No.129
in 1986, it allowed one for the first
time to write word-processed texts
in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts.
Pioneered by Mike Ransome of
Bristol Grammar School, a glut
of photocopied teaching material
was now produced and shared by
UK Russian teachers. These were
supplemented by tape recordings
made in Russian schools (I myself
recorded some 15 hours of interviews,
but never used them because they
were linguistically too advanced).
There were also fuzzy photographs
of realia such as tickets, menus,
signs and public buildings. Russian
teachers’ conferences were held at
Sheffield and York Universities; area
groups were formed: I was secretary of
the Southern Schools Group, which
met at Abingdon School.
The demise of the Soviet Union
should have heralded a new era.
From 1992, access to Russia became
easier and authentic teaching material
became more readily available.
Shortly afterwards, we started school
exchanges with the St Petersburg
Classical High School. Inexplicably,
The Trusty Servant
however, the glamorous allure of
Russian studies faded. Partly owing
to lack of funds, the number of UK
schools offering Russian drastically
diminished and Russian departments
shrank.
NF in Great Expectations
at the Minack
The move from grammar-translation
lessons to learning almost exclusively
in the target language was driven
by changes in the exam curriculum.
I found conducting all lessons in
Russian or French quite a challenge,
especially when native French
speakers were in my class. As Alan
Conn pointed out to us, we were
all good enough linguists, but we
needed to revise our methodology:
rather than rely on text-books, we
should make up our own material.
He introduced dossiers to be written
by each of us—voluminous thematic
compilations of articles accompanied
by oral/aural and reading
comprehension exercises.
The need to write our own materials
has been particularly acute in the
Russian department, owing to the
dearth of suitable text-books. We
have had nothing to match even the
dreary French Tricolore series. Courses
written by Russians frequently go
out of print or do not correspond to
our curricular needs; those written
by westerners are linguistically
inaccurate and often inappropriate
for the age and interests of our pupils.
Despite all the difficulties, Russian at
Winchester has continued to thrive.
Ours is one of the oldest school
Russian departments in the country.
It has survived all the seismic changes
and has been able to adapt. The
brightest Wykehamists continue to do
Russian. Long may this continue!
Eminent Victorians of Win Coll:
Four Linguists
The Editor, Tim Giddings, continues our
occasional series:
Rev’d Henry Furneaux –
Latin (Tacitus)
(1829-1900; Commoner, 1841;
College, 1842-46)
The son of a vicar in St German’s
Cornwall, he was famed at
Winchester for his ‘remarkably
retentive memory’ and won the
Goddard Scholarship. He studied
at Corpus Christi, Oxford (1, Lit.
Hum.) and went on to be Fellow and
Tutor there. He was ordained, 1856,
and presented to the college living of
Lower Heyford, which he managed
to combine with ongoing work at
the university. He is famous for his
studies of Tacitus, producing in the
1890s what were for a long time the
standard editions of Annals, Germania
& Agricola. He often regaled his
company with stories of Cornish life
remembered from his childhood in
the vicarage: ‘the scholarly historian
was for the time lost sight of in the
humorous storyteller.’
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