2021/2022
English for Specific Purposes. History – 1
Type:
Optional course
Delivered by:
School of Foreign Languages
When:
1, 2 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Marina Chashko
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
48
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The discipline refers to the variable educational tracks offered to students of the curricula for bachelor's and master's degree at choice while mastering the optional course of English in accordance with the Concept of Development of English-language Communicative Competence of HSE Students. The course “English for Specific Purposes. History-1” is designed for the 1st-year Undergraduate (BA) students whose major is History or whose interest lies in History both as an academic discipline and as a professional field. The course (3 credits) covers the first 2 Modules of the 1st-year studies of the BA students. The course adheres to the Concept of Development of English-language Communicative Competence of HSE Students and the Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics . The main goal of this course is to develop students’ professional intercultural communicative competence (PICC) that is referred to as the “integrative ability of solving professional tasks with the help of foreign language” . The types of learning activities, methods of instruction and materials of the course enable to model the academic context of the History students’ activities, as well as the social and professional context of the future graduates’ career paths in the field of History. The contents of the course contain the following modules: • History as a field of studies: its branches (Social History, Cultural History, Economic History etc.), aims, approaches and issues; • Studying History at university in Russia and abroad: entering procedures, curriculum, subject-specific and interdisciplinary tracks, internships, exchange mobility programmes, competitions and conferences, extracurricular activities.
Learning Objectives
- Development of the PICC, as an integrative goal of this course, ensures plunging students as active participants into the process of solving a variety of professionally-oriented tasks with the help of the English language that model a broad diverse social and quasi-professional context of their future career paths. Engaging students in such quasi-professional activities allows to set the following learning objectives of the course: • find out purposes, useful strategies and means of learning about History; • work with different sources and types of information for finding new solutions to the existing problems of the historical field; • discover various types and genres of texts that narrate, describe and analyse historical periods, events and issues; • design innovative creative and personally meaningful research, educational and professional projects related to historical field using Information and Communications technology (ICT); • practice analytical and critical thinking skills; • acquire an ability to cooperate in a team and work autonomously; • reflect on the personal and team work and experience; • develop their problem-solving skills and creativity.
- The course is aimed at mastering the skills of: Reading: • Understanding specialised complex longer texts*/articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems (CEFR); • Understanding text structure; • Using basic reading techniques, skimming & scanning (predicting, understanding main ideas, understanding details). *can use a dictionary occasionally to confirm his/her interpretation of terminology Listening: • Understanding dialogues and polylogues on both familiar and unfamiliar topics; • Understanding lectures; • Using basic listening techniques (predicting, understanding main ideas and details); • Note-taking. Writing: • Summary; • Essay (opinion, discussion); • E-mail (business correspondence); • CV. Speaking: • Dialogue on general topics (active listening, questioning, responding to questions, emphasizing); • Monologue: descriptive/informative/reasoning.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Students should be prepared: • to contemplate on the process of studying History in Russia and abroad (university entering procedures, curriculum, subject-specific and interdisciplinary tracks, open optional courses, minors, internships, and extracurricular engagement);
- Students should be prepared: • to work with ideas and concepts related to the History field (its branches (Social History, Cultural History, Economic History etc.), aims, approaches and issues) individually and in a team using the brainstorming, formulating, refining, adapting, arguing, debating, supporting, transforming etc. strategies;
- to integrate smartly the learned theories, concepts, terms and definitions from the professional context into the speech.
- • to formulate and express ideas based on the analysis of the facts / concepts / ideas / opinions etc. about fields of historical knowledge in oral and written form;
- • to integrate smartly the learned theories, concepts, terms and definitions from the professional context into the speech.
- • to produce the analysis of historical events from different historical perspectives in written and oral formats using summarizing, emphasizing, quoting, comparing and contrasting, paraphrasing etc. techniques and making appropriate linguistic choices (style, lexical units, grammar constructions, means of expression etc.);
- • to show the skills of presenting and speculating when given open talks and debating while participating in discussions, Q/A sessions and giving the presentation on History-related topics;
- • to take an academic interview and write a motivation letter (individual curriculum for studying a semester abroad (optional);
- • to work with sources and different types of information about History as a field of studies: searching and finding relevant info; identifying, analyzing and evaluating the sources (including e-sources);
- • work with information: extracting, organizing and completing the information according to the given task using the strategies of predicting, prioritizing, identifying the general and specific (detailed), key and additional info, recognizing relevant/irrelevant, major and supporting facts, opinions, arguments etc., differentiating between narration, description and reasoning;
Course Contents
- Section 1. History as a field of studies: its branches (Social History, Cultural History, Economic History etc.), aims, approaches and issues;
- Section 2. Studying History at university in Russia and abroad: entering procedures, curriculum, subject-specific and interdisciplinary tracks, internships, exchange mobility programs, competitions and conferences, extracurricular activities;
Assessment Elements
- Summary
- Essay
- Discussion
- Monologue
- Independent workAccording to the "Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics” the grades for all assessment elements are assigned using 10-points scale, while the grades for particular elements (e.g. tests, quizzes etc.) can be determined using the following scale: Grading Scale (% correct answers/grade): 100 - 96% (10) 95 - 91% (9) 90 - 86% (8) 85 - 78% (7) 77 - 71% (6) 70 - 61% (5) 60 - 51% (4) 50 - 36% (3) 35 - 21% (2) 20 - 1 % (1) 0% (0) Students are expected to turn in assignments on the due date. In case of any problems with submitting the assignments, giving presentations etc. on the due date, despite officially proven reasonable excuses, students must inform the instructor about the occurred issue in advance or no later than in 24-hour period after the deadline. If the instructor is informed, assignments (besides listening, group work tasks and the final test) can be accepted after the deadline and presentations can be rescheduled according to the decision of the instructor. All course participants are expected to interact in a respectful manner, be fully engaged with the groupmates, the instructor and the course content. Students must adhere to generally accepted standards of academic honesty, including but not limited to refraining from cheating, plagiarizing, inappropriately collaborating, mispresenting one’s work.
- Written assessment
- Oral assessment
- Final assessment1. The exam is located on the platform. The student must show an ID document for identification before starting the exam. Students must log in using their first name and surname. The student agrees not to transfer the login information for his\her proctoring system account to third parties. 2. The exam is conducted in written form online without proctoring. The exam consists of 2 parts: Listening and Writing. The total time of the exam – 70 minutes. Taking a break during the Exam is not allowed. 3. The language of the exam is English. 4. To take the exam, a student should: • prepare an ID document (original passport, the page with the name and photo) for identification before starting the exam; • check the operation of the webcam, microphone, headphones or speakers, the speed of the Internet (for the best results, it is recommended to connect the computer to the network via a cable); • prepare the necessary items for the exam tasks (pens, blank A4 paper for a draft); If one of the necessary conditions for the exam participation cannot be met, the student should inform the Manager of the Program about this to make a decision on the student's participation in the exam. 5. The student adheres to the technical requirements for the student’s PC, conducts a final check of the student’s PC no later than 24 hours before the exam. The exam can be taken on a desktop computer or laptop (mobile phones and tablets do not meet the technical requirements). If any problems with video or audio connection occur before the exam, the student must warn the teacher and the Manager of the Program manager by corporate email (in one email). In this email the student should describe the problem and to attach supporting material (a screenshot of the entire screen so that the time is visible/photo/video, etc.) (part 3 of annex 16 to Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics) 6. During the exam, the student is allowed to use a pen and a blank A4 paper for a draft. 7. During the exam it is prohibited to: • turn off the webcam and microphone, reduce its level of sensitivity to sound; • use auto-correct functions, notes, textbooks, other educational materials; • leave the desk area during the Exam (leave the visibility zone of the webcam); • use headphones, headsets for any other reason than to complete the Listening section of the exam; • use “smart” gadgets (smartphone, tablet, etc.); • involve another person to help with the Exam, talk with another person during the Exam; • read tasks out loud; • listen to the audio file more than once, except for the case of a short-term communication failure while listening to the audio file for the first time. 8. Communication failures during the exam. A short-term communication failure during the exam is considered to be a loss of a student’s network connection with the platform for up to 5 minutes. It is not possible to complete the exam in case of a long-term communication failure (for more than 5 minutes). In the event of a long-term communication failure with the platform during the exam, the student must record the fact of the loss of communication with the platform (take a screenshot/photograph of the entire screen so that the time and the application/web browser window are visible, get a response from the Internet provider) and report the problem to the office of the student’s Program and to the teacher. Note: According to part33 of Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics «…. The use of materials not permitted by this list, attempts to communicate with other students or other individuals and other violations of examination procedure constitute ground for the end of exam for the particular student (student’s removal from the examination room, disconnection from the video conference, etc.) with a subsequent “0” grade as the examination grade
