69907 - Lithuanian I

Learning outcomes

The general objective of the course is that after following the requirements and completing this course students should be able to communicate in simple Lithuanian in various situations of personal and social life. During the course students are expected to gain knowledge, practical skills and experience in comprehension and usage of the Lithuanian language on specific themes. The course aims at developing students communicative skills in A1 Lithuanian, i.e. to: 1. develop the pragmatic competence of spoken Lithuanian on subjects related to everyday life; 2. remember and accumulate vocabulary on everyday matters on topics dealt during the course; 3. talk about everyday matters on themes covered by the course; 4. apply the basic rules of Lithuanian grammar (covered by the course) while speaking or writing; 5. read textbooks and similar texts on subjects related to everyday life on topics dealt during the course; 6. write short texts on topics dealt during the course.

Course contents

The course introduces the linguistic material of elementary (A1) level of the Lithuanian language. It presents learners with the basic lexical, grammatical and phonetic peculiarities of the language and aims at providing them with the oral and written communication skills at the relevant level. S tudents work with the material centered on daily life topics, such as family, home, work, shopping, food, travelling, and transportation . Learners master the language for social interaction, such as greetings, asking for and providing information, expressing opinions and feelings.

• • Topic/Vocabulary

  Countries, nationalities, languages

  It’s me! Personal information

  Family

  Who are you? Professions

  Your daily routine

  Food; at the store, at the restaurant

  Going out, shopping and dining

  Apartment, furniture

  At the doctor’s

  Computers, social networks

  • Language for Communication

  Greetings and farewells; identifying oneself to others

  Introducing oneself formally and informally; introducing people to others; thanking, apologizing

  Starting a conversation; expressing likes and dislikes

  Making appointments for meetings; forming questions

  Describing the family

  Naming family members, belonging

  The notion of age, colour, size, etc.

  Describing people, objects; talking about events

  Expressing one’s likes and dislikes; expressing opinions

  Describing and ordering the food

  Expressing quantity, getting around the grocery store

  Asking for prices and comparing them

  Expressing the amount

  Telling the time, asking for the time

  Asking for and giving directions

  Writing a note, a short letter

  Writing a formal and informal letter, a message

  • Grammar

  The Lithuanian alphabet and sounds. Vowels and consonants. Dipthongs. The peculiarities of pronunciation. Stress and accent (intonation).

  VERB Present, past and future tenses (1, 2 and 3 conjugation)

  Verbs: eiti, važiuoti, skubėti and their usage with prepositions į/pas

  Galėti, mėgti turėti + infinitive

  Transitive verbs: usage of accusative and genitive of negation

  Verbs: mėgti, patikti, mylėti, norėti (acc. & gen.)

  Verbs kainuoti, reikėti

  Imperative mood

  Subjunctive mood (for polite requests and desire):norėčiau, prašyčiau

  NOUN Nominative of nouns

  Genitive; genitive of possession; partitive genitive; genitive of negation

  Accusative of nouns; accusative with time expressions

  Locative, Instrumental, and Vocative case of nouns

  PRONOUN Personal and possesive pronouns; demonstrative pronouns šis, ši, tas, ta

  Dative of personal pronouns; pronouns mano, tavo

  Dative and instrumental of nouns and pronouns (sg. & pl.)

  Reflexive pronoun savo

  ADJECTIVE Nominative case of adjectives (masc. & fem. gender); koks, kokia?

  Agreement of adjective and noun

  Neuter forms of adjectives

  NUMERALS Cardinal numerals 1–1000 (masc. & fem. gender)

  Nominative and accusative of cardinal numerals

  Genitive of nouns and cardinal numerals (sg. & pl.); kiek + plural genitive

  Quantifiers + genitive case

  ADVERB Adverbs with the suffix “-iškai”

  Formation of adverbs; degrees of adverbs

  Comparison

  Prepositions iš; į; pas; prie; su; be;

  Conjuctions jeigu; nes; nei...nei; arba..., arba

  • Cultural Discourse

  Short presentation about the Lithuanian language; map of Lithuania; national symbols

  Discussing professions in Lithuania; interpersonal cultural customs

  Lithuanian folk songs, folk rock

  Families in Lithuania: the past and the present

  Filling out simple questionnaires

  Cultural meal differences

  Lithuanian TV, the Internet

Readings/Bibliography

main textbook

• Džežulskienė, J. Kalbu lietuviškai. Lithuanian for beginners (+audio USB). 2014. UAB “Prix Fixe” (available at the "Roberto Ruffilli" Central Library).

  additional sources

• Stumbrienė, V., Kaškelevičienė, A. 2004. Nė dienos be lietuvių kalbos (Not a day without Lithuanian) (Student’s book, CD #1). Vilnius: Gimtasis žodis.
• Ramonienė, M., Vilkienė, L. 2008. Po truputį (Little by little). Vilnius: Baltos lankos.
• On-line course of Lithuanian at http://www.oneness.vu.lt [http://www.oneness.vu.lt/]

Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language

http://www.lki.lt/dlkz/

English-Lithuanian Dictionary Online

http://www.lingvozone.com/LingvoSoft-Online-English-Lithuanian-Dictionary

English - Lithuanian Dictionary

http://www.dicts.info/dictionary.php?l1=English&l2=Lithuanian

 

Teaching methods

The form of studies includes lectures, self-study tasks and work in virtual environment (on-line work, interactive tests and exercises). 

Assessment methods

Students take a written examination which consists of a grammar test, tasks for reading comprehension and writing. Communicative competences are evaluated on the basis of weekly spoken class presentations on the topics presented in the syllabus (see Section “Language for Communication”).

Teaching tools

Computer, audio recordings, Internet, multimedia 

Office hours

See the website of Violeta Kaledaite