While cartoons are fun for students, they can also be used as powerful teaching tools. The visual and musical cues cartoons provide are ideal mnemonic devices for students of any language. Animated shorts appropriate for the level of study can be chosen for each chapter, or each month, as a series of milestones throughout the year. After learning the vocabulary and the new grammatical constructions the students can understand and enjoy something short and amusing in the target language. The viewing will also ideally spark class discussion of cultural issues represented in the cartoon.
Russian cartoons are also suitable for more serious language and cultural study.
Such animated films can add an interesting dimension to the upper-level culture, literature, and conversation courses taught in Russian. Animated fairy tales are an ideal introduction to Russian folklore and its characters, and they are also a wonderful way to help students visualize Russian village life, folk objects, and customs. In addition to animated fairy tales there are many Soviet-period cartoons that provide many topics for discussion of Soviet art, life, and humor. Avtomat, about an unruly matchbox dispenser, lends itself to a myriad of interpretations about Soviet reality. Not only did we discuss the story line, the significance of its deviations from the original tale, and the visual portrayal of the characters, but we also examined possible reasons for this cartoon's enormous popularity with the Russian public.