Foreign language instructors who have attempted to show video in their introductory and intermediate level courses often express ambivalent attitudes to the use of the foreign language video. On the one hand they recognize the wealth of cultural information, the use of the language in its "natural" setting, the breakdown of cultural stereotyping, etc. On the other hand they recognize that the video's strengths are often its weaknesses. Students are easily overwhelmed by an overabundance of cultural and linguistic information, forcing instructors to commit many hours to the preparation of ancillary materials to aid the student in understanding the vocabulary, grammar, and the cultural setting of the video.

The computer presents foreign language teachers with opportunities to repackage the foreign language video with a wide variety of supplementary materials and exercises immediately available to the student. Such supplementary materials can include linguistic reference materials, cultural notes, and various pre-viewing exercises to prepare the student, as well as post-viewing exercises to reinforce new material, test comprehension, etc.

Paperno and Tsembirov's Twelve Chairs Interactive is an excellent example of a successful reworking of a foreign language video into a format more accessible to the intermediate student. This package consists of 2+ hours of digitized video of the Russian classic film "The Twelve Chairs" on three CD-ROMs and a hardcopy transcript of the 21 episodes.

Although Twelve Chairs Interactive perhaps was originally intended for intermediate students using the text Intermediate Russian: The Twelve Chairs by Paperno, et al. (a concordance matching video episodes to chapters in the text is provided), this software could be used profitably by students using other textbooks and at more advanced levels.

DESCRIPTION
The video is divided into 21 episodes, and each episode is further divided into 3-8 scenes. One may either view the entire episode or choose individual scenes. Navigation between scenes is easy; navigation between episodes, however, requires exiting and reloading the program.

The screen in Twelve Chairs Interactive is divided vertically into two parts. In the upper left corner the video is shown, with play/pause, stop, replay, rewind, fast forward, etc., buttons below. The quality of the video on a Pentium 266 MHz with 32 MB RAM was excellent, but some dropping of frames was experienced on a 486 100 MHz with 16 MB. Sound quality was generally good.

System Requirements:
Win 3.1, Win 95, Win NT 100 MHz processor, 16 MB Ram 4x CD-ROM, 16 bit color, sound card, 6 MB disk space

Version Reviewed:
1.1

Price Info:
$ 95

Availability:
Commercial software available from the publisher.

Quick Summary:
This software comprises an enormous amount of material (digital video with electronic glossed transcript and other background information). The reviewer recommends it highly to both teachers and students of intermediate level Russian language courses, while at the same time noting its limited scope.

Screen Capture:
(Click for larger image)

Sample Scene (80K jpeg)