96584 - LINGUA E CULTURA DEI PAESI DI LINGUA RUSSA

Learning outcomes

The Language and Culture of Russian-speaking Countries programme consists of a 30-hour course and a 30-hour lab. At the end of the course, students should be able to read, report and discuss essays or academic texts in Russian dealing with cultural issues, social sciences, and political sciences. To this purpose they should reach a minimum level of B1 of the TORFL (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language).

Course contents

The course is reserved for students with a previous A2 level of Russian. Students who have not attended the exams of Russian Language I and II of the first cycle degree programme in International relations and diplomatic affairs (University of Bologna, Forlì Campus) are required to certify their level, before the beginning of the course; language certifications or other means (e.g., a declaration of level by lecturer(s) of the Russian language course(s) attended during the first cycle degree programme) are accepted.

Deepen the morphological system of the Russian Language.

The verbal aspects: imperfective and perfective forms in the tense system.

Main meanings of the aspects. Use of the infinitive: imperfective and perfective verbs.

Imperative mood: formation and use for both verbal aspects. Ways to express invitation to joint actions.

Verbs of motion without prefixes: idti/chodit' (to go by foot), ekhat'/ezdit' (to go by means of transport), bezhat'/begat' (to run), letet'/letat' (to fly), plyt'/plavat' (to swim), nesti/nosit' (to bring), vezti/vozit' (to transport), vesti/vodit' (to lead).

Verbs of motion with prefixes:
the prefix po- to indicate the beginning of a movement;
prefixes pri- (to arrive) / u- (to leave);
v- (vo) (to enter) / vy- (to exit);
pod- (to get closer) / ot- (to go away);
do- (to reach);
pro- (to go beyond) / pere- (to cross, to move).

Syntax

Coordinating conjunctions (connective, adversative, disjunctive).

The complex sentences: the subordinate clauses and conjunctions.

Simple and complex clauses to express:
purpose of an action, conditions of an action, reason.
The conjunction chto in order to express information, thought, feeling;
the conjunction chtoby to express desire, necessity, order;
the conjunction kak to express one perception;
the conjunction esli to express conditions of actions;
the conjunction potomu chto to express the reason of an action;
Consecutive subordinate clauses with the conjunction poetomu.
Concessive subordinate clauses: the conjunction khotja.

Readings/Bibliography

- Kapitonova T.I. i dr., Zhivem i uchimsja v Rossii, Rabochaja tetrad' po grammatike, Zlatoust, SPb, 2003.

- Nikitina N., Grammatica d'uso della lingua russa. Teoria ed esercizi. Livello A2, Hoepli, Milano, 2018.

- S. Chernyshov, A. Chernyshova, Lets' go! Russian for adults. A course for beginners. Textbook 1.2, Zlatoust, St. Petersburg, 2019. 

- Current affairs and political articles taken from major Russian newspapers and magazines, Internet sites, provided by the teacher in class and published on the University's e-learning platforms.

Additional readings:

- O. Bejenari, P. Cotta Ramusino, M. Halavanava, F. Legittimo, D. Magnati, Davajte! Comunicare in russo 4, Corso di lingua e cultura russa, Hoepli, Milano, 2022.

- Berardi S., Buglakova L., Kraski A2. Nuova edizione aggiornata. Corso comunicativo multimediale per l'autoapprendimento della lingua russa di livello A2, Bologna, Clueb, 2012.

- Khavronina S. A., Shirochenskaya A. I., Russian in exercises, Russky Yazyk Kursy, 2009.

- Malyshev G., Malysheva N., O Rossii i russkikh. About Russia and Russians. Reading and Russian civilisation for RFL students (B1), SPb, Zlatoust, 2015.

Teaching methods

The course is articulated in 30 hours of lesson, in which the linguistic competences are mainly developed, and in 30 hours of laboratory activities, that privilege the communicative competences and the reading comprehension of historycal, cultural and political articles.

30 hours of self-learning with multimedia material in the Virtual Learning Environment of the University of Bologna are recommended.

Assessment methods

The students are asked to take a written and an oral exam.

The written test is to verify the linguistic competences, in particular elements of morphology and word-study, including the ability of written comprehension on political and cultural topics.

For students attending classes, there will be 2 mid-term tests during the course.

The oral exam is focused on the communicative competences, on the ability of oral expression with a presentation to discuss during the exam. In particular, attending students can do a presentation using one of the texts analized during the lessons.

The students that do not attend lessons are asked to prepare a paper of any topic related to Russia, Russian-speaking countries and their culture to expose during the final oral exam.

Teaching tools

PC, video projector, platform Virtuale, Microsoft Teams, EOL.

Office hours

See the website of Simona Berardi