30970 - Russian Language and Linguistics 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students reach the level A1: 

• Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
• Can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people they know and things they have.
• Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Course contents

Stressed vowels and reduction of unstressed vowels. 
Voiced and voiceless consonants, hard and soft consonants. 
Fundamental principles of Russian orthography. 

Morphology:

Declination of the nouns, the adjectives, the pronouns. 
Gender and number of the nouns, the adjectives and the pronouns.  
Characteristics of the nominative case. 
Characteristics of the prepositive case with and without preposition.
Characteristics of the accusative case with and without preposition.
Characteristics of the genitive case with and without preposition.  
Characteristics of the dative case with and without preposition. 
Characteristics of the instrumental case with and without preposition. 

Verb: 

I and II conjugation.
Present tense, past tense, future tense (imperfective).

Transitive, intransitive, reflexive verbs.

Notion on the main verbs of motion without prefix.

Notions on the verbal aspects.

Syntax:                                                 

Simple statements, interrogative and negative sentences. 

The complex sentence:  the compound clauses.

Readings/Bibliography

- Khavronina S. A., Shirochenskaya A. I., Russian in exercises, Russky Yazyk Kursy, 2009 (pages 1-235).

- S. Chernyshov, A. Chernyshova, Lets' go! Russian for adults. A course for beginners. Textbook 1 (I semester); Textbook 2 (II semester), Zlatoust, St. Petersburg, 2019.

- D. Bonciani, S. Romagnoli, Vsë tak! Grammatica e lessico della lingua russa, Hoepli, Milano, 2020.

- S. Berardi – L. Buglakova, KRASKI-A1. Nuova edizione aggiornata. Corso comunicativo multimediale per l'autoapprendimento della lingua russa di livello principiante A1. CD-Rom, CLUEB, Bologna, 2011.

- S. Berardi – L. Buglakova, KRASKI-A2. Nuova edizione aggiornata. Corso comunicativo multimediale per l'autoapprendimento della lingua russa di livello A2. CD-Rom, CLUEB, Bologna, 2012.

Students will be given additional material by teachers.

Additional readings:

- C. Cevese, J. Dobrovolskaja, E. Magnanini, Grammatica russa. Manuale di teoria, Livelli A1-B2 del Quadro Comune Europeo di Riferimento per le Lingue, Terza edizione, Hoepli, Milano, 2018.

- Nikitina N., Freda Piredda E., Grammatica d'uso della lingua russa. Teoria ed esercizi. Livello A1, Hoepli, Milano, 2017.

- Il Kovalev, Dizionario russo-italiano italiano-russo di Vladimir Kovalev, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2014 (Quarta edizione).

Teaching methods

Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures has decided that all courses taught in the first semester will combine two teaching methods:

a) Live online (weeks 1-2). All students will attend online. Classes will run live on the Microsoft Teams platforms (no recording allowed).

b) Live on-site and online (weeks 3-5). Due to the Covid-19 emergency, rooms cannot be used to their full capacity. Students who wish to attend live on-site will have to confirm this in due time, following the instructions they will receive from the University. They will then be required to alternate on-site and online shifts (on Microsoft Teams), based on the room capacity, in order to ensure the necessary form of distancing.

Further details will be given during the first week of class.

The course is articulated in 30 hours of lessons, in which the linguistic competences are mainly developed, and in many hours of laboratory activities, that privilege the communicative competences. The tutorial lessons are part of the course and will be part of the exam program.

Assessment methods

The students are asked to do a written examination and an oral test. The positive result of the written examination is valid for 4 terms and it is necessary to attend the oral exam.

The written test (4 hours) is to verify the linguistic competences, in particular elements of morphology and word-study, including the ability of written comprehension.  The test must be written in cursive and in a clear way.

The oral test is focused on the communicative competences, on the ability of oral expression. The first part of the oral test is in Russian and is dedicated to the skill of speaking on the main topics of everyday life and on issues related to areas developed during the course: students are able to understand and use basic expressions to meet practical elementary needs, introduce themselves and others, ask and answer questions about personal details such as the place where they live in, work or study, provide information about relatives or friends and objects that possess, formulate expressions of greetings, thanks, apologies, express additional time elements. The second part of the oral exam is focused on the linguistics theoretical contents of the course programme.

The final grade is the result of the average between the written exam and the oral examinations.

Teaching tools

PC - computer – language laboratory with Internet; video projector; video recorder.

Links to further information

http://www.torfl.it

Office hours

See the website of Simona Berardi