The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the basics of the Chechen language with
emphasis on spoken and listening comprehension skills.  Because Chechen is primarily a spoken
language and written materials are still quite scarce, writing skills will not be emphasized as much
as speaking and comprehension skills.  Upon successful completion of this two-semester,
intensive course, the student will be able to understand and reply to basic conversations with a
native speaker and to read simple texts and newspaper articles.  Newspaper and magazine articles
will be taken from the instructor's own collection from Chechnya.  Language and music tapes will
be made available for Chechen pronunciation drills.

Classes will meet for four hours each day (grammar instruction, conversation practice, recitation
and reading), with out-of-class language laboratory monitored by the instructor.  Occasionally the
scheduled structure may vary to include cultural discussions, video-tape and special quest
presentations.  Course grades will be based on weekly test, mid-term and final exams, as well as
class participation.  Tests will cover each week's work, while building on the foundations set-
down in previous classes.  All tests and exams will consist of written, spoken and listening
components.

As noted above, there is not an extensive literature published in Chechen.  Moreover, no English
language dictionary or course materials for English speakers exist for teaching Chechen.  Indeed,
few such materials exist even in Russian.  During the Soviet period, the language was written in
Cyrillic letters, but was never actively taught beyond the elementary school level.  Between 1991-
1994, Chechen was transposed into Latin orthography by the Dudayv government, but was
mostly used for signs and monuments.  Most of the small number of books that were published in
Chechen, or for instruction of Chechen language, were destroyed during the war.  Fortunately,
however, the course instructor has a small library of some of the only surviving texts for teaching
the Chechen language.  These texts will supplement the instructor's own teaching materials which
are currently under development.  These materials cover the cultural, as well as the grammatical
nuances of conversational Chechen, taking into account the archaic construction of dialogue
structure.