Russian Language NEW

This course is designed to introduce students to Russian language and culture through a variety of reading, listening, writing and speaking activities, all aimed at the development of intermediate communicative competence. It provides students with a basic, but solid knowledge of grammar and syntax, a functional vocabulary, familiarity with basic intonational patterns and pronunciation, and practice in speaking, reading, writing, listening, as well as an elementary knowledge of Russian culture.

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: understand simple written texts or short spoken passages without the aid of a dictionary; satisfy most immediate writing needs in the form of notes and brief personal correspondence; and carry on a short, elementary conversation, dealing with survival situations, asking and answering questions, speaking in complete sentences, and creating with the language (Intermediate Low proficiency on the ACTFL scale). The socio-cultural knowledge acquired should enable students to function successfully in Russian printed and spoken language.

In the second part of a two-semester sequence of Intensive Russian, the goal of the course will shift from covering the basic grammar and syntax to expanding vocabulary and developing fluency and accuracy in all four skills to the level of competency required to pass a proficiency examination (Intermediate Mid or above on the ACTFL scale). This entails developing the ability to communicate with some ease with a native speaker in spoken and written language.

As a part of a comprehensive program aimed at the development of all four language skills, students will practice speaking (monologue and dialogue), reading, writing and listening in proficiency-oriented environment, as well as expand their inventory of writing, listening and readings strategies that will enable them to communicate and comprehend more effectively any general/literary texts of non-technical nature without a dictionary and produce coherent/extended discourse in speaking and writing.

As ever, Russia comes to the European table late but its contribution to the world arts is extraordinary.

In the last 200 years Russia has given the world striking modernist pictorial works (think Shagal, Kandinsky, Malevich), astonishing ballet (think Dyagilev and Pavlova); amazing symphonic and operatic music (think Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich); world-famous performers and stage directors (think halyapin, Rostropovich, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold); and leading contributions to the most significant movements in modern art (think the avant-garde, socialist realism, sots-art and postmodernism). Yet before the18 th century Russia’s art was exclusively religious (think Rublyov, Russian icons, church music and architecture). How did it happen? Who/what brought secular art to Russia? How did it manage to raise a whole pantheon of artists in such a short time?

This course will survey the history and development of Russian visual, performing and decorative arts, paying particular attention in the last three centuries to its major cultural and artistic figures, masterpieces, museums, and collections.

The goal of this course is to use and advance language skills by researching in depth a Russian cultural topic through course readings, video viewings, class discussions, and writing short academic essays and giving presentations, all in Russian.