University Russian "The East" 7th Volume

Author: Ding Shuqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-03-01
Features: This is the seventh textbook in the series of oral and written practical courses co-authored by Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Pushkin Russian Language Institute in Moscow. It is designed for undergraduate Russian majors in their fourth-year first semester in Chinese universities. The basic task of advanced oral and written practical courses is to develop and refine language skills and improve oral and written communication abilities. The fourth year is the final stage of university Russian language teaching. Therefore, adhering to the principle of applying knowledge to practice, ensuring that students' Russian language knowledge and oral and written skills are as adapted as possible to the practical needs of future careers, is the main objective of teaching in the fourth year. This is reflected in the following aspects:
1. In the selection of topics and texts, more emphasis is placed on reflecting the national conditions, society, culture, art, education, and economic reforms of China and Russia. The selection of materials and exercise formats strives to implement the principle of "problem-based teaching," which involves posing questions, encouraging independent thinking, and fostering the initiative to express ideas in foreign languages.
2. In terms of language knowledge, the fourth-year textbook includes a new section on functional rhetoric. Its purpose is to briefly introduce students to the main linguistic features of functional rhetorical styles (spoken language, scientific language, political language, official language, and literary works), enabling them to grasp the commonly used expressive means in each style. The section on functional rhetoric includes concise theoretical explanations and rhetorical analysis exercises. To enrich students' intuitive understanding of functional styles and cultivate their linguistic sensitivity, the text materials for each topic are designed to be diverse in genre, generally including three articles of different types (e.g., popular science texts, political essays, and literary works).
3. To expand students' vocabulary and improve their ability to independently analyze word formation and lexical meaning, a separate section on word formation and semantic differentiation is included before each text. This section introduces common word-formation methods, the semantic and usage differences between synonyms, as well as the usage of common sentence patterns and idioms, accompanied by practical exercises. The selection of lexical items is designed to be closely related to the theme of the lesson and to meet the students' needs for language expression during topic discussions. However, it is also relatively independent and self-contained. Teachers can choose to use it during or after the text explanation.
4. To help students understand the texts, annotations are provided for some frequently used words in the texts, along with a small number of language exercises to guide students in independently recognizing, comparing, and summarizing various positive linguistic phenomena from aspects such as word structure, semantic evolution, rhetorical color, and usage range.
5. The textbook provides some discussion questions and informational materials to help students engage in free discussions on the topics. During the teaching process, teachers can appropriately supplement these materials with the latest information provided by contemporary mass media. The estimated teaching time for each topic in this book is 12–14 class hours, including 2 hours for rhetorical exercises and 2 hours for word-formation and vocabulary exercises.