Installation instructions

 

Video Clips

Links from the Syllabus will connect you to video clips containing explanation and modeling of the grammar and vocabulary of each lesson in the textbook, Russian for Everybody, by Robert Baker et al. The video clips contain recordings of in-class presentations at the University of Minnesota.  The instructors in these videos are Prof. Ronald Walter (through Lesson Eight) and Prof. Gary Jahn (Lesson Nine and following). In order to access these video clips, you will need to install the VivoActive video player on your computer:

For Windows machines running the Netscape browser: Find the file named vivoplay.exe on the CD-ROM. Click on the file and drag it to the c: drive of your computer. Once the file is on your c: drive, double click on the file to launch the installation. Follow the on-screen instructions during the installation process. Close and re-start your browser.

For Windows machines running the Internet Explorer browser: Find the file named vivopwrp.exe on the CD-ROM. Click on the file and drag it to your desktop. Once the file is on your computer, double-click on it to start the Plug-in Installation process. Follow the on-screen instructions during the installation process, making sure that you select the correct folder where you want your plug-in installed. Close and re-start your browser.

 

Computer Assisted Language Learning Programs

The items listed below were all developed in connection with two major grant projects, supported by funding from university, industrial, and government agencies, which Prof. Jahn directed between 1986 and 1990. The programs were developed to run under DOS (version 3.3 or higher) or MS Windows (version 3.0 or higher). They can only be used on DOS/Windows platform computers. Follow the links below for instructions on how to install the two programs:

1."Sentences"

The purpose of this program was to devise an MS-Windows-conformant shell program for the delivery of instructional and drill material pertaining to the construction of grammatically correct sentences in any alphabetic language. This disk contains "Sentences" for beginning Russian language learners, instruction and drill to supplement the study of beginning Russian using the textbook by R. Baker et al., Russian for Everybody.  The "Sentences" program requires MS Windows 3.0 or higher.

2. "Russian Conjugation and Declension" (RCD)

The purpose of this program, actually a set of five program modules, is to assist students of Russian in learning and mastering required vocabulary and the various patterns of inflection which characterize nouns, verbs, and adjectives in Russian.  These are relatively old programs and were designed to run in a DOS-only environment.  Their performance may be erratic when running in a Windows environment, particularly on newer and more powerful machines running Windows 95 or 98.

"Russian Conjugation and Declension: Vocabulary" [Assists students in the memorization of basic forms of required vocabulary.]

"Russian Conjugation and Declension: Vocabulary in Context" [presentation and drill of active vocabulary from one chapter of a textbook as used in the grammatical environments presented in that chapter.]

"Russian Conjugation and Declension: Nouns" [Teaches students the processes involved in declining nouns.]

"Russian Conjugation and Declension: Adjectives" [Teaches students the processes involved in declining adjectives.]

"Russian Conjugation and Declension: Verbs" [Teaches students the processes involved in conjugating verbs.]

"Sentences"

Find the file called "sentence.zip" on the CD-ROM.  Drag this file to your desktop.  This is a compressed file.  If you do not have a decompression program installed on your computer you may install the WinZip program included on the CD-ROM.  To install WinZip, find the file called "winzip70.exe" on the CD-ROM, and drag this file to your desktop.  Double-click on winzip70.exe and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation of the WinZip program.  Now you are ready to double-click on the file called sentence.zip which you dragged to your desktop earlier.  Your decompression program, whether WinZip or another, will ask you to specify a location in which the contents of sentence.zip should be kept once they have been decompressed or extracted.  You must specify "c:\" (without the quotation marks) for this location.  When the installation is completed the directory of your c: drive will contain 22 new folders called "Lesson1," "Lesson2," "Lesson3" and so on.

"Russian Conjugation and Declension" (RCD)

Find the file called "rcd.zip" on the CD-ROM.  Drag this file to your desktop.  This is a compressed file.  If you do not have a decompression program installed on your computer you may install the WinZip program included on the CD-ROM.  To install WinZip, find the file called "winzip70.exe" on the CD-ROM, and drag this file to your desktop.  Double-click on winzip70.exe and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation of the WinZip program.  Next, use Windows Explorer to create a new folder on drive c:  You must name this folder "RCD" (without the quotation marks), and you must create this folder on drive c: of your computer.  Now you are ready to double-click on the file called rcd.zip which you dragged to your desktop earlier.  Your decompression program, whether WinZip or another, will ask you to specify a location in which the contents of rcd.zip should be kept once they have been decompressed or extracted.  You must specify "c:\RCD" (without the quotation marks) for this location. When the installation is completed the directory of your c: drive will contain a new folder called "RCD"; inside this folder you will find folders called Adject, Highend, Verbs, Vocab, and Vocabcon.

Note:  Because the Russian Conjugation and Declension programs are DOS-based and quite old, as computer programs go, they may not function properly under Windows 95 and Windows 98.  If this proves to be the case on your machine, you may probably still be able to use the programs by running your computer in DOS mode.  To put your computer in DOS mode, do the following:  1) from the "Start" prompt in the lower left corner of your screen select "shut down" and choose the option "restart"; 2) as your computer reboots, after the beep but before the Windows logo screen appears, press the <F8> key; 3) the Windows boot menu will appear, you should select the choice "Command prompt only"--this will cause your computer to run in DOS without any Windows drivers present in the system.  If you are successful in this procedure you will see a blank screen with the C:\> prompt showing.  At this prompt you should type cd rcd and press <Enter>.  You should now see the prompt C:\RCD>.  Here you should type cd vocab (for the Vocabulary module); cd nouns (for the Nouns module); and so on for whichever module you wish to use.  You should now see the prompt C:\VOCAB>; C:\NOUNS>; and so on.  At this prompt you should type govocab; gonouns; goverbs; goadj; or gorev (in the VOCABCON directory) to start the program.  Once the program starts, follow the on-screen directions.

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