Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian, Book 1

by Richard M. Robin, Karen Evans-Romaine, Galina Shatalina

The Fifth edition of the best-selling communicatively based text for beginning Russian""is enhanced by a greater focus on contemporary culture and simplified, visual grammar explanations that will better engage your students. "Golosa" " A Basic Course in Russian, 5e " strikes a true balance between communication and structure. It takes a contemporary approach to language learning by focusing on the development of functional competence in the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), as well as the expansion of cultural knowledge. It also provides comprehensive explanations of Russian grammar along with the structural practice students need to build accuracy. "Golosa " is divided into two books (Book 1 & Book 2) of ten units each. The units are organized thematically, and each unit contains dialogs, texts, exercises, and other material designed to enable students to read, speak, and write about the topic, as well as to understand simple conversations. The systematic grammar explanations and exercises enable students to develop a conceptual understanding and partial control of all basic Russian structures. This strong structural base enables students to accomplish the linguistic tasks and prepares them for further study of the language. "

Genres: Language, Reference, Russia, Textbooks

456 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1993

Reviews

[Evan Chow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Topically coherent but presents grammar in a highly disorganized fashion. Cases are spread out over multiple chapters and verbs of motion are a confused mess.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must confess that I haven't retained much Russian, although going over this I can still sound out words written in cyrillic and recall some of the simpler words and phrases. I'm probably about as proficient as I am in Spanish, which I tried to take as a youngster without much success. I don't think it's fair to blame this textbook, though. I haven't made much effort to keep it up, and I never really was comfortable with the language, the way I am with German, which I have consistently read and listened to since I first got to the level of basic understanding.

As far as this book goes, it seems to be well-organized and covers a lot of material in different ways. The Golosa course materials include web-based materials, audio and video, and, at least this edition had a CD-ROM (does anyone use these anymore?). It seems like it would be useful from a teacher's standpoint, in that there is a good deal of supplemental material one could use in class, on top of the reading that can be assigned for students to do at home. Basically, it's a solid and useful textbook, nothing too exciting, but useful for its purpose.

[Peter Sprunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the style of each chapter. They start with some vocab and general knowledge (such as clothing, family, furniture, shopping) and then there is a distinct break into grammar, followed by reading exercises. Of the different Russian texts I've looked at/tried, the grammar section in this book is the best (to learn from). Cases, conjugations, and other points are explained by first a definition and then a few examples. They do not shy away from using colorful tables to help make things clearer. The readings do a good job of adding and building on previous information and putting it into some useful context.

[Ace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Golosa is a great textbook to use either in-class or on your own. My Russian I and II classes used this textbook: the diagrams are helpful, the explanations are great, and the exercises are repetitive enough to help you learn but not obnoxiously so. I bought this about a month before my class started and, on my own with almost no background in the language, I was able to get through the first few chapters on my own - so no teacher needed! This is a great reference and I often go back to it when I need a refresher course.

[Jordan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a good textbook.

[Megan]

Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian, Book I (2nd Edition) by Richard Robin (1997)