Phonetics and Phonology (B)-Russian

obligatory courses

Student should have general knowledge of language studies, especially of grammar of his/her mother tongue. Student should know Russian language at least on B1 level (course teaching is based on a material in Russian).

Classroom

The course is dedicated to 1st year students of Russian as their first foreign language. The course focuses on descriptive aspects of pronunciation in Russian and is aimed to give students theoretical base for practical course of Russian pronunciation (Communicative Competence Development) in order to enable students to control their pronunciation consciously. The main didactic aim is to acknowledge students with phonetic system of Russian and chosen aspects of phonemic and prosodic system analysis as well as phonetic systems of different languages, especially Polish. The knowledge on abovementioned topics enables students to master their pronunciation and consciously avoid typical mistakes made by Poles as well as to analyse and correct the mistakes of their students (in case they choose teaching as their profession).

The course covers the following topics:

1. Aspects of analysis of the sound system (in general): acoustic, articulatory, functional.

2. Classification of the vowel system in Russian, characteristics of Russian vowels. Strong vowels in stressed syllables.

3. Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables.

4. Classification of the consonant system in Russian, characteristics of Russian consonants.

5. Characteristics of unstressed vowels in inflectional endings.

6. Basic principles of Russian phonetic transcription – exercises.

7. Modification of consonants in phonemic series – terminal devoicing, assimilation, dissimilation. Modification of vowels in phonemic series – accomodation, reduction.

8. Modification of consonants in phonemic series – consonant group simplification. Pronunciation of double consonants.

9. Orthoepic norms in contemporary Russian language.

10. Word stress and its role in meaning change of Russian words.

Course workload (for 2 ECTS):

30 hrs – in-class participation and work during the course

10 hrs – regular self-study (homework and in-class tests)

5 hrs – assigned reading during the course

5 hrs – preparation for the final exam

Specified individually by particular teachers.

Knowledge – after completing the course a student:

- knows the structure of Russian language as a system, has basic knowledge of importance and role of phonetics and phonology in language studies as well as understands their subjects (K1_W01);

- knows basic terminology of Russian phonetics and phonology (K1_W02, K1_W08);

- knows and understands contemporary approaches in phonetic and phonemic research, has general knowledge of theories and methods of phonetic and phonemic research in Russian language studies (K1_W05).

Skills – after completing the course a student:

- is able to communicate in Russian in typical communicative situations that require the knowledge of techniques, strategies and different chanels of communication; is able to prevent conflicts using a language as a tool of communication (K1_U05);

- has language skills in Russian at B1-B2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages): stresses the right syllable, pronunces specific Russian sounds and combinations of sounds correctly, identifies the word stress in dictionaries, uses the intonation pattern corresponding to sentence meaning (K1_U09);

- identifies the differences between Polish and Russian sounds and their articulation (K1_U09);

- uses Russian phonetic transcription for describing Russian language units;

- decodes phonetic transcription symbols in order to reconstruct correct spelling of Russian words.

Socio-cultural competency – after completing the course a student:

- is ready to correctly identify and solve the problems of interlanguage communication concerning asymmetry of language systems and cultural differences (K1_K01);

- is ready for critical evaluation of his/her own knowledge of phonetics and phonology, knows the value of factual argumentation in solving research and practical problems on phonetis and phonology (in professional situations) (K1_K02).

The students’ achievements are assessed in accordance with the following proportions:

1) preparation and active participation in the classes – 30%

2) in-class regular test on each topic – 20%

3) written part of the final exam – 25%

4) oral part of the final exam – 25%

The overall result is established in accordance with the following scale:

55%-69% = 3

70%-74% = 3+

75%-84% = 4

85%-89% = 4+

90%-100% = 5

Course rules:

1) the students are obliged to attend course classes, 2 class absences without excuse during the course are accepted;

2) class absences without excuse on more then 2 tests during the course obligate the student to complete extra written task;

3) before the final exam at least 70% of tests during the course must be completed;

4) the highest grade (5) in the written part of the final exam allows oral part exemption.

not applicable