Provides a communicative approach to introductory Russian designed to help learners reach the intermediate range in speaking and listening, plus reading and writing. Book 1.

Golosa: A Basic Course in Russian is the third edition of an introductory Russian-language program. It 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 of ten units each. Each book is accompanied by a fully integrated Lab Manual/Workbook, audio and video recordings available on the World Wide Web, a web-based supplement of exercises, and the Instructor's Resource Manual. 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 in Golosa enable students to develop a conceptual understanding and partial control of all basic Russian structures, including the declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns; verb conjugation; and verb aspect. This strong structural base enables students to accomplish the linguistic tasks in Golosa and prepares them for further study of the language. Students successfully completing Books 1 and 2 of Golosa will be able to perform the following skill-related tasks. Listening. Understand simple face-to-face conversations about daily routine, home, family, school, and work. Understand simple airport announcements, radio and television advertisements, personal interviews, and brief news items such as weather forecasts. Get the gist of more complicated scripts such as short lectures and news items. Speaking. Use complete sentences to express immediate needs and interests. Hold a simple face-to-face conversation consisting of questions and answers with a Russian interlocutor about daily routine, home, family, school, and work. Discuss basic likes and dislikes in literature and the arts. Manage simple transactional situations in stores, post offices, hotels, dormitories, libraries, and so on. Reading. Read signs and public notices. Understand common printed advertisements and announcements. Understand simple personal and business correspondence. Get the gist of important details in brief articles of topical interest such as news reports on familiar topics, weather forecasts, and entries in reference books. Understand significant parts of longer articles on familiar topics and brief literary texts. Writing. Write short notes to Russian acquaintances, including invitations, thank you notes, and simple directions. Write longer letters providing basic biographical information. Write simple compositions about daily routine, home, family, school, and work. In addition, students will grasp the essentials of culture necessary for active and receptive skills: background information on the topics covered in each unit. Control sociolinguistic aspects of Russian necessary for basic interaction, such as forms of address, greeting and leave-taking, giving and accepting compliments and invitations, and telephone etiquette. Become familiar with some of Russia's cultural heritage: famous writers and their works, as well as other figures in the arts. For those who wish to continue their study of Russian, Golosa provides a firm footing not only in the discrete skills, but in terms of grammatical base as well. Features of the Golosa Program Goals Objectives are stated explicitly for each book and unit in terms of language tools (grammar and lexicon), skills, and cultur