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Ukrainian: A Complete Course for Beginners From Canadian Slavonic Papers, Sep-Dec 1999 by Tatiana Nazarenko Olena Bekh and James Dingley. Ukrainian: A Complete Course for Beginners. Teach Yourself Books. Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1997. iv, 299 pp. Map. Ukrainian-English Vocabulary. Grammatical Index. Ukrainian: A Complete Course for Beginners contains eighteen units, in which the contemporary Ukrainian language is introduced through dialogues and several texts based on real-life situations. Most of the dialogues are lively, interesting and have unquestionable practical use. In addition, they are joined thematically as dialogic situations are built around the commercial trip of an English businessman Stephen Taylor to Ukraine with the intention of creating a joint venture. Thus, all the major characters in the dialogues are related to one another, whether by kinship ties or by business and friendly connections. This approach to structuring and presenting educational materials should stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of the learners, which facilitates the process of language acquisition. As far as the setting is concerned, several initial units incorporate dialogues among members of the Ukrainian community of London, while the majority of the dialogues and stories are set in Kyiv and other places of Ukraine. This provides the learners with insights into various facets of Ukrainian reality, such as Ukrainian statutory holidays, the public transportation system, health care system, eating habits, etiquette, as well as instructing them in preparing messages to be sent by fax, writing letters or encoding typical advertisements in the classified section. Naturally, the vocabulary represents colloquial Ukrainian as it is actually spoken in the country. As with many textbooks for beginners, the course covers topics most essential for everyday conversation: for example, meeting people and describing their characters or appearance, making a telephone call, booking a flight or room in a hotel, going through customs, visiting the doctor, etc. A few dialogues, however, introduce some basic business vocabulary (Units 7 and 13). In addition, occasional cultural notes enrich the learners' understanding of Ukrainian ways and manners. Brief but sufficient, they are of special interest for those who intend to visit Ukraine or interact with Ukrainians. A Ukrainian-English glossary is included as well, and the information presented in this section is derived from the orthographic dictionary most recently published in Ukraine. Grammar is not the main focus of the textbook but rather explanatory material to major structural patterns paramount for colloquial Ukrainian dominates. Brief grammar notes under the heading "How the language works?", which follow every dialogue or text, provide required references for the grammatical phenomena used in every unit. Special attention is given to the topics which commonly present difficulty for the English-speaking students of Ukrainian, like the usage of emphatic particles, or diminutive adjectival or nominative suffixes which may change either the emotional connotation of words or their meanings. In most cases, however, grammar notes are not meant for immediate learning. Vocabulary and grammar exercises are not extensive either, but they are quite useful for practicing and self testing. Keys to the exercises are provided in the final section of the book. It is also worth mentioning that the introductory section offers pronunciation, reading and writing guide, followed by exercises. This permits learners without any Ukrainian background to practice their reading, writing and pronunciation skills. One of the strongest features of this practical textbook is that its main emphasis is on the step-by-step development of oral communication skills. In addition, it is easy to work through. The material is presented in a clear, intelligible and compact way, often with a slight touch of humour. Those students who have completed 18 units will definitely be up to the authors' expectations of having a solid foundation for further mastering the language. Unfortunately, the textbook is not free from typographic errors, which can only confuse the beginners whose level of language proficiency is obviously not high. Another drawback that should be mentioned is an occasional questionable choice in English translation of some Ukrainian words or expressions. Thus, the Ukrainian adverb "nedoroho" is rendered by the expression "not dear" as applied to trade activities (p. 143), when simply "inexpensive" might have sufficed; the participle "obliged" is probably not the best choice for the Ukrainian "povynen," especially in the phrases like "povynen podzvonyty" (p. 133), etc. These, which reflect the British variant of English, hardly diminish the overwhelming positive qualities of the textbook. In general, Ukrainian: A Complete Course for Beginners, accompanied by the audio-cassettes recorded by native Ukrainian speakers, is a well-designed textbook helpful for mastering communicative skills in oral Ukrainian. It is highly recommended for students with no or little Ukrainian background for self instruction or class use. It is also a useful tool for teachers and instructors of Ukrainian who are not native speakers of the language. |
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