White Paper

Abstract

This paper presents ideas and possibilities for using Twelve Stories of Russia: A novel, I guess as a free resource to support foreign-language learners and emerging students of translation. The project makes use of the book's unique subject matter and special relevance for language students and instructors to create an engaging, authentic, and useful resource for learning English. While appropriate for English-language learners from all cultures, the materials will be particularly topical for students in Russia and/or those who have experience living in Russian-speaking environments.

Introduction

While there is no shortage of materials to support the study of English in Russia, a common problem for those wishing to incorporate literature into their plans has been curating a reliable corpus of authentic native-language texts that are engaging, topical, and easily accessible. Challenges include issues of content and level appropriateness, as well as barriers to accessibility caused by cost, copyright, and general supply/availability of the desired texts to be used.

As a novel about teaching and learning language in a foreign setting, Twelve Stories of Russia: A novel, I guess is a literary work with language discovery at its core, and for this reason it is perhaps uniquely suited for this purpose. Thoughtfully introduced into a program of guided reading, the novel can be used to assist intermediate-to-advanced learners of English. The current project proposes to support this goal by providing unrestricted access to the novel in digital form, along with customizable materials to support teaching and learning from the text.

The project also seeks to harness the power of the wiki platform (mediawiki) so that students may use the text interactively and dynamically to improve their reading and translating skills. Teachers are encouraged to use these texts as needed and to customize the materials in any way that supports their lesson planning and furthers their instructional goals.

Background

Literature as a resource for teaching English

For a student of English, reading an authentic literary work in its original form can be an exciting and formative milestone toward the acquisition of the target language. By combining the joy of recreational reading with the satisfaction that comes from gradually discovering the meanings behind a text, a guided program of literary reading can be a powerful tool to improve proficiency in a second language.

Teachers who work with literary texts will recognize these benefits, but are also likely to face many challenges when trying to choose the right materials for their students. Not only must they seek examples that are relevant in terms of subject matter, age appropriateness and learner level, but they must also find formats that are accessible and convenient for students to use.

The challenge thus becomes finding an appropriate body of literary works that are engaging, relevant, and accessible to both the student and the instructor.

Using Twelve Stories to teach English

In addition to being a compelling literary work in its own right, Twelve Stories of Russia: A novel, I guess also offers specific thematic and stylistic features that can be harnessed to assist English-language learners in Russia.

According to its author, himself a teacher of English who wrote the book while living in Moscow, Twelve Stories was first envisioned as a "self-teaching" text that his students could read and, while enjoying its plot and story, gradually learn the fundamentals of English syntax and vocabulary. The novel's subject matter and themes (Russia, America, learning a foreign language, cultural differences), are designed to resonate with students studying English in Russia, and the book's structure is conceived to gradually introduce an uninitiated reader to the text.

In its earliest passages the narrative uses a simple structure with short chapter sections and compact sentences that can be easily absorbed; its structure then grows more expansive and complex in later chapters once the student/reader has become familiar with the novel's conventions. Another useful stylistic feature is the frequent repetition of words within scenes and across scenes, which reinforces vocabulary and rewards the student's persistence. By its final sections the story has become free-flowing with a greater range and diversity of vocabulary, longer chapter sections, a greater number of characters, more interwoven plot lines, and an increased use of resonance and cross-referencing: as with the narrator's search for meaning, the uncertain and seemingly awkward steps of the story's beginning have become the confident strides of the mature story - also mirroring the increased fluency of thought and speech that comes with language acquisition itself.

Other features of Twelve Stories that make it an opportune text for English learners in Russia include:

• Subject matter that is highly relevant for Russian-speaking students, e.g.:
  • The narrator is simultaneously learning Russian and teaching English and there is much in his struggles that multi-lingual readers will find relatable.
  • Many scenes depict the narrator's attempts to understand or explain grammatical concepts that readers may themselves be struggling with: high vs. tall, articles, past vs. present tense, etc.
  • Some scenes are devoted to the "differences" between English and Russian vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, alphabets, etc., which can make for interesting discussions among students familiar with both.
• A focus on real-world, contemporary US English as spoken by its American (and Russian!) characters.
• Copious dialogue to illustrate many frequently occurring peculiarities of casual speech.
• Short scenes within chapters that make it easy for instructors to organize lessons around thematic or grammatical topics.
• An organizational concept (e.g., Book 1, Section 1) that makes it easy to reference specific passages even if students have different editions of the book.

Using the Wiki platform as a teaching tool

The key advantages of a wiki approach are its decentralized structure and the ability of individual users to customize their experience. This means that instructors can adapt the materials presented here to fit their own teaching methods, lesson plans, etc. Examples of the flexibility provided by the Wiki format include:

1. Teachers can assign a single section to multiple students to read/translate as a group; the results will be stored on the server and can be reviewed and evaluated by the instructor or participant, as desired.
2. Individual sections can be assigned to specific students to read or translate individually.
3. The "Discussion" page can be used to record students' thoughts and process while grappling with a text; it can also be used to track the evolution of an individual's, or group's, translation.
4. The "Compare Revisions" feature on the "View history" page can be used to track the progress of a translation and the specific choices that were made along the way; the revert function can be used to return to an earlier version at any point.
5. Once created and refined, assignments and lessons can be copied for use with new classes or groups.
6. An instructor can assign different privileges (e.g., edit, read-only, etc.) to different participants for a given assignment.
7. Teachers and students may find it convenient to use the embedded PDFs, which may be accessed online without downloading.
8. The platform is highly customizable and there are many other ways that a user can add functionality to suit their purposes.

You can explore more resources here.

How it works

For teachers

Teachers in Russia are welcome to use the materials on this wiki resource in any way they want. (To create an account go here.) Some ideas are presented below.

Teaching English

Some ways that this project can be used to teach English include:

1. Using the provided PDF to assign lessons to students. This file can be freely downloaded, copied, and shared as needed for personal or instructional purposes.
2. Assigning sections from the embedded PDF to one or more students to read online or offline
3. Creating lesson plans that can be stored and used for individual or group instruction
4. Copying assignments and creating new classes moderated by the teacher

For more information see the Twelve Stories of Russia: English Learning Project page.

Teaching Translation

Some ways that this project can be used to teach translation include:

1. Using the provided PDF to assign offline translation exercises to students
2. Using the wiki resource to assign online translation exercises to students
3. Assigning an online wiki lesson to multiple students to work on as a group
4. Assigning an online wiki lesson to specific students to translate individually
5. Asking students to participate in the Translation Arts Project.
6. Reviewing previously translated sections to evaluate the choices made
7. Copying assignments and creating new classes moderated by the teacher
8. Using the "Discussion" page to compare students' thoughts and record the reasoning behind certain translation choices; using the "Discussion" page to track the evolution of a solution to a specific translation problem.
9. Using the "Compare Revisions" feature on the "View history" page to track the progress of a translation and the creative choices that were made; use the revert function to revert to an earlier version at any time.

For more information see the Twelve Stories of Russia: Translation Arts Project page.

For students

Students in Russia are welcome to use the resources on these wiki pages to learn and further their English in any way they want. Ideas for this are presented below.

Studying English

Some ways that this project can be used to study English include:

1. Using the provided PDF to read or study the text. This file can be freely downloaded, copied, and shared as needed for personal or instructional purposes.
2. Reading sections from the embedded PDF online or offline

Studying Translation

Some ways that this project can be used to study translation include:

1. Using the provided PDF to practice translation offline
2. Using the wiki resource to practice online translation exercises with other students
3. Participating in the Translation Arts Project.
4. Reviewing previously translated sections of the Translation Arts Project to evaluate the choices made
5. Using the "Discussion" page to record your reasoning behind certain translation choices
6. Using the "Compare Revisions" feature on the "View history" page to track the progress of a translation

For readers

Readers in Russia who wish to read Twelve Stories of Russia may download the book to use at their discretion. According to the author's wishes, the PDF has been made available for unlimited sharing for personal and educational purposes.

Working with wiki documents

Consult the User's Guide for help using the wiki software.

Ideas and future possibilities

If you are a teacher or professor in Russia and have questions about how best to use Twelve Stories in your classroom, please send us an email outlining your curriculum goals. Cow Eye Press has a special commitment to provide classroom materials, including digital and/or printed copies (when feasible), for the instructional benefit of students learning English in Russia. Contact us for more information.

Will Twelve Stories ever be translated?

The author of Twelve Stories has claimed that he wrote the novel, in part, to be difficult to translate into Russian; and that he has no plans to authorize an official Russian-language translation of the book. In May 2022, Cow Eye Press received special permission from A. J. Perry to make the full version of Twelve Stories available to readers in Russia as a free PDF. The author has also allowed the book to be used as part of the English Learning and Translation Arts projects for "anything that helps people in Russia."

Currently, the fledgling wiki translation of Twelve Stories is the only way that non-English-speaking readers can access the book. There are currently no plans for an official translation, and it is unlikely that there ever will be. For now, this resource can serve its own purpose: not to create any "definitive" translation in Russian - but, more importantly, to explore issues of cross-cultural understanding and translation arts as they may emerge during the process itself.

Conclusion

The materials presented here have been created by Cow Eye Press, Twelve Stories of Russia's publisher, under the guidance and with the approval of its author. While we have done our best to imagine how the book might be useful for students in Russia, ultimately, we are not English teachers and cannot predict how, or even whether, these materials will be used. It is therefore hoped that the materials provided here will encourage instructors and their students to find new and creative ways to use these materials in their own pursuits. In doing so, it is our sincere hope (as well as that of its author) that we will be able to keep the book alive, that it might help bridge in some small way the unconquerable divides of history, language, and culture.

Quick Link References

• Project Documentation On Using Twelve Stories of Russia as a Teaching Resource for Students of English and Translation Arts (White paper)

• Materials Resources and materials to study or teach Twelve Stories of Russia.

• Translation Arts Project page Online wiki translation of Twelve Stories of Russia and supporting materials.

• User's Guide Technical and formatting support on using the wiki software.