RUSSIAN LANGUAGE 3

The course Russian language 3 – Class 2 (LT009X, Class 2) is addressed to the students enrolled in the international politics curriculum. The course consists of a semestral whole class teaching, reinforced by yearly language classes of technical-pratical character, which aim at supporting students’ language learning.

Students are expected to develop their metalinguistic skills and achieve an overall linguistic background, both written and oral, that could be compared to the B2 level (according to the CEFR parameters). The expected goals will be verified through an exam composed of multiple parts (aimed at testing both written and oral skills).

The teaching programme aims at providing students with a theoretical and applied understanding of contemporary Russian syntactic structures. At the end of the course, students are expected to properly analyze a clause, differentiate various kinds of simple and complex sentences, grasp the main ideas underlying texts about concrete and abstract topics, understand technical debates pertaining to their own sectoral field. They are also expected to carry on a conversation in Russian with such fluency that they be able to get spontaneously in contact with native speakers in everyday life contexts reflecting the B2 level set up by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Thanks to their high developed skills, students will be able to recognize and describe the syntactic structures of Russian language, interact with native speakers in various communicative situations, understand and create texts and oral messages at the B2 level, react adequately whatever the communicative situation and the linguistic register, understand the main points of a broadcast and/or an audiovisual record in standard Russian.

Students are supposed to make solid judgments about the well-formedness of a linguistic utterance, trace and find all the bibliographical sources requested by the tenured professor, use with ease both a medium-sized bilingual and an explanatory monolingual dictionary. They are also supposed to adopt adequate communicative strategies, testifying their ability to argue a stance (at the B2 level), as well as implement translational choices over complex texts.

Students are expected to explain the differences in Italian and Russian syntactic structures, adopting the linguistic nomenclature in describing morphosyntactic phenomena. They are also expected to express themselves in in/formal communicative situations (at the B2 level), while showing a knack for mediating through their Italian-Russian translations.

Students will learn to read and translate, with the only help of a dictionary, texts of medium difficulty pertaining to their own sectoral field.

Knowledge of the Russian language at the B1 level (according to the CEFR parameters).

During the whole class teaching the following grammar topics will be addressed: introduction to Russian syntax (simple and complex sentences); impersonal sentences; the formation of participial and gerundive forms; long and short forms of the adjectives; pronouns, indefinite and negative adverbs.

During the language class hours the following conversational topics will be addressed:
First semester: Russia and the foreigners; basic notions of geography, the climate, natural resources, the population and their languages, the state (the president, the parliament, the government); the republics of Russian Federation, its most important regions and cities; Moscow, the capital of Russia; historical notes, its position, the administration, politics, commerce, its culture; St. Petersburg; the history of the country as reflected in the history of the former capital, the main monuments, its culture; man and nature, ecology and the environment.
Second semester: man’s health (the body, diseases, their cures, prevention); the Russian national health system; the Russian universities and Russian national higher education system; man and society; customs and traditions, holidays, work, hobbies and spare time; science in Russia.

Moreover, part of the language classes will be devoted to the strenghtening of some grammatical notions and to the development of communicative skills:
First semester: indirect speech; the etiquette and the formal registers in formal communication (thanksgivings, requests, courtesy formulas), sayings and the phraseology; review of the nominative, genitive, and prepositive cases, of motion verbs and the imperative mood; relative clauses (w/ который); reason and concessive clauses (simple and complex sentences); review of the complex sentences with the connectors и, а, но; the short form of the adjectives.
Second semester: realis and irrealis; the etiquette (consolation, compassion, condolensces, wishes); review of the dative, accusative, and instrumental cases, of phase verbs and the verbal aspect; the subjunctive mood; sentences introduced by что and чтобы; participles and gerunds (exercises); pronouns and negative adverbs.

During the language class hours some other aspects of Italian-Russian translation will be addressed, such as: the use of dictionaries, linguistic and extralinguistic factors, how to translate motion and temporal expressions, some particular pronominal phrases in simple and complex sentences, in passive constructions and impersonal sentences.

C. Cevese, Ju. Dobrovolskaja, E. Magnanini, Grammatica russa. Morfologia: teoria ed esercizi, Milano, Hoepli, 2000.
C. Cevese, Ju. Dobrovolskaja, Sintassi russa. Teoria ed esercizi, Milano, Hoepli, 2005.
N. Nikitina, Corso di russo. Livelli B1-B2 del Quadro Comune Europeo di Riferimento per le Lingue, Hoepli, Milano 2016.
N. Nikitina, Eserciziario di russo con soluzioni. Livelli B1-B2 del Quadro Comune Europeo di Riferimento per le Lingue, Hoepli, Milano 2016.
N. Nikitina, Esercizi di lingua russa. Morfologia: livello avanzato (con soluzioni), Hoepli, 2013.
M.G. Benedek, Come tradurre in russo, Milano 1995.
Т.И. Капитонова, Живём и учимся в России. Учебное пособие по русскому языку для иностранных учащихся, Санкт-Петербург 2014.
Dictionaries:
V. Kovalev, il Kovalev. Dizionario Russo-Italiano / Italiano-Russo. Quarta edizione, Zanichelli, Bologna 2014.
J. Dobrovolskaja, Grande dizionario Russo-Italiano / Italiano Russo, Hoepli, Milano 2001.
S.I. Ožegov, Tolkovyj slovar’ russkogo jazyka, Moskva, 1997 (o altra edizione).
Italian Grammars:
L. Renzi, G. Salvi, A. Cardinaletti (a cura di), Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione, voll. I-III, Bologna, 1988-1996.
G. Salvi, L. Vanelli, Nuova grammatica italiana, Bologna, il Mulino, 2004.
Handbook of Linguistics:
G. Graffi, S. Scalise, Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2002.

The expected goals will be verified through an exam composed of an oral and a written part, which is in turn divided into more subtests. The use of grammars, handbooks, handnotes, smartphones, Internet, and electronic devices is strictly forbidden. During the translation test (A.1), which is to be written in Italics on a validated writing paper, it is allowed to use bilingual and explanatory monolingual dictionaries.

The written part (A), which aims at verifying the acquired grammatical notions, students’ translational skills and their expertise in the framework of linguistic mediation, is subdivided into:
A.1) A Russian-Italian translation of a text concerning topics somehow connected with students’ curriculum. This part lasts two hours. The use of bilingual and monolingual dictionaries is allowed;
A.2) A grammar test and an Italian-Russian translation of an array of simple and complex sentences (coordinate and subordinate clauses) already dealt with during the entire course. This part lasts two hours and a half. The use of dictionaries is allowed.

The oral part (B), which lasts approximately 30-40 minutes, is subdivided into:
B.1) A short presentation and conversation in Russian about all the readings addressed during the year (topics: geography, ecology, political system, history, culture, society, current events). Students are expected to implement the adequate communicative strategies and interact properly;
B.2) A spoken word reading (accents are not provided), a Russian-Italian translation and an in-depth linguistic commentary of the 70 pages assigned at the beginning of the course (please note a page is equal to a 2000 characters sheet, spaces included). While commenting their texts, students are supposed to describe the morphosyntactic phenomena of Russian language, adopting the most adequate nomenclature throughout their linguistic analysis;
B.3) A brief presentation and a summary in Russian of a randomly chosen text among the assigned 70 pages; during their presentation students are expected to argue their stance on the content of the text under consideration.

Students must show up for the round with their badge and a valid identity document. Written tests will be held the same day, one after the other, with a short break in between. During the exam it is forbidden to enter and/or exit the classroom. Students must behave with absolute honesty, particulary with regards to the authenticity of their work. Those who would like to pull out of the exam could do so during the break or at the end of the second round. They must return the tenured professor their exam and the writing papers they were given. They must put on them their name, surname, registration number and a signed request to withdraw from the exam.
In order to be admitted to the oral test, students must pass both A.1 and A.2. The oral test will be held not before the eighth following day and it must be taken in its entirety (B.1-3) during the same round of the written tests. In order to pass the entire exam, students are needed to pass both the written and the oral part. The final mark will match the exact average of the marks obtained in both the written and the oral part.

Lectures (semestral whole class teaching) and seminars (yearly language classes of technical-pratical character).

Italian

The theoretical module will be held during the second semester. Language classes begin at the beginning of the academic year. Students who will not attend lectures and seminars need to contact the professor at the beginning of the course.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development