Course Catalogue

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This course offers a basic knowledge of Russian and focuses on elementary grammar and information retrieval skills, subject-related vocabulary and Russian realia. 

It is designed as an elementary pre-course for Russia- or CIS-related research or work activities or a trip to a Russian-speaking country. Those students who intend to go to Russia or need Russian in relation with their business will receive basic provision of language in connection with actual area-based knowledge.

1. Classroom teaching at Glasgow (3 hr x 15 weeks = 45 hr).

2. On-line live communication with teacher (1 hr x 15 weeks = 15 hr)

3. Interactive activities, exercises and tests placed on the course Moodle site (2 hr x 15 weeks = 30 hr). Most of these exercises provide an automated feedback.

4. Intensive teaching block at the partner institution abroad in semester 2

  (8 hr x 7 weeks = 56 hr).

Mandatory Entry Requirements

The course starts ab initio, no previous knowledge of Russian is required.

Recommended Entry Requirements

As above plus elementary knowledge of Russian society, Russian history and culture.

None

None

Assessment

Assessment:

1. Written test by the end of semester 1.

40 % of the final assessment.

2. Written test at the partner institution in Russia.

20 % of the final assessment.

3. Russian dossier on a selected 'topic'

20 % of the final assesment

4. Oral exam. Spring exam diet.

20% of the final assessment.

Reassessment

In accordance with the University's Code of Assessment reassessments are normally set for all courses which do not contribute to the honours classifications. For non honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students, and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions are listed below in this box.

This course provides students with blended (class room and distance) Russian language tuition over 2 semesters of study with a designated learning time abroad at the partner teaching institution. The course is taught to enable students to acquire sufficient linguistic knowledge and translating skills to be able to retrieve information from a variety of texts in the original language and to use these in their study- or business-related activities.

The aims are to develop basic vocabulary, grammar, oral and information retrieval skills, and to offer an insight into Russian realia.

The aims of this course are:

• to provide a thorough grounding in the structure of the Russian language

• to help students acquire and develop both written and oral skills in Russian

• to help students acquire and develop  listening and reading skills in Russian

• to stimulate an abiding interest in Russian culture and society by means of the variety of texts used in translation and through other learning resources employed on the course

• to encourage the acquisition of generic linguistic study skills enabling the effective learning of other languages later in life

By the end of this course students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding:

Demonstrate a theoretical knowledge of the principles of Russian grammar, specifically of the key grammatical terms for parts of speech;

Apply that theoretical knowledge practically in written and oral exercises;

Analyse and produce Russian-language texts with due regard to the principles of Russian word formation;

Demonstrate their knowledge of the linguistic and cultural factors affecting the process of translation from and into Russian

Apply knowledge of Russian realia and society derived from familiarity with its media, literature and from direct contact with native speakers.

Skills and Other Attributes:

Subject-specific/practical skills

Read and translate texts in Russian with and without a dictionary;

Establish contact and communicate with the native speakers on a variety of topics;

Demonstrate their understanding of fairly advanced texts by answering appropriately on them in Russian;

Apply effectively and appropriately their Russian language skills in a variety of contexts, both written and spoken.

Intellectual skills

Retrieve information on various subjects from Russian media, including internet;

Recognise, classify and produce the correct grammatical forms in Russian;

Explain the grammatical relationship between the component parts of Russian sentences

Transferable/key skills

Discuss a number of subjects related to modern Russia and CIS-subjects;

Demonstrate appropriate inter-cultural skills in both written and spoken communication

Attendance at course and successful completion of assessment tasks.