Discusses incorporating current events articles from "Pravda" into Russian language classes in the U.S. as a successful means of attracting students to Russian language programs. In addition, the timely and controversial nature of many of these articles promote stimulating conversational exchanges in the classroom. (SL)

Reports on the results of two surveys of college-level instruction in Russian, conducted in 1980 and 1983, designed to measure to what degree phonetics is included as an integral part of the program. The majority of the schools in both surveys indicated a casual attitude towards teaching pronunciation and an overall downward trend in the role of…