Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies.
Description
Russian for Beginners is a Russian language course for students with no knowledge of the language. The course will provide students with the basics of Russian and aims to develop language skills in grammar, speaking, listening, reading and writing. An important aspect of the course will be the cultural knowledge about Russia. The course provides the knowledge to communicate and understand Russian at A1 level.
Course objectives
The required competences for a A1 level language can be described as follows, the student can:
understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has.
interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the BA International Studies website.
Mode of instruction
Three two hour tutorials every week
Attending lectures and tutorials is compulsory. If you are not able to attend a lecture or tutorial, please inform the tutor of the course. Being absent without notification can result in a lower grade or exclusion from the final exam or essay.
Course Load
This course will be 10 EC (280 hours)
Total hours spent on attending lectures: 72 (= 6 hours per week x 12 weeks)
Time spent on studying: Around 12 hours per week (= 4 hours per lecture)
Other hours can be used for preparing for an exam or a presentation
Assessment method
The final grade consist of assignments and exams that count towards it.
1 Listening exam, 15 %, week 4 and 12
2 Reading exam, 20%, week 5 and 15
3 Presentation, 20%, week 5 and 13
4 Creative writing, 25 %, week 6 and 16
5 Essay, 10 %
Attendance and participation in the class will count towards the final mark:10%
The resit will be a written exam of two hours, and will test if the students have reached the end level of this semester. This exam consists of the following components:
Reading and writing;
Written dialogue;
Vocabulary and grammar.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used. For tutorial groups: please enroll in blackboard after your enrolment in uSis
Students are requested to register on Blackboard for this course.
Reading list
Compulsory books:
- Colloquial Russian (1), Svetlana le Fleming and Susan E.Kay
ISBN: 978-0-415-46995-1 (without CD!)
Recommended
1. Oxford Russian Dictionary, Marcus Wheeler, Boris Ottokar Unbegaun, Paul Falla, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 9780198614203
Any other pocket dictionary will be sufficient for Russian A1:
1. Russian-English, Langenscheidt, Pocket books Us, 2009. ISBN 9781439142370
2. Russian Berlitz Pocket Dictionary, Berlitz Publishing Company, 2006. ISBN 9789812469458
3. The Pocket Oxford Russian Dictionary, Jessie Coulson, Nigel Rankin, Della Thompson, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0198601500
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Remarks
The course has an interactive and communicative way of learning a language. Course contents are grammar practice together with vocabulary building and developing the skills with class activities. The classes will be highly interactive and students will often work in pairs or groups to practice their language skills. During the course, students will give presentations.
The course is based on course books, materials prepared by the instructor and the Internet. A blackboard site will be available with essential documents i.e. planning, hand-outs, additional exercises and links to various educative websites.
A substantial amount of self-study is required and the students are expected to prepare the classes. Attendance and participation in the class is required as well and will count towards the final grade.
Passing this course is an additional requirement for a positive Study Recommendation at the end of the year.
Contact
- Maria Avaguimova, email m.e.avaguimova@hum.leidenuniv.nl