative, "natural approach" to introductory Russian emphasizes reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Everyday topics are presented to allow readers to begin communicating immediately. Grammar is presented as a necessary tool for communication and is introduced throughout. The book aims at comparing and contrasting cultures, rather than presenting the target culture only.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Annotated Instructor's Edition, Transparency Masters, Workbook, Tapescript and Audio Cassettes available. -- The publisher, John Wiley & Sons

From the Publisher

Emphasizes reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, focusing on language proficiency and vocabulary skills by using numerous individual, paired and group activities. Succinct, simple, grammar descriptions are encapsulated in sections throughout the chapters and a full discussion at the end of each chapter enables students to develop strong communication skills. Contains engrossing cultural material on famous people, facts in geography, history and tradition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471309451
• ISBN-13: 978-0471309451
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > Russian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful., August 12, 2005

By 

D. Thomas (Wyoming) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian Language, Life, and Culture (Hardcover)

I ordered this to accompany the Pimsleur Language Russian program, as Pimsleur, although very powerful for learning to speak, has little more than a pamphlet to teach you to read. So, I picked this up, and it is very handy. It has made the process of learning to read fairly easay and enjoyable.

I would have rated this a 3, however, because you lose a LOT of the meat of the book if you don't have the audio recordings, which aren't included in the book. At least, they weren't with mine. However, I poked around online and found that they're available for download off this website:

http://mllc.utsa.edu/troika/student/mp3.htm

I don't know how long that site will be up, but if you intend to use this book to teach yourself to read and speak, those MP3s will be invaluable.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "kind of like the opposite of an aerial view", November 4, 2001

By 

Paul Weiss (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian Language, Life, and Culture (Hardcover)

I have attempted to learn from this book in a first-level university Russian course. (I am a middle-aged retired teacher, and already have some background in 4 languages, with reasonable success in all of them.) I'm sure that there's some sort of pedagogical theory which justifies the book's structure, but I find it a constant barrier to my learning. Each chapter is structured in the same way. Each starts with a Russian-only treatment of the materials to be covered in the chapter. Of course, virtually all the material is new to the reader at that point. The Russian section has pointers, therefore, into the following grammatical section, which is in English, and is at the end of the chapter. Unfortunately, the presented material is not well linearized, so after having stopped in mid-stream to read those grammar sections, and having flipped back and forth for a while, one still hasn't encountered all of the vocabulary and concepts in the current section. A chapter makes sense only when one has completed it, meaning that the process of learning is constantly frustrating, and lacking in the pleasures and rewards of mastery along the way. I don't find it any better to use as a review aid when test time comes along. If your prof has selected the text, you're stuck with it; I'd suggest finding some supporting ancillary materials, and using them from day one. I have the luxury of dropping the class. I've found a "Russian as a Second Language" series published in Russia for English speakers, and will hire a native-speaker college student to help me work my way through it. (The title is from a Steely Dan song, by the way. I'm a big believer in aerial views in first-level courses.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, if you never need to look anything up., June 11, 2005

By 

Richard A. Wilhelm (West Linn, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian Language, Life, and Culture (Hardcover)

The order in which material is introduced is fine and the examples and explanations are good. However, except for the wonderful charts in the last two pages of the book, this book is about as poorly organized for finding anything as a book can be. If you have a photographic memory and never need to look anything up, this book is fabulous. But if you need to find something - the meaning of a word or a rule of grammar - plan on looking in three or four places. And don't count on finding the word your looking for in the glossary. For example, there in no mention in the glossary of the word "when." This isn't a bad book, but unfortunately it is frequently a frustrating one.