Course syllabus

Short Course Description The information in this field can be downloaded here. 

You might find handy this 2017 U. Auckland teaching days chart. 

Russian 100 / 100G is for students with no prior knowledge of Russian; the course provides instruction for beginners with attention to a range of language skills: reading, writing, listening comprehension, pronunciation and speaking.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of Russian 100, a student …

• can read simple texts;
• has basic “survival skills”—listening comprehension and speaking ability sufficient to “get by” in some everyday situations;
• knows a core high-frequency vocabulary of approximately 600 words;
• has an understanding of the essential grammar of Russian: gender, number and case agreement of nouns and their modifiers; forms and basic meanings of four (of the six) grammatical cases; verb conjugation.

Required Course Materials

Textbook: Golosa, Richard Robin (and others); 5^th edition. Available at UBS. Additional supporting materials (audio texts, grammar supplements, etc) are posted on the course site and on the author’s webpage (Google golosa).

Instructor:

Dr Mark Swift 505 Arts 2 (bld 207). ph. 373–7599 ext. 85384; m.swift@auckland.ac.nz.  

Consultation hours: 12.00 – 1.00 Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, or by appointment.

Assessment:   40% two-hour final written exam;

10% oral test the end of semester.        

50% coursework, allocated thusly:

• 10% - two written tests @ 5% each, one in week 6 and one in week 11 of the semester;
• 20% weekly on-line assessments (including listening comprehension): 20 best of 24 (or more) at 1% each.
• 20% weekly written homework–10 best of 12 assignments at 2% each;

 Successful language learning requires regular study and this is reflected in the assessment scheme with weekly assignments. During our12 teaching weeks you’ll have weekly on-line assignments and weekly written assignments.

Weekly written homework should be submitted in class. If these assignments are instead submitted at the reception desk of the Arts 1 building in the appropriate slot they must have a signed Cover Sheet attached (generated from Canvas). To avoid late penalties they must be submitted by 4.00 pm on the due to be date.

Penalty for late work: Each written assignment has a due date; they will be accepted late, but marked down (10, 20, 30%, etc., depending on how late).

5% Written Test Dates to be confirmed: in class Wednesday 12 April and Wednesday 31 May. The tests are written in class in the first 30–40 minutes of our regular two-hour session and include a listening comprehension section.

Meeting times and venue

Four hours per week in two 2-hour sessions, Wednesday and Friday 2.00–4.00 in Commerce A (114) G15.

Additional optional tutorial / joint study session: If you want to arrange an extra weekly session study together, propose a time and the instructor can make a room booking.

What to Expect Most native speakers of English require more time and effort to master Russian than a Romance or Germanic Language. In keeping with the usual expectations of workload for a University course, you should plan to spend nine or ten hours per week on Russian–our four contact hours in class, plus another five or six hours of independent and / or group study.

 Class time consists of practice in pronunciation, intonation and handwriting; “mini-lectures” on grammar; drills, dialogues and reading. While the focus of the course is language, relevant cultural information is also incorporated in the textbook and in class.

Your independent study should be analogously varied: studying the dialogues, texts, grammar and vocabulary in the Textbook; working with on-line materials.