2026/2027

Английский язык для специальных целей. История искусств - 3

Статус: Факультатив

Кто читает: Школа иностранных языков

Где читается: Факультет гуманитарных наук

Когда читается: 1-3 модуль

Охват аудитории: для своего кампуса

Преподаватели: Кирьянова Анна Николаевна

Язык: английский

Кредиты: 3

Контактные часы: 48

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This elective course aims to develop the specialized English language skills required for academic and professional contexts in Art History. The syllabus and assessment methods adhere to HSE University's Concept of Developing Foreign Language Communicative Competence and comply with the University's Regulations on Current Control and Interim Assessment. Building on the foundations of Levels 1 and 2, this course covers Modules 1–3 of the second-year curriculum. The course advances students from critical analysis to the professional design and presentation of art-historical projects, tracing European art from the Early Christian period through the Renaissance. Students investigate Early Christian and Byzantine visual culture, examining how theological doctrines shaped sacred architecture and mosaics. The curriculum then progresses to the regional diversity of Romanesque and Gothic art, analyzing monumental architecture, sculpture, and metalwork. Finally, students explore the Italian and Northern Renaissance, evaluating how humanist philosophy and technical innovation revolutionized painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts. Through its instructional design, the course develops Professional Intercultural Communicative Competence (PICC) via a three-stage project lifecycle: Analysing and Interpreting Art, Designing a Project, and Presenting an Art Project. Through professional simulations, students produce industry-standard deliverables, including formal exhibition reviews, grant proposals, and curatorial concept papers. A core component of this process is collaborative practice; students work in teams to conceptualize and pitch large-scale art projects, simulating real-world museum environments. The course emphasizes the critical skill of professional evaluation. Students engage in formal peer review sessions, learning to critically assess and provide constructive, diplomatically phrased feedback on their colleagues' work, while also producing formal written reviews of exhibitions and academic publications. The linguistic focus progresses logically from evaluating visual evidence to articulating research, pitching projects, and defending curatorial choices via multimedia presentations and Q&A sessions. These authentic tasks systematically build advanced written and oral competencies. Furthermore, continuous engagement with digital archives and peer-reviewed sources ensures the precise application of disciplinary terminology, while fostering autonomous learning and future-proof soft skills for the global cultural sector. Prerequisites: English at the Independent User level (Upper-Intermediate to Advanced). Enrollment requires a minimum score of 6 on the university Integrative Exam, an SCT Linguatest certificate (66+ points), or a TOEFL iBT certificate (60+ points). Course Assessment: Attendance* 0.1 + English Grammar and Vocabulary Test* 0.1 + Home Assignments* 0.1 + Written Assessment (WA)* 0.2 + Oral Assessment (OA)* 0.2 + Final Assessment (FA): * 0.3 No blocking elements

Learning Objectives

• To develop advanced English proficiency for academic and professional communication in Art History by mastering disciplinary terminology, academic register, and persuasive discourse.
• To enhance independent research and digital literacy skills by critically evaluating peer-reviewed sources and digital archives.
• To encourage autonomous learning strategies through a structured three-stage project lifecycle: analysing, designing, and presenting original art-historical work.
• To apply Professional Intercultural Communicative Competence (PICC) through professional simulations, enabling students to transition from theoretical analysis to the practical design, pitching, and defense of art-historical initiatives within the global cultural sector.
• To develop collaborative professional skills through team-based art-historical projects, executing formal peer reviews of curatorial proposals, and delivering constructive, diplomatically phrased feedback on colleagues' exhibition designs and research pitches.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The student applies specialized art-historical terminology and complex descriptive syntax with precision to articulate nuanced interpretations of Early Christian and Byzantine visual culture.
• The student critically evaluates and synthesizes authentic English-language scholarly sources—including peer-reviewed journal articles, academic monographs, and multimodal archival materials on the First and Second Golden Ages of Byzantine Art—extracting key arguments and identifying authorial stance.
• The student produces art-historical reviews, critically evaluating exhibitions, publications, or museum displays, while demonstrating mastery of the academic register, appropriate cohesive devices, hedging language, and the structural conventions of professional art criticism in English.
• The student articulates and defends independent interpretations of Early Christian and Byzantine art during panel discussions, utilizing appropriate communicative strategies, active listening, and the pragmatic conventions of scholarly debate in English.
• The student constructs and delivers structured oral presentations and monologues, including as art-historical commentaries, gallery walkthroughs, museum lectures, and research briefings, demonstrating fluency, logical organization, the appropriate use of hedging and evaluative language, pragmatic conventions of professional discourse, and audience-appropriate rhetorical strategies in English.
• The student evaluates and synthesizes information from diverse scholarly and professional sources related to Romanesque and Gothic architecture, sculpture, and metalwork, producing an annotated bibliography or literature review that accurately paraphrases and critically assesses the relevance of the materials in English.
• The student delivers a persuasive oral pitch for the proposed art project to a simulated grant committee, utilizing appropriate rhetorical strategies, signposting language, and professional pragmatics to justify the project's goals, target audience, and feasibility.
• The student delivers an engaging presentation of an art project (focusing on the Italian and Northern Renaissance), utilizing appropriate signposting language, pacing, and rhetorical strategies to maintain audience interest.
• The student responds spontaneously and professionally to questions during a post-presentation Q&A session, utilizing polite hedging, clarifying strategies, and diplomatic language to defend project choices and address concerns.

Course Contents

• Section 1. Analysing and Interpreting Art
• Section 2. Designing a Project: Research, Educational and Applied Projects in Art
• Section 3. Presenting an Art Project

Assessment Elements

• Attendance
  A student's attendance
• English Grammar and Vocabulary Test
  Students take English Grammar and Vocabulary Test in class.
• Written Assessment (WA)
  WA refers to written tasks that students complete in class. WA consists of minimum 4 tasks of different types, including interim ones (for example, essays, graph descriptions, reviews, reports). WA can also include annotations, emails, listening and reading tasks, grammar and vocabulary tasks at the end of a section or topic.
• Oral Assessment (OA)
  OA consists of minimum 3 tasks of different types, including interim ones (dialogues and presentations) that students do in class.
• Home Assignment
  HA includes oral and/or written tasks that are assigned to students for independent completion and submission. Students do the tasks at home and either turn them in to their teachers or submit them via Smart LMS for grading.
• Final Assessment (FA)
  What is included: reading, listening tasks, report/review.

Interim Assessment

• 2026/2027 3rd module
  0.1 * English Grammar and Vocabulary Test + 0.3 * Final Assessment (FA) + 0.1 * Attendance + 0.1 * Home Assignment + 0.2 * Written Assessment (WA) + 0.2 * Oral Assessment (OA)

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• A companion to medieval art : Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe, , 2010
• Byzantine art, Bayet, C., 2009
• Early Christian & Byzantine art, Lowden, J., 2005
• The art of the Italian Renaissance : Architecture. Sculpture. Painting. Drawing, , 2005

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• 30,000 years of art : the story of human creativity across time and space, , 2007
• A new history of Italian Renaissance Art, Campbell, S. J., 2012
• History of Art. Western Europe and Russia : учеб. пособие, Миньяр-Белоручева А.П., 2009
• How to write about contemporary art : with 34 illustrations and 64 source texts, Williams, G., 2015
• Romanesque and gothic France : architecture and sculpture, Minne-Seve, V., 2000
• Walter, C. (2016). The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition. [Place of publication not identified]: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1432375

Authors

• Rokotianskaia Liudmila Iurevna