We have already discussed adjectives and numerals; now let’s talk about verbs in the course. Starting to learn a language with verbs is always the right way, as they form the basis of our speech.
In the course, we encounter them immediately. Firstly, we come across them in Lesson 1 in the sentence “Как тебя зовут?”, then in Lesson 2 and the following lessons as new verbs are introduced.
As is common in the course, we don’t start the lesson with the rules; we start it with a description of the action. This action can be easily done either by students or by a toy. We say who is doing what in the third-person singular here.
Work with verbs is similar to work with other parts of speech – we remember each case form as a separate word or, better yet, as a word combination. As each form of the verb is unique, we do not explore the rules or the way it is formed; instead, we drill each form on the principle “I see – I speak.”
That’s why we are not concerned with which group verbs belong to, what signs they are generally classified by, or how verbs are conjugated. All we need is to determine the action and name it. Certainly, we won’t take words such as пахать, актуализировать or расшифровывать. As we are going to describe common things, we should take words that will help us to reproduce the situation in the classroom.
This is how we work further – learn each form of a verb as a separate word. As for infinitives, we should start working with them when we are able to name the action of a certain person; when we have already accumulated information that can be sorted and organized.
Why do we need this “modern” approach to learning verbs, as some people call it? In the blog, I have already explained that the course is designed for people who study Russian one hour a week. In fact, if you scrutinize the curriculum, you will find out that we have only 36 hours, not weeks, for it! Surely, this is very little. Studying rules with their application, classification of verbs by group is ordinarily included in the programs of extended courses, where we have enough time and our students are ready to explore grammar. However, we remember that we teach children; the course is relevant to them.
Additionally, I love when students learn a language holistically. Dividing a language into elements, and then attempting to assemble an entire language from them, does not work well for such short courses where children are used to being entertained. Mastering a language takes much time and effort, after all.
Also, I’d like to remind you that I previously wrote about verbs in my blog, and you are welcome to read the article at any time there.
All the best!
