MA PROGRAMME: GENERAL ENGLISH
SEMESTER 1
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a three-semester course that enhances communication skills through exposure to socio-political topics. Semesters Two and Three also provide practice in written communication appropriate research/scholarly setting (preparing a research proposal). Classes will be run as discussions and language workshops in which students are expected to actively participate.
COURSE TOPICS
Topic
1 Sept, -Oct. ‘Fix Modern Society’
2 Oct.-Nov. ‘-Ism Schism’
3 Nov.- Dec ‘Faith Today’
Tests
40-min test, Oct. 7- Oct 12
40-min test, Nov 18 –Nov 23
80-min progress test on three units,
Dec.16-21
- Dates are subject to change.
MATERIALS
Materials for general English and political translation classes will be made available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EgCdjfJ_BwXs_S0_E0n8PZIfdgoc77tF
Make sure you come to class with a copy of the relevant material.
Some of the exercises (mainly vocabulary and revision) are to be done at https://learningapps.org/ Your login, password and instructions are available at the Google drive. The application does not provide the correct answers immediately, but you may correct your mistakes yourselves doing the tasks again, as many times as is necessary. If the score is still below 100%, discuss the questions you failed with your teacher. Later your teacher may assess your knowledge of these tasks orally or in writing.
CLASS POLICIES
- As upper-level students, you are expected to come to class prepared, which means that you have done the reading, the writing, and the thinking necessary to meaningfully participate in class.
- Attendance. Your attendance of each class meeting and active participation are required. You must be present for the FULL class period and make a meaningful contribution to the class for that day. Be prepared to study seriously. If you miss a full class or part of a class, you are still responsible for the classwork, homework, and other assignments. Students who stop coming to class will find their monthly and FINAL grades negatively affected. If you are LATE for or MISS 11- 15% of classes your FINAL grade will be reduced by 5%; if you are late for or miss 16-25% of classes — by 10%; if you are late for or miss more than 26 — by 20% off your final rating. These rules do not apply to properly documented serious reasons for being late for/away from classes.
- Submission procedures : All assignments are to be submitted in hard copy. Assignments submitted by e-mail will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.
- Extensions. Every time you receive a written task, discuss the deadlines with your instructor. No extensions will be granted unless students have serious reasons beyond their control that are adequately documented – for example, a medical reason supported by an official medical certificate. Assignments from other courses scheduled for the same date, computer, traffic or traveling issues, work commitments and other similar reasons DO NOT constitute acceptable reasons, so please plan accordingly.
- Late penalties : Late work will be penalized. The late submission penalty is 10% per each late class or per each paper. Translation exercises and other papers submitted after the topic has been covered are NOT accepted, which lowers the FINAL grade for the semester: a) if your curriculum envisages an exam at the end of the semester, the penalty is 10% off the FINAL overall grade for the semester per each topic; b) if your curriculum envisages a credit test (not an exam) at the end of the semester, failure to submit relevant assignments for TWO topics results in the failure of the entire course. You will receive an F; you will have to submit those assignments by the appointed time and take an oral test during the re-sit exam period, i.e. AFTER the winter/summer break. Failure to submit written assignments brings your mid-term ratings below 70%, thus depriving you of an opportunity to receive a waiver of the oral credit test.
- Academic honesty. Plagiarism is “the process of taking another person’s work, ideas, or words, and using them as if they were your own” (Macmillan English Dictionary). Gleaning information from the Internet and passing it off as your own (e.g. in an essay or research proposal) is also plagiarism. Learn to paraphrase or document your sources properly! Cases of plagiarism will be reported to the Master’s Programme Office; the overall grade for the semester will be reduced by 20% (even if this is your FINAL grade for the Master’s Course).
- Conference. Your instructor will be glad to discuss your progress or any other question you may have outside of class time. If you have a suggestion for improving the learning environment in our classroom, please let him/her know.
EXAMS/CREDIT TEST
Your progress will be assessed at the exam/credit test. Important : You will be graded down if you fail to submit all the required written/oral tasks during the term. Make sure you have written all the tests during the semester.
REQUIRED TASKS:
two papers: summary/survey/rebuttal ( may vary from group to group) Russian-English translation exercises and corrections of mistakes three progress tests (including the final test)three TED talk tests ( may vary from group to group) at least one individual PowerPoint presentation + participation in the team project participation in at least one round table discussion/debate
EXAM (for groups with English as 2 nd foreign language): 80-min written test, oral summary of an article and 2-min impromptu talk.
CREDIT TEST (for groups with English as 1 st foreign language): 80–min written test;