Semesters: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

ECTS: 4

Form of assessment: exam

AIMS

• developing receptive and productive language skills;
• developing learner skills, including setting goals and self-assessment;
• helping students to achieve cognitive, cultural and language competence to be applied in professional context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

On successful completion of this course of study, students should be able to:
• display confident knowledge of grammar and vocabulary;
• communicate within a wider range of general topics, participate in team work on projects;
• understand the information from different types of texts: advertisements, short news, magazine articles, blogs, essays;
• speak coherently, express viewpoints, justify opinions;
• write different types of texts: personal and business letters, reviews, descriptive, narrative and argumentative essays;
• relate facts and phenomena to inter-cultural dimensions.

CONTENT

Celebrations around the world – holidays, customs and traditions.
Christmas and Easter in Russia and in foreign countries, comparative analysis.

Travelling.
Tourism in the life of people. Travelling by train, plane, ship. Travelling impressions. Travelling abroad (visa, customs).

Country study.
Geographical position. Landscape. Industry, economic situation. Main sights. Customs and traditions.

Modern city in Russia and in the world.
Means of transport. City description. Finding in the city. Main cities in Russia and in foreign countries.

Environmental protection.
Environmental situation in the world. Environmental measures. Important environmental problems. International environmental organisations.

Mass media in Russia and in the world. Press, radio, television. The internet, social networking sites. Changes in mass media over the last 50 years.

Information society. The internet, social networking sites.

Art. Fine Arts. Museums and art galleries. Favourite artists. Theatre. Famous plays and actors. Architecture. Wonders of architecture around the world.

System of education in Russia and other countries. Professional training.
Comparison of different educational systems. History of education in Russia. Teaching at primary, secondary school. Recent changes in university education.